24 January 1919 France

Grand Hotel Terminus, Troyes
Telephone 5-37

Le Jan 24 1919

Dear Don:

So you finally came to and wrote your old regular correspondent. Good for you! The latter part of November and the first half of December I did not have a letter then for two weeks I received all kinds of mail. Then it stopped coming and I did not get any for three weeks. Then last week I got 16 letters. Now I guess I will have to go without any for a month.

Well Don I was glad to hear from you and am going to answer now if I do have to write with a pencil as I have just lost my foutain pen. Cannot remember when I last heard from you or wrote you.

After Armistice I spent two weeks in Verdun and I saw all there was to be seen there or near there. I visited St. Michel and Bas Le Duc and saw the surrounding battlefields which are famous.

Then we moved south into a training are near Dijon. We have been here for 2 months. I went on leave the 5th of December and spent 5 days vising a French family and 2 days in Dijon which is quite a city.

Our company is located in a small village that has no attractions at all. All I did was loaf from morning till night. The only thing that kept me from going mad was the Lieut. in our company who is a good scout.

Then I got orders placing me on detached service with the Motor Transport Officer of the Division and I am now chasing around the country after supplies for the Autos Motorcyles and trucks of the Division. I have a Dodge Sedan and driver and go someplace most every day. I go to Lungre regularly. Was there four times last week and am going there tomorrow for the 4th time this week. Last Saturday I went to Froges [sic] and staid over night and came back Sunday after noon. Have been to Var sur Aube [sic] twice. Wednesday I went to Longes, Neuf Chateau, Joiuville, Chaumont & Joiuville. Staid over night in Jouiville and went to St. Dizier [sic] and then home 150 kilometers.

Before I came on this job I went down to Is sur Fille for provisions for my company in a Ford. I had just heard that Doc Brady's Division was North if Is-sur-Jille so I went there to look for him, found his company but Doc was away at school. Then after I came on this job I went to Longres and down to find Doc and he had just gone on back to visit his father who is a Medical Major over here.

I am going to Longres in the morning and I am going down to see Doc and think I can find him there.

It sure is a shame about Joe Eldridge. I saw in the papers over here where H.O. Graham of Cedar Rapids died over here. Have ben wondering if it was Red. Bence [sic] is over here at an Ordnance Base. Byron Knapp is in the Iowa Div in the Signal Corps over here. I saw Brewer the 17 Ag Sigma Mu. I saw him at Verdun. There is a 2nd LIeut I.M. (?) in my Division while in the Vosges sector. Brandt went to Great Lakes, Sturdy I think got his Commission as an aviator pilot as did Shorty Near [sic].

I am sending this to your home address which I do not know. [Addressed envelope to "State St." not properly to "718 East State St."

Yours, Jim.
[J.M. Chipman, Kappa Sigma brother per The Bomb]

6th MORS
American E.F.