5) Graveyard Shift: mid-Dec. 1942

Buckley Field, Colorado
Thursday, Dec. 10th, 7PM, 1942

Dear Betty

Well at last a few lines to you to let you know that I am still alive and etc.

I don’t get much time off here and I work the Graveyard shift and that is sure living up to its name. We go to school at 10PM get “2” donuts & coffee at 2AM and 5 AM we go to mess then to the barracks then we have bed check at 7AM and we must be in bed then, at 3:15PM we get up and 4:15 we eat again “Oh! I forgot” 3:15 PM till 4:15 we have to go over the obstacle course which is called the Burma Road. 5:45 till 6:15 is a lecture period and 6:30 till 7:00 is inspection then we have “2” whole hours to our-self If they don’t think of something else. 9:00 we eat then school again at 10. Some day believe me.

The country out here is beautiful. We can see the snow capped mountains from our barracks windows.

Well I guess I had better sign off now as I have some other people to write to and not a great deal of time on my hands.

Tell Bob & Bill hello for me and tell Ann to keep away from K.M.I.

Love,
Jack

Notes:

1. Burma Road--- was built between 1937 and 1938 to transport war supplies to China for its war against Japan. The road served as a "back door" to China and avoided Japan's blockade of the Chinese coast. It wound about 700 miles across mountains and through thick jungle from Lashio, Burma, to Kunming, China. Japanese troops captured the Burmese part of the road and closed it in 1942.
2. K.M.I.---The Kentucky Military Institute, was located near Anchorage. It was a military high school for boys. “Ann” is Betty’s younger sister, Anne Geiger.

This photo of my mother, Betty Geiger, was probably taken at about the age (16) that she began to correspond with Jack.  In the Fall of 1942 she began her Junior year at Anchorage High School.