From the Miller Boys (Elbert)

March 12, 1918.

Dear Mother:

We arrived here Friday and was sure glad to get on land again. We haven’t had any mail yet, but hope that I will soon. I expect it will be over two months before I get an answer to this one.

How is everything back there? It is pretty hot here now, but will be hotter in the summer time. I can’t hardly write now, my arm shakes so much, the boat ride kind of runs us down a little but will be alright in a few days. This sure is a pretty place, the old Spanish walls around the fort are covered with vines. We can go out of the fort and up to Manilla Bay whenever we are not drilling. I expect it is getting pretty warm back home now. Is Archie still at Deming? I wish they had left at the Hawaiian Islands there is more fruit growing there than here. There are four or five different kinds of people living here.

We get paid $33.00 a month as long as we are out of the United States.

I will have to quit now. Don’t expect too many letters because it takes a month or more to cross the ocean.

Private Elbert E. Miller
Co. C 27th U.S. Inf.
Manila, P.I.