EVACUATIONHOSPITAL "2 USA Coblenz, Germany. 9 February 1919

My Dearest Girl:-

It is a beautiful day, with the sun shining as bright as in June and not at all cold. I am s urely in favor of the winter weather that they have over her in Germany. It is by far the mild est winter that I have s een since I was in the

West in the States.The strange thing to me is that there should be so much sickness d uring such good weather, f or this hospital is never under full capacity, no matter how many we send back to the base or to duty each day. They keep coming in faster than we are able to send them away, and as there are at least five other hospitals in this area nearly as large as this one it is easy for you to judge that there is a great deal of sickness. It is mostly Influenza and pneumonia, and there is rather a high mortality to the latter, but the Flu seems to have become a less s evere disease than it was when the epidemic first began.

Who do you think is in this army? Stan Waite! I found out last night that he is with the 5th Machine Gun Battallion of the 2nd Division, and am surely going to get in touch with him at the earliest opportunity. I will write to him to day, and if I fail to reach him that way I will get a days leave and go out there to look him up. There must be a lot of my friends in the army at one place or another but Stan is the first that I have heard of up in this area.I will sure be glad to see him.

There is no new news regarding our leaving, but we are none of us impatient. We are so glad to know that we are under orders that we will never complain about anything. I can hardly wait though for the day to come on which we will begin to pack up and seriously get out. It will be a lot quicker the way we are going to leave than it would be if we had to go through France, and also a lot more interesting. We are not going to take any equipment with us, so the moving proposition will be s imple. All we will have is the baggage of the officers and men and some rations, and that will be the easiest move that we have ever had. It s eems as if good luck had at last found us, and that is one thing that none of us has " 2

ever expected to have in this army.

I find on looking over the letter as far as I have written it, that

t his typewriter is going on the bum too, so I may have to fall back on a lead

pencil for a great deal of my writing to you. I am sure that you will not mind

however as long as you hear from me, and as long as you realize that it is unavoidable.

While ink is not entirely unknown over here, it is a very hard thing to get at times, and

those are the times that I write to you on the machine. You told me recently how-

ever that I did not need to make any more apologies regarding the matter so I will not.

I reported yesterday that I had a return of the old trouble that

Ferris Smith operated on me for, and I will relieve your mind now by reporting that

I am a cured man. It seems as if I have no luck being sick. Some of these fellows

succeed in getting sick and staying so, long enough at least to be sent home, but let me

try ever so hard and I always have the same result. I never get any sympathy for no one

ever believes that I am si ck, and I am always all right the next day. There i s no

profit in a sicknessof that sort is there Dear?I am perfectly all well today. The

pain has all stopped and the slight cold that I had has left, so that I feel perfectly

normal. I am of course, very grateful for my good health, and especially so on account

of the great amount of sickness that is going on around here at present.

The air is full of aeroplanes today as it is on every nice day. I

love to watch them doing stunts• Some of the things that they pull would make your

skin creep they are so daring, but it is a fascinating sight, and one that is always

interesting to me. There is a large aerdrome near here and the aviators are all

American, and they happen to be good ones, at least for the stunt stuff, so we have a lot

of exciting entertainment. On days like this they come out to entertain the patients

in the hospltal who are able to be outdoors and watch them. Several of them have met with

serious accidents, and I believe that one or two have been killed which seems a

great pity now that the war is all over and they are only doing these stunts to be

smart, so to speak. It seems to me that their Commanding Offi cers would do well to stop

the practice as there certainly can be nothing necessary about it now. "3

I am very much surprised to learn of Frank's contemplatedt move to Philadelphia, and wi ll be glad to hear the details as soon as you are able to write them to me.

I am sure that he has an opportunity to better himself, for he was well liked by the McMullen Machine Co, and was doing well there. It is a big job to move like that so he must have something rather good in view. Let me know as soon as you know yourself

I am more sorry than I can say that Tud is so intimate with the

Cheneys. I have no use for them and I have too much love for Tud to want to see her reputation suffer as it will if she has so much to do with them. As to her s pending the night with a married man, I don't believe it is any worse than spending it with an unmarried man f rom Tud' s standpoint, but from the standpoint of others it will look considerably different. I hardly expect Tud to settle down to the drab sort of an exi stence that some people have, but there can be no excuse for some of these things, and in the company of any others than the Cheneys she would have a hard time to find the opportunity in Grand Rapids. Also I should expect her to be a little more thoughtful of the effect such things will inevitably have on you. It would be a lot different if I were at home. I believe that I would have a little understanding with her if I were you.

If the matter is all quited down bythe time this reaches you don't let her see this. I think a lot of Tud. A lot more than she has any idea. My own sisters have never been as dear to me as she is, and therefore I hate to hear these things about her. I want it stopped without any half way business.

Well Dearest I must close now. I have alot of work to do and must get at it. I have to go out and see about a little carpenter work now. I will write again tomorrow. I love you Dear. I love you. Give my love to Glad and the babies.

Give them each a million kisses. I love you all so much. With all my dearest love and a million kisses to you, I am your loving husband, AB

Ansel B. Smith Captain MCUSA

Evacuation Hospital "2 USA

American E F Germany.