Feb. 7, 1917.
My Dear Dad: -
Well, we are still here, although there has been some talk of sending the 11th Div. to Calif. to watch he doings of the Japs.
Enclosed is a clipping of an El Paso newspaper. Several outfits from Pershing's Expedition arrived today, and are getting their camp straightened out.
I guess we will take our next hike Fri. if nothing happens.
The weather has been grand here lately. I hope it continues.
Have you talked with Billy Jacobs yet. He was at Fire Ste. No. 7. with Capt. Sullivan. and left for Toledo the 31st of Jan. Wish you would have a walk with him. Uncle Bill can tell you where to find him. He can tell you how fine I look and how I am situated. He's a dandy fellow, he put a hitch in the 8th U.S. Cavalry, and knows what the army is like.
Well, we may get back yet, before the summer is over if the German question can be settled. It begins to look as though the orders to stay were only temporary.
I like the looks of the new place very much. What is the idea of the garage? I have a girlfriend living a 2834 Glenwood.
Well, must close & write Leona.
Am feeling fine.
Love to All
Howard
The above is the the newspaper clipping from Howard's letter from the February 6 edition of the El Paso Times.
When the cynic in me first read the article, I thought about the line that the newspaper must have been feeding the public. It definitely seemed suspect that the guardsmen, who were on the train on their way home when they were told they had to return to camp, just got got off with no complaints whatsoever to fulfill their military duty.
But then, I thought about Howard's letters. He also seemed so positive, so sure that everything was just a temporary bump in the road before he got to come home. It makes me proud. Yet, it makes me leery for what I know must be to come. I'm anxious to get to his letters from Europe, but I hope that, when I get to those letters from 1919, I still see this glass-half-full boy in them.
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