Camp McCoy in the Words of My Uncle: POST TWENTY-NINE ("Deep in the Woods of Wisconsin") 28 April 1943

April 28, 1943

Wednesday Night

Dear Mom,

As you can see I am crowding my paper but I have only one sheet. Another fellow had an envelope in his pocket which he gave to me.

You've heard that song, "Deep in the Heart of Texas." Well this letter is written "Deep in the Woods of Wisconsin." Ha Ha I am writing by the light of the fire. (He is also using a pencil instead of his usual pen.)

Gee, it rained hard Monday night and the wind blew. Last night or Tuesday it came off cold with a lot of frost this morning. I slept cold all night. My feet got a little wet during the day and we couldn't take off our shoes as we expected to put out in the night. Haven't had my shoes off for four days and nights. It is a little warmer to-night and we're not moving so will take off my shoes and change my stockings. We sleep with our clothes on but I'm going to use my field jacket to wrap my feet in.

Will send this letter out with the chow wagon in the morning if I can. You may not be able to read it. The fire makes all kinds of shadows.

Pauline wrote she saw Helen in the paper. I'll see it when that woman sends me the Sunday paper.

You know when you're in the field you don't get so much to eat but I manage to slip out some of the box the gang from the mill sent me.

Ha Ha I took a shave last night and the cream from one side froze before I could shave the other.

What a ride through the woods in those trucks and no lights. I don't know how those trucks take it. You would wonder how we boys take it if you could see us.

I can look up and see the Big Dipper. There are a lot of stars to-night. Oh yes, I heard the frogs Monday night. I woke up and it was raining hard. I listened and sure enough. Frogs! I don't know what it means out this way. (Male frogs croak after it rains because they're trying to attract a mate. Rain creates the optimal conditions for the females to lay eggs in fresh pools of water. Not only that but frogs like moist, humid weather.)

Well, Ma, coming down near the bottom of my paper. This letter is by luck. Hope I can get it out. Will write when I get back to camp.

Love to All

Son Charles

P.S. Next morning -- Gee, with such a pretty night you'd never think it would be raining this morning. Going out firing this morning.

^^Apr 27 Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London

^^Apr 27 Witold Pilecki escapes from Auschwitz after having voluntarily been imprisoned there to gain information about the Holocaust.

Witold Pilecki

^^Apr 29 Dietrich Bonhoeffer arrested by Nazis and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp and will be hanged on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has been described as a modern classic.