EYES OF THE ARMY:

Wednesday

Dear Folks:-

By this time you probably have my letter of Sunday. We are still here and will be till the first of next week and maybe longer.

Our orders read report in New York, Nov. 8th, but there is a hold up someplace, where I don’t know.

As a result we are still here, hanging around for orders, but the work goes merrily on just the same. We are still on the same schedule, up at 5:00 on the field at 6:30 noon recess 12-12:30 evening recess 6 to 7:00 and lectures 7 to 9.

Lt. Fuller, the adjutant of the camp, told us that we had been recommended for commissions, but I don’t believe we will get them here or in this country. From N.Y. City we are to go to some training school abroad and if we are commissioned at all, it probably won’t be until we are through over there.

I am sorry I can’t get home before we go but Major Gearhart has told us there will be absolutely no leaves of absence.

We will probably take the Frisco to St. Louis & the Pennsylvania from there to N.Y. City and not touch Chicago.

The Cits. came. Thank you.

I am sorry I couldn’t pay the other $10.00 of the $20.00 Father sent Mr. Hanson. But with 10.00 for Liberty bonds I only had 20.00 left and of that 6.00 went for board (we are paying 20¢ per day besides our allowance of 40¢) and $6.50 for laundry so you see I only had $7.50 left.

For that reason I hope we are commissioned. If we are commissioned as First Lieuts we will draw nice money. A 1st Lt’s pay is $2,000.00. We as Observers making “regular & frequent flights” will get 25% more or $2500.00 and then for Foreign Service we have an addition of 20% making in all $3000.00.

Of course I will have to spend about $300.00 for uniforms & equipment right off the bat and I haven’t the slightest idea where I can get the money but I probably won’t ever need it, so why worry. I’ll fix that when the time comes.

Must stop now.

Love to all,

Mortimer.

WVM Curator:
Near the end of his letter, Mortimer reveals that he may need to spend as much as $300.00 on uniforms and equipment if he is commissioned a Lieutenant. The reason for the expense was that the federal government only issued uniforms and equipment necessary to enlisted men. Officers, on the other hand, were expected to privately purchase these based upon strict military regulations to maintain uniformity. This had been the tradition in the U.S. Army for generations--since the American Revolution--and would remain so until World War II.