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). The past week has been busy, being out in the field. They had to do a compass course in blackout, but the night was clear so it wasn't hard. They next went through a Nazi village, consisting of homes filled with dynamite and booby traps. The objective was to crawl in with a squad of men and take the village house by house To do this they were given 5 rounds of live ammunition which they fired at dummies that appeared in the windows. This was all controlled by a guy in a tower behind them who set it off as they approached. One man hurt his foot when the control man set the charge off too soon. He was a squad leader and had to enter each of the houses and to do so he had to throw something at the door to set off the booby traps. Even the steps and windows were rigged with traps. It was a lot of fun and very realistic. There was a church cemetery and you could use the graves as cover from which to fire. The blacksmith shop had a horse head over the front door, and the outhouses had Nazi swastikas instead of quarter moons. To top off the week they had a 25 mile hike, the first of his Army career but probably not the last. They started at 7:30 am and finished at 3:15 pm, taking 10 minute breaks each hour and 1/2 hour for lunch...they were really stepping. They ate lunch at noon and the afternoon was very hot. It ended up that half the battery dropped out with blisters and/or heat exhaustion. It made him wonder what this was all about, to walk along and see men that had fallen in their tracks, face down and out like a light. This is mountainous country, and that combined with the heat made it very hard. The last mile was a gradual incline that seemed to go straight up. He hadn't minded the hike up to then, but it seemed now like every step was his last. He had to have a man-to-man talk with himself and after some hard thinking he was determined to finish having made it that far. About half way up the hill there were men lying by the side of the road and it was sort of funny when you didn't know if you would finish or not. The hike ended being 26 miles, and when they were told to fall out, he did just about that as his legs and feet were almost too tired to move. When he got back he took a good hot shower and that seemed to pep him up and he wasn't sore the next day and had no blisters. He was lucky. He thinks it's pretty likely they will go overseas--all this rigid training is to meet a requirement on the overseas chart. He doesn't know when but August is the latest possible date he thinks, and any time before then would not surprise him. They are scheduled to go on maneuvers again, but that might be just a front to cover a departure date. The higher ups are making inspections and they are getting new equipment. When the time comes he doesn't think he will be afraid to go because they have been well training, including house to house combat. He warns her not to talk too much about this because you know about the enemy getting information. He has not heard from the Dothan Lodge (Masons) but has earned his 2nd degree and would really like to get the 3rd one before he ships out. He hopes that Bob (no further identification) made the flying cadets because this army ground force is nothing to look forward to with all the training and living conditions they have to go through. He asks how Morgan (her husband) is and hopes that she is no longer suffering from a cold and ear problems.