Book 3, Page 106
PFC J. C. Clark
[original spelling retained]
Dear Mr. French,
Has been some time since I have written, and expressed my thanks to you and the people bac home for the S&P. I really enjoy every copy of Frenchie’s Improved Grammar.
It is raining today. I knowed it was going to. I shined my shoes last night. That always brings on a rain. It is a surer way to tell then weather than the old mans romantic pains.
Rains so much around here. The people what live around here call it a high fog. Last weeks a high fog washed away our tent.
I got detailed other day to shovel a path to the mess hall. I finished it just as the doors opened. That way I was first at the table. The fellows said I was lucky, but they didn’t know it was scientific calculation. That’s what they army teaches you. I timed my shovelling sos to reach the door at the right time. Then I went in and picked up a knife and kept right on shovelling without missing a stroke.
I have been an R.P. a lot lately. Running a potato peeling machine by hand, or scrubbing floors. They learn us all about vitiments and calories. It is very scientific. There is more nourishment in one dish of prunes than there is in three bars of G.I. soap. Sometimes they give us vitimens A B C D & E all in one meal. It is better known as hash. On Friday – that is today they serve fish. It is full of B. U. All army food is loose as ashes. Never have figured out why they are so careful about your teeth. You could gum most of the food.
I haven’t been feeling well lately. However, I am better now than I was but I am not as well as I was before I was as bas as I am now.
My stomach has been upset sos I been eating my desert first. I guess I will go lay down on my stomach a while, and cover myself with my back.
Was sorry to hear you have had a cold, flu, from sitting by the window in a draft, or was it the maw? I thought you was to old to be affected by the draft. Just kidding. No bright remarks from you Mr Cooper. I sincerely hope you are better and will soon be back to normal self again. We boys and girls could not think of being with the S&P. Best of luck to you and al the folks that make it possible for us to read good grammar.
Yours Truly -
Book 3, Page 145
1st Lt. J. E. Harper Jr. USMC
D Battery Anti Aircraft Artillery Group
Second Defense Battalion
Central Pacific
December 16, 1943
Dear Mr French and the S&P
Just a few lines to say hello to you good people back there in the good Old Magnolia sate. I haven’t had any of that good literature for many weeks but I know the reason better than you. We have been on the move now for some time. All those letters about the South Sea Debs that I wrote you were originated at Pango Pango American Samoa. We thought that place was a rough deal but we have got wise now. That was a paradise to the place that we are now stationed on. We were in on the big push here with the Second Marine Division in the Central Pacific. I can’t tell you where it was but you evidently read the account of the campaign. The particular Island that our outfit is station on lost all of the trees and vegetation in the rush. The sun is pretty hot in the day times but we have very cool evenings and sleeping hours are at the discretion of the flying Nips who fly with the moon. Some people like bright moonlight but not us here. We’ll take the cloudy rainy ones.
I have read where some of our home town boys have met each other on foreign fields. The same thing happened to me here during the last days of the campaign I was eating field rations under a truck and looked up and saw our friend Boots Wiggers. I surely was happy to see him. We met at a later date and talked over old times together. He was more fortunate that I and he shoved off for parts unknown. [Handwritten under this is “Tarawa”]
You’ve probably got a lot of Japanese Invasion Currency from the other boys but here is a little to add to your book. It is in pretty tough shape, but still in better shape than the original owners. These mentioned owners were the Imperial Japanese Marines rated as the Nips best fighting forces, but as you know they were no match to our marines here. It is estimated that 5-6000 japs saw the sun go down here on this Island. Naturally since we were to remain here we had the honor of giving the little boys their last rites. This we did without much ceremony and form. Bulldozers and Cats saved much labor in the incident.
It’s about time for me to knock off and get back to work so here is hoping all of you good people a Merry Xmas and a victorious New Year.
Book 4, page 70
[excerpt] – Charles B Shepard updates Mr. French that:
Speaking of the fairer sex – my island is no longer womanless. The Navy took pity on us out here and imported some nurses and just about half the island has been figuring out how to get sick.
Book 5, page 16
[Louie]
New Guinea
June 30, 1944
Dear Mr. French,
This is it! That letter I have been going to write you since I have been over here. Just a moment, there is a hellavu big rat in my tent. Now as I was saying I have been trying to write since I have been here but have moved here and there doing this and that so really haven’t had a chance. I am settled down for awhile anyway and hope to keep this APO long enough to get the S.P. late, but not regular. I received four copies today that followed me form Beal in California. Yes, that good grammar follows the boys all over the world. I find every copy most interesting, and I was especially proud of the copy listing the hometown boys overseas and what pond they were serving in. I find that many now reside in the S.W.P.A. In all probability I won’t run on to any of them, but it is nice to know I ain’t down here by myself. Yes, this New Guinea is some place. I shall never forget the day we landed here. Yes it is nice in places, but has its bad spots too. As we sailed in I was impressed with the green hills towering from the blue of the ocean. Yes a very restful scene to the eyes after twenty seven days at sea, with nothing but rolling waves stretching out into a monstrously uniform, empty horizon. However some of the fellows were not bothered with the horizon scene and they hung over the rail looking and ---- into the deep blue most of the trip.
As we drew near the shore we could see coconuts hanging in clusters and banana trees. No bananas though. The GIs had et em. Will the grammar in previous sentence meet with SP’s approval? After landing we found the salty aroma of the sea gave way to the mouldy jungle smell along with an oozy smell of frogs, lizards, and old coconuts rotting in sluggish streams of black water infested with malaria mosquitoes. We disembarked and tramped up the beach observing the beautifully colored and unusual shaped pieces of coral. So far so good. I thought so. Look at that black mud ahead. Oh it isn’t bad though it is only knee deep in places. We continued our march through this shallow mud to reach our temporary camp site in a coconut grove. No sooner had we set our bags down than we were greeted by the wildlife of new Guinea. Strange birds screamed and shrieked obscene phrases which some of the boys claimed to understand, but which would hardly bear repeating here. This part of the world seems tough and is tough; but I am becoming more accustom to it every day, and think I can endure it until that day we can return to the good old hometown and all of our friends. Though as this may seem I can think of places a lot tougher. Yes, and some of our hometown boys are there too. When you think the going is tough just look around and you can always find someone having it tougher.
Until I receive ore copies of the S.P. to freshen up my grammar I must bring this short story to an abrupt ending. You can bet your life the boys down here miss they old hometown and all of the swell people there. When the job is done and we all congregate on the banks of the good old Indian Bayou I am sure of one thing. “There will be a hot time in the old town.”
Book 5, page 25
Prep Kastorff
South Pacific
Thursday, May 25, 1944
Dear Mr. French:
Mail comes about once a week and when my share got here to-day there were two S&P’s sitting right on top – in more ways than one. They looked good from the outside and when opened gave out with some of the best home-town news I’ve had in a long time.
My congratulations for becoming such a young grandfather. Am sure that Christine and Hugh couldn’t possibly have had a more solicitous representative at the hospital. But I’m wondering whether you’re to send out all the cigars or will that be left up to the proud father? Even though every envelope bearing an S&P to its destination is chockfull of news and good literature, there should be room for a smoke.
Notice also that the staff of the S&P will not have to do so much licking now. That printed permit on the top right corner of the envelope is probably a welcome sight to you as well as to all of us who receive them. But with all the Army Regulations, War Department Circulars, Special Orders and RBI’s that I’ve had occasion to ponder over during the last four years, I’ve never seen anything that explained what that “Section 562, P.L. & R.” stands for. Could you enlighten me? The only other letters that come to me with things like that stamped on them are the monthly sales catalogs from Sears, Roebuck & Co. in Los Angeles, California.
Those darned things have followed me all over the South Pacific area and last week I swapped their Spring and Summer issue to some natives for a string of “Cats-eyes.”
The native has come back twice asking me to order him some of that pretty curtain cloth on page 566.
Was particularly interested in Sgt Billy Early’s letter describing his trip over here. Can’t understand how he had time to notice so many things and feed the fishes too. But I had the same emotions on my trip and it is something that happens only once in a lifetime. Would like very much to have his address cause we were once in the same outfit back in the states. If you would send it along, I might run across him cause I think he’s in the vicinity. Have reason to believe that lots of the other home-town fellows are somewhere around—but it would be like hunting for the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Thanks again for the ever-newsy S&P’s, Mr. French. Have missed more meals because of them than anything else in the army—reason being that mail reaches us at 11:30 in the morning and nothing can keep me from taking the next hour and reading. You and the people of Indianola are doing a job described in the army as “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service.”
