* Pfc. Glenn Simmons *

Pf. Glenn Simmons is serving overseas with the Airborne Signal Corp, as telegrapher and telephone operator. He has been in service three years, fourteen months of that overseas. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Simmons of near Broughton.

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Excerpts from a letter received by Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Simmons, from their son, Glenn, who is serving with the Airborne Troops in Belgium.

I will try and give you a description of life, at present. We are in a small town about like Raleigh, Illinois. It hasn't been torn up much, and there are quite a few civilians left. There is a hospital here, and my buddy and I eat over with them part of the time but usually we do our own cooking from supplies issued to us. There are four of us staying in a barn together. We have a radio stove and lights. We are in a stall now. It's not like this always, though.

The hospital put on a show tonight and Mac and I went. First show I have seen for some time. There were lots of civilians there, but they couldn't understand a word of it. I will tell you some of Bostogne. It was a nice city, but now it's just a pile of rubbish. Guess you know a lot from the radio and papers. We were in a rest camp one night in France, Dec. 17th. The next night we were there to hold the city. We really moved fast. We were trapped for eight days and there were eight German divisions against us. They dropped supplies to us by parachute. Christmas eve and Christmas day were the toughest days. They bombed us and shelled us heavily.

"Well, I have seen quite a bit of the old world so far and Holland is still my pick of them all. They are really a clean, thrifty people, but the Germans have taken all their possessions away from them. But there isn't any country to compare to the good old U.S.A. I guess people don't know how lucky they are at home. All it would take would be a few hours over here, and the strikes, etc., would be over. Well, I guess I will have quite a few ribbons and battle stars, etc., when I get them all on.

Your son,

Glenn."