June 22, 1943

Dear Bob:

It is quite a while since I have hear[d] from you so you can see that I was pleased to receive your letter.

The course I am taking here finishes about the 10th of July. It is not very stiff but it keeps us busy most of the day. We get a number of extra subjects that we have to study. There is the bren gun, map reading, gas, then there is the tommy gun and the pistol not to forget the anti-tank rifle. (Which I won't in a hurry). The darn thing nearly broke my shoulder and nearly made me deaf. So far we have not fired the Bofor gun but expect to be out firing it next week. We are spending most of our time on it now as that is the one we have to know.

If you thought Vancouver was wet and foggy you should be down here. The sun comes out about once a week to see if we are still here then is gone until next week. It rains 2 or 3 days each week, the other days are just cloudy and cold. The wind blows most of the time just to help keep things cold around here. In all it is a hell of a place.

I will try to let you know when I am leaving so I can see you in Montreal if it can be arranged. If I leave here 8 in the morning I should get in around the middle of the next afternoon. I will write you as soon as I find [out] when I leave.

I have been in Halifax three times since I arrived here. As far as I can see there isn't anything there so now I stick to the camp most of the time.

There are shows here 4 nights a week the other nights I spend studying.

I have to close now as we have to go back on parade in about 10 min. I am writing this at noon.

We wear our coveralls over our battledress here all the time. If we didn't our uniforms would be an awful mess.

I might mention that I am a Gunner and will you please put that in my address next time or may be you were not told.

I must apologize as you can plainly see I started this letter on the 22nd. Today is the 26th. I put the letter in my pack with the intention of finishing it that evening. To come right to the point I forgot it until tonight.

There is not much more to tell except that I was on K.P. on Thursday. They had made fireman I had 5 stoves to keep going. I started at 6 AM finished at 6 PM.

We are wearing out shorts & puttees now but we may go back to battledress if it turns cold again.

There are some beautiful sun burns around here. They were picked up on the route march on Thursday which I missed but I did not miss the one this morning. I was lucky the sun did not burn me but I am getting a little tanned.

Last Wednesday another fellow and myself went out to a stream near camp and caught some fish with our hands. There were hundreds of them going up the stream. We cooked some of them over the fire but the darn things were full of bones, what fish we did get was good.

Well I am going to close now hope to hear from you again soon.
Your old pal
Ted.