Dick Morrell at Ft. Sill, Okla.
Dick Morrell who recently entered the service, writes to his parents from Fort Sill Oklahoma. He writes that he has been getting along real well in the army thus far and is in the surveyency and fire control battery, made up of those rating highest in I-Q tests. Much of his work for the next 20 weeks will be in the class room.

In writing of the camp, he says Fort Sill covers over 60,000 acres and is about 20 miles from one side to the other.
They have 36 Post Exchanges, 8 service clubs and theaters. The weather is hot and windy. He is located about 40 miles from the Texas border.
Trainees must be careful with their wardrobe and everything must be in place according to Dick. The barracks are kept spotless.

Dick writes that if he makes his course all right he will be eligible for college. He is the only one from Iowa in his platoon. The food is just grand, he says, and he eats everything put in front of him.
"Red" includes the daily schedule which keeps them busy from 6:30 a. m. to 6:30 p. m. He sends greetings to his friends at home in closing.

Pvt. Richard Morrell has been attached to Battery E. 32 Battalion, 8th training Regt.
He was inducted into the Army at Camp Dodge, Iowa, Oct. 12. Dick writes that he has seen Harold Neal, also at Fort Sill, formerly of Manning.
Dick says he likes the training very much.

Manning Monitor article------ 1944

Morrell Arrives in England
Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Morrell received a letter recently from their son, Pvt. Richard L. Morrell, written on May 28, that he arrived safely in England.
He states that he enjoyed the trip and is feeling fine.

Manning Monitor article------ 1945

Parents Hear from Richard Morrell in Germany
Ufc. Richard L. Morrell writes his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Morrell, dated Feb. 15, that he is somewhere in Germany. That his outfit has been going steady; his division at the front 109 days.
He is fine and doing OK. Is looking forward) to a leave to go to London, England, to visit Mr. Morrell's aunt whom he visited in August.
"Bud" Mohr visited there also 19 days later and the boys missed seeing each other.

Dick wishes to thank Miss Perkins, American Legion and Monitor for the papers. He enjoys getting news from the home town. "Tell hello to all my friends." Dick has been in service since October 12, 1943, and arrived overseas in April, 1944. He is a mortar gunner.
He has been in England, France, Belgium, and now Germany.

We are living at a German air field about 20 miles north of Munich. The place has been bombed to hell and everywhere you look you see knocked out German planes of every type and description. There are a lot of towns around here where we go at nights and drink beer and date up the gals. I can talk German fairly well by now. The German girls have taught us most of it. We are getting so now that we speak German among ourselves instead of English. I'm going to tell you the story of what I have done since I joined the outfit. I went into combat the first time last September 15, just as we hit the Siegfried line. We went into the Huntgen Forest and fought for four weeks without hardly seeing the sun because the trees and brush were so thick. We took a hell of a beating there. Most of the fellows came in with got it there. I can only remember that place as one bad dream.

From the Huntgen we pulled back for a rest and to reorganize, then came the break through in December and we fought at Monchua and Malmedy and stopped the German push. The first part of January we started the big push and our company took about six towns and two big dams for which we received the presidential citation.

The Rohr river now laid between us and the great plans to the Rhine. We were picked to be the attacking company of the battalion and us fellows started sweating it out because across the river were big cliffs about 500 feet high and if the Germans were dug in on top they could cut us down right in the river. Well, luck was with us and the air corps came and bombed the hell out of them and we got across the next morning with just a few guys hit. After a couple of hard fights we started moving for the Rhine and it took us nine days to reach the Rhine river.

You remember about the first army finding the railroad bridge still intact across the river? Well, we were the first troops to cross the bridge and the east side of the Rhine. The morning we crossed was about the hottest morning I ever had in combat and the Jerries were throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink. The Jerry planes were trying to bomb it and shell it at the same time, and it sounded like all hell had broken loose.

Well, the first few days of the bridehead were rough and the Germans were trying to kick us back across the river and the bridehead was not big enough to give us room to move a lot of stuff to fight back with. After the armored break through we really traveled until we hit Kassel. We went back west and helped clean out the Ruhr pocket and after that we started east again and kept going until we met the Russians on the Mulda river at a town called Bitterfield. We stayed there a month and lived a life of ease and then came down south and joined the third army.

That in rough is my history of combat. There are a hundred little things that happened in between that I'll tell you when I come home, which I hope is not long. I have three battle stars, the combat infantry medal and a presidential citation ribbon with an oak leaf cluster.
Well, take care of yourselves and don't worry about me. I'm living good and about all I do is try and think up ways to get out of drill and detail.
Bye now and take care of yourselves. I'll see you soon.
All my love,
Your son, Dick.

"He thinks his 54 points is enough to get him back home to Manning, Iowa, where he attended high school and played the drums in the band. Dick always wears his helmet to hide his carrot-like hair which is said to attract rabbits.
Dick is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Morrell.