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 partr of November and the first half of December I did not hae a letter then for two weeks I received all kinds of mail. Then it stopped coming and I did not get any for three wekes. 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 foutina pen. Cannot remember when I last hearf rom you or wrote you.
After Armistice I spend two week sin Verdun and I saw all there was to be seen there or near there. I visited St. Michel and Bas Le Duc and saw th surround battlefields which are famous.
Then we mooved south in to a training are near Dijon. We have been here for 2 montsh. I went on leave the 5th of December and sepnd 5 days vising a French family and 2 days in Djon whihc is quite a city.
OUr company is locatedin a small villiage tha has no attraions at all. All I did was loaf from morning till night. The only thing that kept me from going madd was the Lieut. in our compnay who is a good scout.
Then I got orders placing me on detachedm service with the Motor Transport Officer of the Division and I am now chasing around the countyr 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 fo rht 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 ot St. Dizier 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 jsut 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 downto 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 mornign 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 teh papers over here where H.O. Graham of Cedar Rapids died over ehre. Have ben wondering if it was Red. Bence [sic] is over her at an Ordnance Base. Byron Knapp is int eh 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 Commision as an aviator pilot as did Shorty Near [sic].
I am sending this to your home address which I do not know.
Yours, Jim. [J.M. Chipman, Kappa Sigma brother per The Bomb]
6th MORS
American E.F.
