Lyman County, South Dakota  Genealogy

            Updated    Friday, March 05, 2010   

       WWII letters

From Ed King    Camp Dodge, Iowa       Aug. 22, 1918

Friend George,

   I received several copies of your paper today and thank the sender very much for we soldier boys certainly like news from home.

    I was glad to read the letter from Joe Matejousky and Bill Rose and hope they do better than us fellows who took special training at Dunwoody Inst., Minn.

    We have been at Camp Dodge now for six weeks and have done nothing but Fatigue and Special Duty work. We’ve pitched tents, dug ditches, cleaned streets, etc., For three weeks I was Acting Sergeant in a colored company that came in the last draft and they’re some soldiers, too. We had 200 in our company hat was in the riot in East St. Louis last spring and they all had razor or bullet scars on them.

    I expect to leave here next week. Twenty-eight of our men are going to Fort Omaha. They are the electricians. I took the machinist’s course and expect to go over soon. If I ever get away from Camp Dodge.

    We took a ten-mile hike this forenoon and had our picture  taken representing the Statue of Liberty. There were 27,000 men in it.

    Well, I must close for now and hope I get more copies of your paper.

Yours truly,
Edw. J. King
Co. 29, 163 Depot Bgd. 8^th  Bn
Camp Dodge, Iowa

 From Ed King      Knights of Columbus 
                                    War Activities                                    
                                       Sept 17, 1918

Friend George:

    I will write a few lines this evening as I have a little time.  I received a copy of your paper today and it makes a fellow feel good to get news from home.

    This is only a small camp and is all Ordinance Depot and there is an arsenal here, but they are building all of the time. It’s about an hour’s ride from New York and a little further from Philadelphia. I like it fine. There’s a dandy bunch of men here and mostly easterners.

    I got my oversea examination last week and was transferred into the Ordinance Motor Instruction School and expect to be there for a month taking machine gun instruction.

    I was in New York last Saturday and Sunday and took in Coney Island; took my first swim in salt water and it certainly was fine.

    Well, I will close for this time and hope the next time I write it will be from the other side. Yours Truly,   Pvt. Edw. J. King

O.M.T.S., Camp Raritan, N.J.