06 Oct Details of the job, May 6, 1945
Dad’s been promoted to Sargeant and in this letter to Mary he describes in much greater detail, his job in the Message Center. The date is confusing as it conflicts with the envelope I found it in, and from the content of the letter, it’s not very clear either whether the war has indeed ended or not! I reposted the pictures as he gives great descriptions of his pals in this letter.
6 May 1945
Letter says “6 April” but the envelope was dated May 10, 1945, so
I think he meant “6 May”
Well, look what I went and done! And those stripes look very good on my underwear, too. The Special Order came out yesterday and today the Col called a formation outside, and along with raising our flag for the first time, he also had us men step forward and he pinned our stripes on us. As you can see, I’ve also enclosed a copy of our paper telling about the ping-pong tourney, and some pictures. Now you may get an idea of the different guys when I talk about them in the letters. Msg Cen is included in the Administrative Section, that’s why I’m there. “My” sect. includes Stolz (a kid who left the States Feb 28 THIS year) who actually does the recording in of all the documents now, and Spalding (file clerk). At present, I keep busy being the big executive who takes the stuff as Stolz regs it in, and shove it into boxes for the various sections. If the thing is going to have some kind of action taken on it, I have to put it on a buck=slip (which I record) for inter-office routing. In other words it has worked out now so that if anyone comes up and says “Where is that letter on captured material?” I got be able to put my hands on it, whether it’s been filed or is kicking around the Hq somewhere. We can now tell exactly how long each section has a certain thing before they do something about it. A very interesting job, because before I can pass a ltr or anything on I naturally have to read it and know all about it, or otherwise how would I know which section to send it to?
A word about the pictures. First; the Admin Sect with me standing. Kneeling in front of me is me pal Spalding (I just remembered a very funny Memo that he wrote up and ran off on the Mimiograph machine the other day, so I’m enclosing a copy — maybe all of the humor for us won’t be evident to you, but I think you will get an idea —for instance, Muscles Urhammer is the anemic Chaplains asst. That’s-an-Order Snyder is our first Sgt, and Oh-My-God MacNamara is the worrying personnel sgt who has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and everything that happens is the last straw! And something happens every five minutes!) Where was I? Oh yes, the picture. Alongside of me (and also under my section) is our poor messenger who drives from two to four hundred miles a day just delivering and picking up messages and mail! Next is Capt Shugart (Shuggies who is leaving us in a couple of days) and next Oh my God MacNamara and then GrapeEyes Thomas who is a wild man and crazy as a loon (albeit a very bright kid, and the developer of these pictures and another group which I will send another time) The rest of the front row we may pass over.
In the “Pyramid” picture, you can see Kip, and my other buddy Trombly. We were clowning around at noon time and Thomas got the shot. The picture of the officers is a very good one. You can see Heffron (the CO at the 3513th, and who gave me a good boost in getting into this outfit) The Elmer Gantry Chaplain, my ping-pong partner Lt Col Bettman, et al. Don’t they look like a bunch of good eggs? End of guided tour.
It is beginning to warm up a bit (and it’s damn well time) and we hope to get out for some volley-ball which we have had to lay off of for some time now. We’ve been concentrating on our indoor (in the ball-room) badminton. I’m getting so that I can ping the li’l ol cock around pretty well again.
Well, Sweetie, I gotta be getting on. Cer’ney hope that I get a whole mess of letters from you one of these days. They’re due. But I still love ya, anyway. Am I kidding? Cripes, but I miss you guys.
All, but ALL my love to you, my very darling,
Pappy
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