Correspondence from Owen Hamilton to his sister June Meyer (June E. Hooe Hamilton Meyer, 1919-2010 (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81471045/june-e_hooe-meyer). As for spare time, she must not be aware that you are not given time to breathe on your own while in basic. They start at 5:30 am and when they get through it's time to go to bed. They went in the gas chambers yesterday to gain confidence in their gas masks. The first time you went in the room with the mask on you'd not notice a thing. The second time was with masks off. You have to go across the room and touch the wall and go through the drill. By the time you get on your eyes are watering and it burns your face horribly. They then had to take the mask off, count to 5, and walk out of the room. Out in the field under a smoke screen and tear gas you had to put the mask back on. These maks really protect you well. Reports say that the Germans are going to use gas in Russia, so these masks will come in handy. When the day is over he will have completed 1 week of basic with 3 to go. He says C.S.C.R.T.C. is Central Signal Corps Reception Training Center--quite a lot, isn't it?