SGT Martin E Conlon
US 51 213 731
Co. D 34th INF. REGT. APO. 24
c/o P.M. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.
Aug. Sept. 9, 1954
Korea
Dear Dot & Bill:
I received your very nice letter today and was glad to hear from you again. It was nice to know that everything is OK and I’m glad to hear that the baby is getting along so well. It shouldn’t be too long now when I should be home to see you all again, at least I hope so anyhow. According to all rumors that I have heard, I should be on on shipping orders to the states within 30 days. My points and the month I had in Japan figure out to Sept. 30 for Rotation dat, but you usually are kept here quite a while longer, unfortunately.
This past week, from Aug 30 til Sept 6, we spent out on the East Coast of Korea enjoying somewhat of a vacation from our regular duties. We had our tents set up about 50 yards from the beach, which, by the way was the Sea of Japan. The first three grades (Sgt, SFC, & MSgt) had the privilege of sleeping in a sqd. tent. The rest of the men used pup tents. We had three hours of training in the morning from 0800 til 1100 and an hour of swimming from 1100 til 1200. We had chow and then from 1330 on was our own time. We usually played football for about an hour and then we would go for a swim The water was terrific and the waves are very big and we had a lot of fun riding the waves. You could really take a beating because you would start in with the waves and then the undertow going out would hit. This would toss you all over the place and you usually would end up scraping along the bottom. I got out of it without a scratch fortunately. Some of the other fellows didn’t make out so well. There were a lot of bruised and. lurned bodies, but everyone had a great time. After chow at night we would have a volleyball game with another company situated nearby. Then when it got dark we would go to the movies, which were set up about half a mile from our camp. They also had a P.X. and beer hall out there for us which made it pretty good. They did the best they could to give us a good time and the weather was perfect. We had six out of seven days of sunshine. All good things come to an end sooner or later, so we had had to come back to the Yang Gu Valley.
You probably know by now that I made Sgt. It’s a pretty good deal, but we only have three cpls. in the company so sgts have to pull C.Q. and cpl. of the guard. It isn’t too bad because I haven’t got that much time left over here. You no doubt have read all about the big Hurricane. Did it affect you any? I guess it did a lot of damage out through Boston. Well, its getting so I will have to close but I will write to let you know what happens in the future. Give my regards to everyone.
Love
Eddie
