Camp Sheridan
Alabama
148th Ambulance Co.
Jan 3, 1918
My Dear Mother:
Your letter of Dec. 31st rec. I will inquire about Marion's card immediately.
Glad you enjoyed your trip.
There is not much new around here. Nearly all the Holiday visitors have left. Four of the fellows from our outfit have been accepted for the Officer's Training Camp which opens January 5, 1917. They are Serg't. Rogers, Serg't. Figy, Seg't. Somers, and Sergt. DeMun.
Serg't Spade will probably be made Top Serg't. in Bud Rogers' place. Fred Johnson and some of the Hillsdale fellows will probably be promoted to the fill the vacancies.
It will make quite a difference now that Bud Rogers is to leave us. We sure are going from Bad to Worse.
As long as they let me along, down here at the Stockade I'll be perfectly satisfied.
Am feeling fine and dandy.
Love to All
Howard
P.S. Rec. a couple more Lion Store Xmas cards.
I took a quick peek at the next letter Howard wrote, and he mentioned Texas as being the place that the officers went for training camp. My guess is that they would have gone to Camp Stanley, twenty miles northwest of San Antonio in the northwestern section of Bexar County. Here's a quick blurb from the Texas State Historical Association about what they likely experienced there:
On May 8, 1917, the First Officers Training Camp was established just north of Anderson Hill at Camp Funston, which later became Camp Stanley in October 1917 to avoid confusion with Camp Funston in Kansas. The purpose of the FOTC was to provide in ninety days most of the junior officers for newly formed divisions. The trainees became known as "ninety-day wonders." In July 1917 the Fifty-seventh Infantry moved to Camp Funston with Lt. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Walton H. Walker, who later commanded the United States Eighth Army in Korea, was also a member of the Fifty-seventh at Camp Funston.
The above photo is likely not of Howard's friends but was taken at Camp Stanley about the same time they would have been there.
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