Letter 1 - Jun 2, 1918

Letter to Mrs. J. J. Thompson
Sedona, AZ    

Postmarked June 3, 1918

June 2, 1918
Training Camp
Company 2
Camp Cody, NM

Dear Mother

I have been here a week.  There is about eight thousand men in the camp.  Now it is awful hot and windy here in the day time and cold at nights.  They march us to the moving picture show on Friday night and Sunday School on Sunday.  We left Flagstaff the morning of the 26 and was here on the morning of the 27.  We was about 24 hours coming down here.  We can get candy and ice cream and stuff like here to eat.  It will be about three weeks before we can go down town. 

We drill here about six hours a day.  Out of the bunch of men from Coconino county there was thirteen men turn down here.  Wright Clark was one of them.  When we go to eat here we have to take our dishes in our hands and line up in the street in two rows and march in to the boarding house one line on each side of the house and when you get done eating you come out the other end of the house and line up in rows and wait for your turn to wash your dishes. 

Well I wood like it here pretty well if it was not for the sand and wind.  The wind blows sand here some days till you can’t hardly see.  Well I am getting along fine and I hope this will find you all the same. 

Well as I don’t know any thing more to write I will close.

From your loving son,

James Thompson

Postcard - Jun 10, 1918

Post Card to Mrs. J. J. Thompson
Sedona, Ariz
Postmarked June 10, 1918


Pri James A. Thompson
2^nd Training company

Camp Cody, New Mex

Casual camp

Dear mother I got the letter that you wrote with Charley’s letter.  I have wrote 2 letters since
I have been here and haven’t got any answers yet.  I sent you a picture.  Did you get it?

Letter 2 - June 14, 1918

Letter #2 to Mrs. J. J. Thompson 

Sedona, Ariz 

Postmarked June 15, 1918

Camp Cody New Mexico 

June 14, 1918 

Training Co #2 Casual camp

Dear Mother, 

I would like to be there to eat some of the fish that you are telling me about for we haven’t been getting any too much to eat here. Some days we get plenty to eat and some days we don’t. 

Well we haven’t had any chance to have any pictures taken yet. If I get any taken I will send you one. We have been doing some drilling with the guns the last day or two. We have been drilling pretty hard since we have been here and we are going to get a rest now. We won’t have anything to do for two are three days but lay around camp. We have been in quarantine ever since we have been here, so I haven’t had any chance to go to town or any where yet. Our quarantine will soon be over and we can run around and pass away the time faster. 

We are going to the show tonight but there is not much there to see but wind and sand. It is sure getting hot here now. I would like to have some of them new potatoes to eat and a nice drink of cold spring water to drink. We have good water to drink here but it gets warm through the day. I don’t think I will ever like soldier life very well. It is so hot here that we sweat so that we have to take a bath every day and wash our under wear ever two or three days. Well so there is nothing to write I will close. It is the same old thing every day so there is nothing now to write this leaves me well and I hope it will find you all the same.

Your loving son.

James Thompson

(YouTube video showing images of the sand storms common to Deming, New Mexico and Camp Cody during the time the Thompson brothers served there)

Letter 3 - Jun 23, 1918

Letter to Mrs. J. J. Thompson
Sedona, Ariz
Postmarked June 24, 1918


June 23, 1928

Dear Mother

I am moved from where I was at.  I am at regular company now.  Charley is in one company now and I am in another but we are pretty close together yet.   This is a better place than where we was.  We are about a half mile from town now.  We have been getting some good rains now.

I have not had any letters from home about two weeks.  I don’t know what is the matter with the mail.  I wrote Frank a letter but I have not heard from him yet.  Myron Loy, Charley and I was in the same tent but now we are scattered all over Camp Cody.

Well how is everything on Oak Creek now?  Have they got the bridge in yet?  It won’t be long now till you will have ripe peaches there.  How is the crops growing there?  How is the corn growing that we planted over across the creek?

There is another bunch of soldiers coming here Tuesday 25^th.  That is why we had to move.  They are going in the Casual Camp. 

Well as I don’t know anything to write I will close hoping to hear from you soon. 

Your loving son,
Jimmy Thompson

This is my address now:
133 Infantry, Company H
Camp Cody, New Mexico

Letter 2 - June 10, 1918

Letter #2 Addressed to Mrs. Maggie Thompson
Sedona, AZ
Postmarked June 10, 1918

Camp Cody, NM
June 9, 1918

Dear Mother,

I got your letter yesterday, evening the first letter I’ve had since I’ve been here.  We just got back from church we go every Sunday.  We both passed the examination alright and are getting along good drilling. 

We were both in the kitchen yesterday.  They have about six out of our company in the kitchen every day.  Jim and I had to sweep out and wash the tables off after each meal.  The kitchen is about a hundred feet long with three tables the whole length of the house. 

There was a man had the mumps in the tent where Germany was so all that was in the tent were moved   they have about an acre of ground with a seven wire fence to stay in.  I don’t think you need to worry about us going to France unless we have to and I never expect to have to go.  And this training we are getting now will do us good. 

We sent our clothes back to Joe Wyatt about a week ago.  We couldn’t pay the express here because they didn’t know how much it was so the boxes will have to say Joe when they get them.  There was about twenty men rejected that come from Coconino County.  Wright Clark was the only one I knew.  They all went home but I guess Wright will have to come back when his ankle gets well. 

The nights are cool here.  I sleep fine since I got another blanket when we first come.   They give us a cot, a tick filled with hay and two blankets.  That was all the blankets they had then.  But they got some more in a few days and give us all another one. 

Myran Loy wrote home the same time I did before and he has never got a letter yet.  I wrote to Frank and Lizzie both yesterday and day before.   All the rest of you are close enough together to read the same letters.  We get shot in the arm every seven days, then we get a day off.  It sure makes lots of the boys sick, but the two shots I have got didn’t bother me any.  Only made my arm a little sore. 

Well, this leaves us both well and getting along good.  

Your son, Charles.

Letter 3 - June 23, 1918

Letter #3 Addressed to Mrs. Maggie Thompson
Sedona, AZ
Postmarked June 23, 1918

Camp Cody, NM
June 23, 1918

Dear Mother,

I will write you a few lines this morning and give you my new address.   We were moved yesterday and we sure are scattered.   I haven’t seen Jim since yesterday noon.  He went more than a quarter of a mile away but we can’t leave our co. streets for a few days.  Jim and Joe Smith are both in 133 but probably won’t be together.    

There was a whole bunch of our old Co 2  came here to 134 with me but we are all split  up since we got here.  There was one Flagstaff boy called out in Co. D with me and we were staying together.  Thought we might be put in the same tent but they told us to line up according to our height and he was only about five feet six inches tall so when they told us to line up he looked up at me and said good-bye but he is only about five tents away.  

Here in A B and D Co. I found about ten of our old Co.  There was a ranger Frank_____  from Flagstaff.  He was in the tent right at the side of ours in Co. 2 and yesterday he was called out before the rest and he didn’t know where any of us was, but I knew where he went so I went over to his street yesterday evening and when he saw me he was sure tickled.  He jumped up and started to shake hands with me when it had only been about two hours since we were separated.  

I have in my tent one other man from Arizona, two from Texas and one belongs in this state.  They all seem to be good boys and I don’t feel so lonesome.  We will stay where we are now for some time I think and in a few days we can hunt up the rest of Co.2.   

It has been raining here every night for 4 or 5z nights now.   I guess I will get some letters soon.  I haven’t had any for some time.  They said they would bring our mail over from the other place it is only about two miles over there but they won’t let us go.  Well I will close for this time.   Have all your letters so they will return if I don’t get them. 

Your son, Charley.
Co. B. 134
US Inf
Camp Cody
NM

Letter 4 - June 30, 1918

Letter #4 addressed to Mrs. Maggie Thompson
Sedona, AZ
Postmarked July 1, 1918

CO. B 134^th Inf
Camp Cody, NM
June 30, 1918

Dear Mother,

I got your letter and one from Frank day before yesterday.  The first letters I have had for two weeks.  You said it was your third letter though, so I have got all you wrote so far.  But this last one was delayed in being forwarded from the casual camp.  This is the 5th letter I have wrote to you.  Let me know if you got them all.  We have a whole lot better place since we moved.  The tents here are walled up about 4 feet and they have a floor.  We get plenty to eat here so we had pie last Sunday.  I eat half of a pie and some of the boys eat a whole pie.  

We are still not supposed to leave the Co. St. but we all go over to the other streets and some go to town.  I have never been to town yet.  Only when we were marching.  The most of the houses in town have big green trees around them.  Some are elders, cottonwood and locust trees.

It sure is windy here today and there is to much dust in the air.  You can’t see anywhere.  It has been awful hot here.  I can sit in the tent with the sides rolled up and sweat clean through my clothes when the wind isn’t blowing.  Did the PO department advertise for three times a week mail?  Jim was over yesterday evening.  He is getting along alright. 

Have the boys seen my cow that we milked last summer we didn’t find her before I left?  Well I don’t know anything more to write so will quit for this time.

As ever, Charley