This is a long letter, and Bill comments on a number of different things, but I’ll comment on only a few of them.
He first reports his mail is starting to arrive. He then describes the First Cavalry Division, which is made up of two brigades and each is made up of two regiments. His regiment (the 8th) is made up of three squadrons, with four troops. The First Cavalry Division is part of the US 6th Army.
Bill notes that that General Custer, of the famous battle of Little Big Horn, was in the 7th Regiment (of the same First Cavalry Division). This explains why my father wanted to visit that site of that battle when we toured across the North US in 2016.
Having been assigned to the medics prior to landing in the Philippines, he has seen no action.
Bill describes going to a Catholic Church service, offered in Latin and broken English.
He then comments on his work as a medic, and that working with pharmaceutical chemicals may be the closets he gets to chemistry (Bill was studying Chemical Engineering at University of Toronto).