File: C:\User_Nathan\Data\WP Documents\NateBio Part II Chapter IV.wpd
The thirties was a decade of unpleasant historic events. After World War I, the victorious allies demanded reparations from the loser, Germany. The economy of Germany became so bad it enabled Adolph Hitler to take over the reins of the government. In the 1925, Adolph Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was published. In this book he put down in writing the kind of Germany he intended to make if he ever came to power and the kind of world he hoped to create by armed German conquest. The insurrection in Spain where the fascist forces of Franco and the so-called communist factions were fighting to control Spain became a testing ground for German power after Hitler took over. Hitler was joined by an ally, Itlay, where the country was ruled by Benito Mussolini. Franco was backed by the facists of Germany and Italy and the other side by the U.S.S.R. Actually, the Franco forces were fighting to take over the government of Spain. There was an Abraham Lincoln brigade fighting against Franco, This brugade was manned by anti-facist people from the United States. Two young men who were membersa of this brigade came to Berkeley and spoke at the Hillel House one night. They warned that this fighting in Spain was just a prelude to a takeover by Adolph Hitler and the the United States would eventually be embroiled in a future war with the axis-powers, Germany and Italy at that time if help was not given to the anti-Franco forces. The two fellows were labeled as communists. But eventually, how right they were.
The forces of Hitler marched and began taking over various countries in Europe. The Selective Service Act of 1940 came about because of the seeming evolving threat to the United States by the events of the war in Europe. Germany had signed a mutual pact with the U.S.S.R. and Poland was invaded to start World War II in September 1939. Russia had moved into Finland and parts of Poland with the claim that they needed a buffer zone. The public was generally isolationist so there was great pressure to stay out of the European developments. Of Course The United Kingdom and France declared war on the axis-powers of Germany and Italy. .
World War II actually began in the Far East on September 18, 1931 when the Japanese General Hayashi moved his army from Korea into Manchuria. Relations between Japan and the United States deteriorated and eventually, on December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed.
When in September of 1940 the Selective Training and Service Act was passed by the Congress. Neighborhood Selective Service Draft Boards were established throughout the country. A lottery was held and I came up with a very low draft number. However, as a student I was exempt from military service until I graduated. I think that I notified my Berkeley draft board that I was leaving for New York City and I left my home address in Astoria. I was not called to serve and I did not bother to inquire why—actually, I probably did not give this matter a second thought. Meanwhile, things were going badly for the U.S.S.R. and Great Britain in the war being waged by Nazi Germany and its Italian ally. The United States became more and more involved by sending supplies to the U.S.S.R. and Great Britain. Also, diplomatic relations with Japan became quite bitter. It was on December 7, 1941 that Japan struck Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Islands President Franklin D. Roosevelt famous words in the speech about this sad day, the “day shall live in infamy” was part of the statement about the number of sailors, soldiers, marines, and civilians killed, the number of airplanes destroyed, and the battleships destroyed. Japanese bombers also destroyed the U.S. B17 bombers which were on the ground near Manilla, landed on the Malay Peninsula and bombed Guam. On December 8, 1941, Congress with but one dissenting vote declared a state or war with Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy, faithful to the tripartite pact which included Japan, declared war on the United States.
One of my applications for employment was for a U.S. Civil Service job as an ordnance inspector. Lo and behold, it was in February, 1942 that I accepted the offer of a job as an ordnance inspector for the War Department. This was a temporary civil service appointment. First I was assigned to take 10 weeks of a training course at the New York University campus in the Bronx. I found an attic room near the campus to live in while in training. The courses included mechanical drafting, blueprint reading, learning about dealing with specifications, shop where we actually produced physical items with various machines, and measuring instruments like go-no-go gauges, micrometers, etc., and inspection technics Actually the knowledge from this training was useful in later life.
After I finished the training period I became an Under Inspector of Ordnance Material at $1,440 per annum. My first assignment was to report to a plant in Long Island City (Queens Plaza area) where in a loft of a building, 20-mm aircraft cannon bullets were being manufactured. This plant produced the bullets 24 hours a day and seven days a week. There were shifts and I luckily escaped serving an eight hour shift from midnight to 8:00 am. I did work day and evening shifts alternately. I believe that I worked seven days in a row before having a day off. The job of the inspectors was to observe closely the inspection process and that if any bullets were not within the specifications the reason for that must be found. We had the power to shut down production until bullets were again within specifications. As an inspector I was stationed at a long table where each bullet of the thousands that were being produced per day went through a process of more than 20 critical measurements with various gauges. I believe that there were at least ten young ladies at each table for the measurement processes. One thing that I do remember about the young ladies at each table was the language that they used. Some of the words they used were handy to know when I was finally inducted into the army.
After about six weeks on the job described above, I suddenly was notified that I was being transferred to Unexcelled Fireworks which was located at the outer city limits of New Brunswick, New Jersey. I commuted from Astoria until I found a room in New Brunswick. Again there were three shifts and I worked on the day shift until I became acquainted with my duties. I was then transferred to a shift which I believe was from 6:00 PM to 2:00 AM. I had no car so how I got to the factory and back to my room escapes me. I suspect that there was bus transportation to the city limits and I would walk the rest of the eay. I did walk back into the city limits with other inspectors. Of course these were evenings of balmy weather and of course we stopped for a beer or two. The ordinary things of life such as where and when I slept and ate, and how laundry was done escape me completely.
Unexcelled Fireworks was a plant that was converted from a firecracker and fireworks plant to an assembly plant for parachute flares. Each assembled device packed into a bomb-like shaped body was to be dropped from an aircraft and the candle suspended below a parachute that opened was ignited to emit a million candlepower of light for three minutes. The candles were produced at this plant. Magnesium powder was mixed with linseed oil and a large quantity of each mixed batch would be dried by heat in a small shack. The candle consisted of the mixture packed into a metal cylinder, a thin layer of black gun powder on top of the magnesium mixture and a wire with I believe red phosphorus coated on it would be pulled through the black powder by the impact of the parachute opening. The black powder would ignite and in turn would ignite the magnesium.
One of the inspectors duties was to observe the testing of three candles from each lot produced. This was done in an above ground long building called the tunnel. A candle was placed at the far end of the building and several of us inspectors along with company people, which included the very large obese company chemist, would stand at the other end of the building. We were behind a wall which had a glass window. There was a photometer to measure the candlepower of the burning candle and of course there was a method of measuring the duration of the burn. There was one time on a nice sunny day that when the candle was ignited by the company chemist, the candle fell off its stand and except for two of us we scrambled out of the doorway. When we looked back, there was an explosion and the building began to collapse; one of our inspectors and the company chemist, with all his bulk, were jammed in the doorway. They were not hurt and we all had a good laugh for the scene was worthy of a Marx brother's movie episode.
Magnesium metal powder was mixed with linseed oil and dried in small wooden huts. There were two fires within a week when 500 pound aliquots of the magnesium-linseed oil mixture in each hut were ignited. The fires occurred at night and the lighting of the area was spectacular. Of course residents from New Brunswick flocked to see what was happening. The fire department was given instructions not to use water, but they did and this caused explosions. Later on investigation it was found that the drying temperature was too high because of a defect in the controlling mechanism. Very little production time was lost as the shacks used for drying the magnesium in linseed oil could be replaced within several days.
The major time spent at the factory was spent watching the assembly of the parachute flares which included close observance of the folding of the parachutes and the assembly of the total system in the bomb body. As inspectors we had the power to stop production if we observed improper assembly was taking place. I believe that production had to be stopped several times during my duties at the factory. A ticklish aspect of this job was when samples from each lot consisting of a 1000 devices failed actual tests at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and they had to be disassembled. The inspectors had to observe the dismantling process. All that one had to do while dismantling a device was to pull the wire that would result in the ignition of the magnesium. I was present several times when 990 of a rejected lot of the devices were dismantled; there was no mishap because of the caution practiced by the people doing this unpleasant work.
There really was no social life due to the hours of work. I should mention that here again I would work seven days straight before having a day off. The only socializing was in our hut on the grounds of the fireworks factory. One of the inspectors was an ex-marine from World War I and he told us a lot of horror stories about the battles he was in. Of course, we wondered if the tales were tall tales. While on the day shift a new inspector came to us and his name was Bernard (Barney) Meyer. Barney was large physically and when a group of us went out to lunch, Barney is remembered for consuming all the rolls in a basket usually served where we ate. Barney became a good friend. I do not know when, but I met Barney's girl friend Alice Gustav. Alice was on the faculty of New York University where she was in the psychology department. Eventually Alice took training as a clinical psychologist. I am also not sure of when it occurred but Barney and Alice got married. And it was Barney who left the job before I did as he was drafted to become a Private in the Army of the United States. I eventually met Alice and my friendship Barney and Alice continued throughout the years ahead.
On November 1, 1942, I was promoted to Junior Inspector of Ordnance Material at $1,620 per annum. It was nice to be promoted, but this had no effect because by this time I had received a Greetings letter which essentially stated that my draft board composed of neighbors decided that I should be in the Army. This was a form letter received by each draftee. A draft board in Astoria notified me to report to Grand Central Palace in Manhattan for a physical examination and I believe it was for November 2, 1942. Later, I found out that my Berkeley Draft Board could not find my forwarding address so I was finally located when two FBI men visited my father to ask my whereabouts. He told them.
Soon after I knew that I was going to be inducted into the army, I know that I had the time to ask for some annual leave to visit Norman who was in Pittsburgh working for the Bureau of Mines. Norman had an exemption from the draft and he could not tell me what he was doing except it had to do with the war effort. I believe his hands were stained yellow because of the use of picric acid. After the war was over I found out that Norman was working on rocket fuels. Norman arranged for me to have an interview at the Bureau. I was told that being I had my draft notice, I was not eligible for a job.
So back to New York I went. I spent November 2,1942 at the Grand Central Palace and my memory is that of stripping all clothes off and walking from station to station for different parts of the pre-induction physical examination. When I got to the eye exam I just barely read the big E on the top of the eye chart without glasses. Being about 5'8" or 5'9", weighing less than 120 pounds and having poor vision I was labeled as being on limited service (1B). I heard somewhere that limited service soldiers were destined not to go overseas, but that turned out to be untrue. I remember how proud I felt when that I was accepted for service in the army and I felt sorry for those fellows that day who were rejected for physical reasons. I still have the notice that stated "You are now a soldier in the Army of the United States. Congratulations!" A whole bunch of us were sworn in; actually I was in a telephone booth talking to my father telling him I was in during the swearing in process. I think my father said something like the army must have a desperate situation to take this skinny not quite blind specimen.
I reported to the New York Ordnance District of the War Department that I was inducted into the army. I still have a letter of January 4, 1943, in which I was notified that because I was called to military service I was furloughed effective November 19, 1942. I also still have a document in which I was notified that my regular pay for1942 was $1,262,00 and overtime paywas $135.
I had orders to report to my draft board on Monday, November 9, 1942. On Sunday, November 8 Northern Africa was invaded by American troops. Also, on the same Sunday, Harvey Kalish was born. I visited my cousin Ruth at the hospital and I also saw her husband Sam there.
It was a day after the North African invasion, November 9, 1942 that I reported to a local inductees assembly point in Astoria. It probably was at the local draft board office site. I probably carried some personal effect such as toilet articles. After a group of men assembled to be inducted, we were marched to a subway station, probably the Independent System Steinway Street station, and we got on the train which transported us to the 34th Street in Manhattan. From the Pennsylvania Railroad Station, we were then transported via the Long Island Railroad to Camp Upton, an induction center at the eastern end of Long Island, New York.
We arrived at Camp Upton late in the afternoon and I had the first taste of military discipline. A soldier took charge of our group and we were marched from here to there. We were issued uniforms, we had tetanus shots and smallpox inoculations. Before getting the shots, we were warned by those coming away from the area, "watch out for the hook." Quite a few of the recruits fainted as they were stuck with needles. We were marched to a barrack where we were assigned bunks, but there was no rest. After mess (the army word for dining) we were marched to other areas for what seemed continuous processing. My group took a test to determine if Morse code signals could be read and an intelligence test; these tests were taken well after midnight. I believe that we could collapse into our bunks by 3 am and that we had reveille, the morning wake-up call very early in the morning. The time spent at Camp Upton was not much more than two or three days for the majority of recruits. For some reason, I was kept at Camp Upton for at least ten days. After my second day at Camp Upton I was assigned to march the arriving new recruits for processing. I then realized that the soldier that was in charge of my group when we arrived at Camp Upton probably had been in the army for several days only. Danny Greenberg, one of my high school days friend, was in the first group I met at the railroad station. I had a chance to visit with him while we were eating dinner. While at Camp Upton, I was startled on a Sunday when I was told to report to see a visitor; the visitor was my father. I also believe that I had my first experience with KP (Kitchen Police) at Camp Upton. I was awakened long before dawn and I reported to the mess hall. I suspect that my memory is correct that I became the pot washer until many hours after sunset. Off course the pots were huge and quite greasy. KP duty was a must for the low-ranks in the Army. Finally after ten days at the induction center the orders to ship out arrived. I joined a group of soldiers that was led by a sergeant, I believe. We asked for information about our assignments and we were told this was a secret troop movement. So we boarded the Long Island Railroad again for our return to the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Manhattan. We were told that we had two hours of freedom, however, no phone calls or other contacts. I remember not what I did, but I suspect that I wandered over to Herald Square and walked around in Macy's on 34th Street. After returning to the Pennsylvania Railroad Station our group boarded a train and off we went traveling in a southerly direction. I should mention that all the traveling in the United States was by train; air travel was not prevalent until later in the century.
The Port of Embarkation, Charleston, South Carolina
On the morning of the next day, on the train, we were informed that were part of a Detachment Medical Department and we were headed for the Port of Embarkation in Charleston, South Carolina. On inquiry, we were told that we were not going overseas, that we would be part of the Port personnel. We were given a free long-distance phone call so on the first evening at my new post I called my father. After saying hello, I said that I am in Charleston, South Carolina. My father hung up. I found out later that he was so excited that he didn't realize that he broke the connection.
We had "sorta" basic training during the mornings and classes with medical topics in the afternoon. Because of my background as a biochemistry major where I had courses that included medical physiology and human anatomy and experience in a hospital research laboratory, I was told that I need not attend the classes. I was assigned to duty in a dispensary, a small building for medical services that did not require treatment at the area army general hospital. There was at least one physician and a dentist on duty during the day. The enlisted men rotated shifts so that medical services were available 24-hours a day, seven days a week. We assisted the physicians like the para-medics of today; we gave shots, sharpened needles constantly as those were days of non-disposable needles, and gave first aid. Our clientele consisted of large contingents of troops who were going overseas. After a few months, I was assigned to the nearby general hospital serology laboratory to learn how to do the Wassermann test which was a test for syphilis. Although I never did find out why I was assigned to the serology laboratory, I suspect that there may have been some thought of performing serology tests at the dispensary. We did see quite a bit of gonorrhea cases and some syphilis cases at the dispensary as the troops moved out. Before moving on to the next assignment I had while serving in the army, I should mention that army discipline and my character did not match. I occasionally got into trouble for minor infractions and this led to more than usual K.P. I should say that I became an accomplished greasy pot washer.
Once in a while I got a pass which entitled me to spend an evening in Charleston. The port of embarkation was located on Ten Mile Road. This was my first experience in riding a bus in the South and it was not pleasant. Black service men, and off course, black civilians had to take seats at the back of the bus. One member of my detachment who had worked for a union went and seated himself at the back of a bus we were on and the driver stopped the bus to tell this soldier to move forward. It was only the threat of arrest that this soldier moved to a forward seat. There was a USO (United Service Organization) for us in Charleston. We could get refreshments and dance with the young ladies present. There also was a place for servicemen which was run by the Jewish Community. It was here that I heard Jewish and Southern accents combined. Once I got a weekend pass to go into Charleston only. I could have gotten into a lot of trouble as I met my father and Mary on a train bound for Florida.. We visited and I got off in Savannah (or Atlanta). Then I waited for a while in the railroad station for a train to return to Charleston. I was not apprehended by an MP (Military Police) for I was out-of-bounds.
Aero-Medical Laboratory at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio
For unknown reasons, there is one thing that I did do that did not get me into trouble as I by-passed the usual chain of command in requesting a transfer. I wrote a letter to the commander of the Aero-Medical Laboratory at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio in which I suggested that with my background in biochemistry I would be an asset to the aero-medical unit. This is called chutzpah. The answer to this letter was an order to report to Wright Field. My major duty involved the training of Air Corp personnel in the art of using oxygen masks. This involved going into a chamber where the air pressure was lowered to simulate altitudes as high as 40,000 feet above sea level. I also ran a moving picture machine that had a training film about high altitude flying. That movie got very boring after a while.
At Wright Field, while I was passing an officer who was a major, I suddenly realized he had been a teacher at my high school and I didn't know whether to salute him or hug him; it was like meeting a long lost relative. Major Benjamin Koenigsberg was the head of the science department at Bryant High School in Queens, New York and I spent a lot of time with him while doing service work at the school. I did things like assisting in setting up experiments to be performed in classes by the science teachers. I believe that Major Koenigsberg had a lot to do with the development of my interest in science, but that is another story. I met and had conversations with Major Koenigsberg informally in Dayton at a meeting place for Jewish servicemen.
Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP)/Ohio State University
At Wright Field, when they began asking for volunteers to do participate in experiments with human centrifuge equipment, I applied for Officers Candidate School (OCS) in Medical Administration. I was informed that the medical administration program was closed, however, without being asked if I would be interested, I was transferred to the Army Specialized Training Program at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
It was in June 1943, after serving in two outfits for relatively short intervals in each, that I arrived at Neil Hall at Ohio State University. This dormitory was across the street from the College of Medicine and Dentistry. Neil Hall, as I understood it, had been a dormitory for women before the army took over. Although there were lots of girl's names and telephone numbers written on the walls of the room that I shared with three other enlisted men, we did not make use of them. We had about 150 soldiers at the hall and they all had baccalaureate degrees. I was assigned to the Physiology Department and I found that I knew Professor Hitchcock who was to become my mentor because he was a consultant for the high altitude chamber program at Wright Field. I was assigned to work under the direction of one of Dr. Hitchcock’s graduate students. The research program that I was assigned consisted of a study of the effect of low air pressure (or high altitude) on the adrenal glands of rats. There was a theory that if one administered adrenal extract to pilots it would not be necessary to use much or any oxygen at high altitudes. A published study which led to the conclusion that relatively small differences in barometric pressures may have a definite effect on the water distribution in the body led to my study of the adrenal gland water distribution The object of my study was to determine if the adrenal glands would hypertrophy when rats were placed in an environment of air pressure equivalent to 25,000 feet above the earth’s surface. The conclusions in my report of August 24, 1943, The Effect of Anoxia on Water Distribution in the Rat, of which I still have a copy, were that there was no adrenal gland hypertrophy at the simulated high attitude and that there were no significant changes in the water content of muscle for the experimental time periods.
The summer spent at Ohio State University was a good learning exercise for me and the social life was pleasant. As one assigned to do research I had a lot of freedom. In September of 1943, we were moved to live in the dormitory in the Ohio State University football stadium. I remember going to a football game between the Ohio State University football team and a team from the Great Lakes Naval station. It should be needless to say that Ohio State University team was beaten badly by the naval station team as they were composed of mainly former professional football players.
While at the University, I got enough leave one weekend to go to Chicago where I visited Gabrielle and Bert. The couple had a son Steven and to my dismay, I learned that Gabrille and Bert had separated. I spent a day with gabrielle. Next day before going back to Ohio, I visited Bert in a YMCA room and he told me that he had switched to a physics and mathematics major. Not only that, he said he was working in a metallurgy project. I was puzzled as to why he was working as a metallurgist and it was only in 1945 that I found out that he was referring to the project of Enrico Fermi in which a nuclear pile was being built in the old football stadium at the University. I never saw Bert or Gabrielle again.
Assignment to a Petroleum Products Laboratory Unit, Camp Lee, Virginia
Soon grim reality reared its head. On October 3, 1943 I was ordered and transported to Camp Lee in Virginia (outside of Petersburg). I reported to the 939th Petroleum Products Laboratory Unit. I felt depressed as I wondered why an aspiring biochemist was assigned to a petroleum products laboratory unit rather than a general hospital laboratory.
The petroleum products laboratory units consisted of three officers and 15 enlisted men. The units were to be dispersed to many areas overseas. The major objective of the units was to determine if the petroleum products that were being transported to the overseas ports were contaminated. If the products were contaminated the units would determine how the products could be used in less demanding situations than for the original purposes. As an example, if the high-octane gasoline intended for use in military aircraft was contaminated by salt water picked up by leakage in the storage tanks of oil tankers, the gasoline could be blended with other gasoline products for use in automotive equipment. The units would also monitor products that seemed to be involved in malfunctioning engines to determine if the products were the cause of the problems. Each unit was equipped with a complete base laboratory which could handle practically all petroleum tests. In addition there was a mobile laboratory in a trailer and a two-and-a-half ton (2 ½ ) truck. The testing scope of the mobile unit was limited but yet ample to care for spot inspections.
On my arrival at Camp Lee, I was also informed that I would eventually be going to Tulsa University for a month of intensive training with lectures and laboratory work pertaining to petroleum products. It was at Camp Lee that I was promoted to Private First Class (Pfc), my rank for the rest of my army days.
The remainder of the fall months was spent in real basic training. I qualified as a sharpshooter with a '03 Springfield rifle. I must say that I was almost deaf for several days after the day we qualified on the rifle range. We were given full field equipment and a carbine which had a clip of bullets that was inserted into the weapon. We had gas mask training and it was a former instructor in gas mask technic that got gassed in the chlorine test chamber. Each outfit got a truck with a 50-caliber machine gun mounted on the cab and we went out on a range to qualify with this weapon. The range was A.P. Hill, Virginia; we were awakened what seemed to be the beginning of the night and after a long drive from Camp Lee we arrived at the range at dawn. My breakfast was cold beans from a can and hot black coffee. We all aimed at a moving target but the only thing that got hit that day was the chain pulling the target. Another training event had us crawling on a muddy field with barbed wire and land mines going off around us and the shouted instructions were "keep your head down" for live ammunition was being fired over our heads. We did long marches on some days (like 20-25 miles).
We were young and even after a long daytime hike we were ready to go out to Petersburg during the evening. We were able to get into Richmond on weekends; thank goodness for the USO and the Jewish community centers for soldiers. The few times that I got leave during my army days, I went home to New York City. I remember visiting the Stage Door Canteen in the Times Square area where I was impressed by the well-known actors who served food and put on performances.
Since my unit had already spent the month at Tulsa University, I was put on detached service to go to Tulsa with another unit. I was there December 12, 1943 to January 10 or 11, 1944.. In spite of the intensity of the training program the social life was great. A sorority adopted us soldier boys and life after school was pleasant. One of the girls from the sorority was Lucille and she corresponded with me during my overseas service. She did send me a book and I seem to think that the author was Norman Mailer. Our return to Camp Lee in Virginia was delayed by a blizzard and when we finally arrived I found that my unit left that morning for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, the staging area for transportation overseas. Since the unit needed a full complement of men someone was transferred out of the 929th Petroleum Products Laboratory Unit and I took this person's place. Later on we heard that the 939th unit went to London and it ended up in Paris for the duration of the war. I should mention that two of us in the unit were Jewish and the 13 enlisted men and the three officers were Irish. There were quite the celebrations by this unit on St. Patrick's day.
In February, 1944 our unit was placed on an alert that we were about to go overseas. We were issued sun-tan (summer) uniforms and mosquito netting. It was rumored that we were bound fo
On weekends we were given passes that would allow us to leave the camp grounds, but we were restricted to the Petersburg area. I can say now that quite a few of us ignored the restriction and we headed for New York City even if it was for one night only. It was on three weekend Sundays that I was seen off at the Pennsylvania Railroad Station by my father, some relatives, and a current girl friend. A number of years ago I saw a photograph by Alfred Eisenstadt, the famous Life photographer, that showed soldiers at the Pennsylvania RR Station. I wonder if I was one of those in the photo.
There was a sense of relief when in March, 1944 the orders finally came to leave Camp Lee. We spent quite a few days on a train until we reached Camp Stoneman, Pittsburg, California, an overseas staging area. The camp was in the San Francisco Bay area. We were given cholera and typhus shots which resulted in two aching arms and shoulders. We were warned not to reveal our whereabouts if we did call anyone.
I had an invite to a wedding in San Francisco on one of the days I was in camp so I called the bride (Mickey Silberstein) whom I knew from my freshman years at UC and I told her that I would not be coming to the wedding. I also called a friend who was still in Berkeley and when I told him that I could not reveal my whereabouts, he said something like it must be close as I probably wouldn't spend more than a dime for this. Compared to my days in Berkeley, I was actually rich enough now to spend more than a dime for a phone call.
I believe it was on March 15, 1944 that we marched through Pittsburg to a boat which took us on San Francisco Bay to the Oakland Port of Embarkation. I still don't know how I got aboard the ship that was to take us overseas as my duffle bag must have weighed a ton and along with the other things being carried on my person (steel helmet, canteen, gas mask, carbine, etc.); it was a struggle for me. On boarding the ship which was blacked out we were told to stay below in hold #4. I believe that I claimed a sleeping bunk that was in the middle of three bunks to a section. We were told that we would leave the port at midnight. It was about midnight there was some vibration which could have been from the engines of the ship. I woke up at about 2 am by noise from some the men in the head (the navy term for toilets or lavatory) throwing-up due to sea-sickness. When we went up on deck in the morning the ship was still tied to the dock. We were informed that there was some engine trouble and that we would probably leave in the afternoon. We learned that the ship was the U.S.A.T. Tjisadane, a Dutch cargo ship with a crew from the far east. We also learned that the ship could only do eight knots. The ship carrying about 1,500 soldiers left the dock in the afternoon and this secret troop movement was hailed by people waving from the Oakland Bay Bridge when we passed under it and also the same happened as we cruised under the Golden Bay Bridge. My overseas service began on the day the ship left port, March 16, 1944. It wasn't long before sea-sickness became evident among some of the troops. Also the crap games were going on all over the ship and by the end of the voyage there was only one crap game among the enlisted men. The officers of course were berthed in cabins. One of our officers, 2nd Lt. Murphy, remained in the United States to take care of the shipment of our laboratory equipment. There was no convoy for our voyage. Our slow ship seemed to be the only ship on the Pacific Ocean for we saw no other sign of life except on the ship. After we left port the word came through that we were on the way to Australia. Sometime during thevoyage we were informed that the ship was being diverted from Australia and that we were heading directly to New Guinea. The mess aboard the ship was not memorable. We did get our fist taste of the nonappetizing food we would be eating during our overseas stint. We did pass the area where the far eastern crew ate their meals and there were wonderful aromas coming from their food. When we crossed the equator our officers participated in a rite of passage ceremony I still carry a card that states that I crossed the equator, that I am a shellback, not a polliwog. I have practically no memory of how we spent the time while crossing the Pacific Ocean. What I do remember is that at times the water was almost as smooth as the surface of a mirror and my thinking that no land must exist. It must have been a boring cruise.
New Guinea is the second largest island on the globe (Greenland is the largest island). It is north of Australia and it is separated from North Australia by Torres Strait and Arafura Sea. The island is about 1,800 miles long and about 400 miles wide at the center. Largely tropical jungle, it has vast mountain ranges such as the Owen Stanley and the Bismarck mountains with peaks from 10,000 to more than 16,000 feet high. The lower courses of the large rivers (Fly, Sepik, Mamberamo, and Purari) are generally swampy, with a few grassy plains. The inhabitants are Melanesians, Negritos, and Papuans, some of whom (in the more inaccessible regions) still practice head-hunting and cannibalism. Indigenous plants include sago, sugar cane, coconuts, rubber, nutmeg, and tobacco. Generally similar to that of Australia, the fauna consists largely of marsupials and monotremes, and among the reptiles are venomous snakes. The island is known for its many unique species of butterflies and birds of paradise. The principal product is copra; there is limited production of rubber, coffee, sisal hemp, and kapok. Gold is mined in the eastern area, with the principal gold field in the Morobe district of the Territory of New Guinea and some oil is produced in the western area. Probably first sighted by the Portuguese Antonio d'Abreu in 1511, the island was named for its resemblance to the Guinea coast of West Africa. In the next two centuries it was visited by many European explorers. In 1828 the Dutch formally annexed the west half of the island, and in 1884 the British proclaimed a protectorate over the southeast coast and its adjacent islands under the name British New Guinea; in the same year the Germans took possession of the northeast. The Australians received control of British New Guinea in 1905 and renamed it the Territory of Papua. In the First World War the Australians occupied the German-controlled region of the northeast and, in 1920, received it—the Territory of New Guinea—as a mandate of the League of Nations; after the Second World War the mandate became a UN trust territory under Australian control. Self-government of this territory was granted in September 1, 1973 and Papua became an independent nation on September 16, 1975. In 1962 the Dutch government, after much turmoil in Netherlands New Guinea, (western part of island) agreed to its transfer to Indonesian administration after May 1, 1963.
For many, World War II put New Guinea on the map. Though the Japanese at first swept quickly through the Dutch East Indies and on to east New Guinea, an Australian possession, their seemingly inexorable advance was finally stopped 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) from Port Moresby — from which Australia was a short distance away. Vicious jungle fighting by tough Australian troops slowly pushed the Japanese back. As the war progressed and American might came into play, churning out airplanes, ships, weapons, and fighting men, the Allies slowly acquired the means to sweep back the Japanese invaders. After the reconquest of east New Guinea, the pace quickened. By the spring of 1944, when the Allies were prepared to mount an assault on the area, the northern coast of Irian (Dutch New Guinea) was defended by some 55,000 Japanese troops, backed by considerable air power and substantial naval forces based in the secure waters of the Moluccas to the west. Thanks to intercepted Japanese communications and broken codes, General Douglas MacArthur learned about the defensive weakness of Hollandia (now Jayapura): although 11,00 Japanese troops were stationed there, only about one-fifth were combat soldiers. Risking an attack on his exposed flank, MacArthur bypassed Japanese troop concentrations at Wewak and Hansa Bay and launched a daring assault on Hollandia itself. Control of the skies made a landing possible. The U.S. Air Force, with 1,200 planes, wiped out the Japanese air fleet at Sentani, destroying over 300 aircraft. Only 25 serviceable planes were left by the American pilots. For the Hollandia landing, at the time the largest operation in the Pacific, MacArthur employed 217 ships and 80,000 troops, led by 50,000 combat troops. The initial objective was to seize a coastal strip some 40 kilometers (about 24 miles) wide, between the landing points at Hollandia and Tanahmerah Bay. The lack of Japanese resistance was a godsend, as a chaotic debarkation took place amidst heavy rain and over difficult terrain. The beachheads were secured on April 22, 1944. The Hollandia campaign, considered by war historians as a model strategic maneuver, cost the allies only 159 lives. More than 4,000 Japanese were killed and 650 prisoners were taken. About 7,000 Japanese tried to escape to Sarmi, a stronghold over 200 kilometers (about 120 miles) down the coast, but disease, starvation and wounds claimed all but 1,000 men. Meanwhile, Allied engineers reinforced and enlarged the roads and airstrips at Sentani, as the Japanese-built runways were neither sturdy nor long enough for the U.S. B-29 Superfortress bombers. A total of 240 kilometers (about 144 miles) of roads and airstrips were laid. Sides of mountains were carved away, bridges and culverts were built across rivers and creeks, gravel and stone was poured into sago swamps to support highways. Almost overnight, Hollandia mushroomed into a city of 200,000, with 140,000 Australian and American troops and support personnel. The area became one of the war's great military bases, with most of the southwest Pacific command operating from here during the summer of 1944. MacArthur chose the best spot for his sprawling headquarters complex—a 250-meter (850 feet) hill overlooking Lake Sentani. Rugs and furniture from the General's Brisbane, Australia office filled prefab office buildings. The huge airfield complex at Lake Sentani was to eventually house 1,000 planes. An almost equal number of ships ferried in countless tons of supplies and equipment. Humboldt Bay, with hundreds of ships linked by catwalks and lit up at night, was described by war correspondents as a "city at sea."
It took 23 days to get to the eastern tip of New Guinea where we tied up to the dock at Milne Bay for four days. Then we started a "rubberneck" tour of the northern coast of the Australian part of New Guinea. We docked at Kaloi Bay for three days. Then we moved on to Buna and Oro Bay for five days. Then we proceeded to Lae where we anchored for one day.
On the 22nd of April, 42 days after we left the Oakland Port of Embarkation, we arrived in Finschaffen. We arrived on the same day that the beachhead at Hollandia was secured. I remember the depressing moments when we set foot on mud and when we walked into a tent assigned to us at a staging area, the middle of the ground under the tent was a mud hole. We were relieved that there were cots for us and we did not have to sleep on the ground. Our arrival seemed to catch everyone by surprise and no one seemed knew where we belonged. Transportation became a problem for us for our new 2 1/2 ton truck was unloaded from the ship on the 25th of April and it was stolen that night. With some difficulty, our unit did acquire a Jeep. Headquarters finally decided to put us in the 557th QM Bn which in turn attached us to the 3875th QM Gas Supply Company for quarters and rations. Life became somewhat better after setting ourselves up in an area beside the Mapes River. For quite a while the tropics got to all of us because of the intense heat and humidity. Our unit took over the inspection and classification of 55-gallon drums of petroleum products as well as the proper stacking of the drums in an organized way..
During the month of May we floored our tents and set up our generator. The flooring of our tents was almost the cause for my going back to the States the second week we were in New Guinea. I was with a small contingent to pick up beams of Australian hardwood and I was in the back of a truck when one of our men let go of his hold on the beam which dropped to hit me above my ankle on one leg. Since the pain was excruciating I was hauled off for medical attention. There was no broken bone, however I was told there might be a bone bruise (or later on I thought that there may have possibly been a crack which would show up later on). It was thought that if I got hit on the ankle area I would probably have ended up with a crushed ankle. The Australian hardwood is very dense and it took at least four men to carry a beam that was 12 feet long, 12 inches wide, and two inches thick. Ordinary nails could not be driven through this wood. We found that out when we used the beams to support the tent flooring. Sledge hammers were used to drive in spikes. Having a generator was nice as we supplied ourselves with electricity for lights and we also supplied the 938th Petroleum Products Laboratory Unit and the 3875th Gas Supply Company with lights.
I should mention that we took Atabrine daily; this is an anti-malarial medication. Our skin soon turned yellow and it took at least one-half year for the color to fade when I returned to the States. We also slept under mosquito netting as the malaria mosquitoes (species Anopheles) were out in full force at night. A member of our group, Tec 4 John Shade from Michigan, had hemorrhoid surgery several weeks after we arrived at Finschaffen. He was hospitalized for 14 days and after coming back to the unit for two days he had to return to the hospital where they had to reoperate.
In addition to our duties we built a water tower and we were able to supply the other units with water besides ourselves. We built a volley ball court and played when the temperature went down to 90 ?F in the late afternoon. We built a sort of a pier from which the swimmers dived into the river.
New Guinea is an earthquake prone country and one day while sitting in my tent the earth began to move and the mess kits hanging at the edge of the tent began to swing and rattle. At first I thought that something was wrong with me and then I realized that I was experiencing an earth tremor. This experience occurred several more times while in New Guinea.
One incident to be remembered is when one of our unit was doing his laundry at the river edge. A large corrugated metal can (a garbage can) was filled with water, the laundry was dropped into the water and the water was heated by a fire produced by putting gasoline in a can below the laundry can and throwing a lit match into the gasoline. This was an effective method for washing clothes. The incident occurred when the member of our unit took a five-gallon gasoline container and tried to pour more gasoline into the can below the laundry can. The fire ran along the gasoline that was being poured and the member of our unit became a flaming torch from the gasoline vapor surrounding him. He had enough presence of mind to jump into the river so there was no disaster.
Another incident to be remembered is when a soldier drowned. Apparently three men from an Ordnance ammunition company went swimming when one of the men disappeared. It wasn't until about a half-hour later that swimmers from our group located the body which was under the water. I was one of the unit who with the medics tried artificial respiration for about three and a half hours before we gave up.
There was a great amount of excitement when a gasoline stove in the kitchen of our mess hall exploded. Quick action prevented the loss by fire of the mess hall. In that we were in the area of a gasoline dump it was realized that we had inadequate fire fighting equipment.
John Kennedy (not related to the past-President), an enlisted man in our unit, and I took a hike into the interior. We passed an underground hospital that still had the remains of some Japanese troops. We followed an ill-defined trail in the jungle and after about two hours we broke out into a native village. The villagers seemed friendly and with our books of Pidgin English vocabulary we had some conversation of sorts. We then returned to our encampment in the late afternoon. What escapes me is why we did this considering that there might be some Japanese servicemen still around. And what my memory tells me is that we did not carry any weapon during this hike. Shall I just say that we were young, dumb, foolish and lucky.
By the end of June when we thought that we were settled in even without performing our intended function we had word that we were going to move west. Lt. Murphy (now 1st Lt.) arrived from the States on June 26. He was our supply officer and he brought with him most of our laboratory equipment. He also brought a Hallicraft short-wave radio which kept us informed of the latest news about the progress of the war and also we could listen to Tokyo Rose. However it wasn't long before we began to have problems with the radio. On July 13, 1944 Lt. James Ferguson, our unit commander, was notified of his promotion to the rank of Captain.
It rained and rained in July. We could barely stay dry. On the 18th of July we became isolated from the rest of the base with the exception of a jungle trail through the hills. The Mapes River rose to an estimated 12 feet washing out a good percentage of the fuel drums in the lower area, and also a bridge which was our outlet to the base. A week later the engineers spanned the river with a pontoon bridge. Since the flood our unit worked from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. to clear the lower area of the gasoline dump. It was rumored that when the Americans arrived in Finschaffen, the Intelligence people asked the natives about the valley where we were camped and they said "come summer, the water up to here (hand at the forehead level)." So the ammunition dump and the gasoline dump were located in the valley. On July 20 we received preliminary orders to move on. In July the rain prevented us from getting to see a movie and a Jack Benny visit and show. Oh yes, our radio was not operative again.
The first of August, 1944 found us still clearing drums and awaiting shipping orders. On August 3 the Mapes River flooded again washing out the pontoon bridge. We received orders for us to ship out on August 5. There was a typhoon that hit us that day and the way we got to the LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) was via a precarious jungle trail over some of the hills. At about 3 pm the LCI headed out to meet other ships in a convoy group and it was in the teeth of the typhoon. Sea-sickness became rampant, however, my momentary squeamish feeling disappeared when I looked out of a porthole to see the stable shore. I felt fine for the rest of the trip. While passing the Japanese installation at Wewak at night some of the destroyers were dropping depth bombs. For the two day trip we were given a bunch of chocolate bars or Ration D. These chocolate bars were supposed to be nutritious enough that we would not need any more food during our trip. However, on the landing craft we found some cases of K Rations, which we appropriated. K rations included cans of cheese, some crackers and other items; They sure were welcomed as compared to the Ration D.
At 1500 hours on August 7 we debarked from the LCI, which was in Humboldt Bay, at Pie Beach, Hollandia. We spent the night at the 3876th QM Gas Supply Company area. This area was known as the Brinkman Plantation. Not having brought anything with us except our backpacks and duffle bags we slept on the ground in pup tents. I shared my half of a pup tent with Morris Altman, the other Jewish boy on the block. On the 8th we moved to the 362nd QM Service Area and set up quarters in a newly acquired squad tent. I believe it was at that time that we camped on the edge of a ditch which separated us from a Japanese prison camp. I hope that my memory isn't distorted for I seem to think that we observed Sumo wrestling in the prison camp. We went to work next day at the petroleum products dump where we stacked drums being brought in by a trucking company. It is of interest to mention that the truck drivers were black and had been transferred from a long stint in Alaska. I also remember conversations with some of the black truck drivers who stated that they would no longer ride in the back of the bus when they returned to their southern homes. That did not occur for quite a while after the end of the war.
We continued to work around the clock at the petroleum products dump. The lighting was very poor at night and some injuries came about as the trucks were unloaded by hand. There were still Japanese soldiers in the area and we kept hoping that we were being guarded by an infantry company in the area. One night I was stationed at a cross-road where I guided trucks as they came by. There was an armed MP with me and the only light was from some gasoline burning in a can. At about 3 am the trucks stopped coming, so the MP said he was going to get some sleep and he disappeared. The gasoline was finally consumed so there was no light. It was during the next three or so hours that every sound or rustle from the trees or grass meant that a Japanese serviceman was there to get me. It was that night that I promoted myself from just a plain coward to a devout coward. There was a tremendous relief when daylight arrived and I was picked up to return to our living quarters.
It was on August 14 that beer was allowed (legally) and issued in the New Guinea theater of operations. Of course we had already found that we could trade the free cigarettes that we were issued for Australian beer with the Aussie troops when we came into contact with them. They drank the beer warm but we found a way to cool it and it was great. Of course there was always evidence of harder alcoholic beverages being manufactured by placing water and raisins in a helmet and let the stuff absorb some of the sunlight. We even found some crude stills within the edges of the jungle where combat units were camped.
Tanahmerah Bay was west of Hollandia (about 40 Miles, I believe) and a road connected the two areas. When one drove from Tanahmerah Bay to Hollandia, the road was cut along a mountainside and rose about 900 feet above sea level. Then the road skirted the Lake Sentani airstrips that were about midway and inland on the route to Hollandia. It was at the Lake Sentani area that MacArthur had his headquarters built on top of a mountain.
On the 5th of September our orders directing our move to Tanahmerah Bay was published and we moved on the 6th. We were now attached to the 781st Engineer Petroleum Distribution Company for rations, quarters, and administration. Captain Ferguson (promoted July 13), our commanding officer, was admitted to the hospital on the day that we moved. Second Lt. Robert Westvelt assumed command of the unit on that day. While awaiting our equipment and a permanent camp site we worked around the gasoline storage tanks (either 10,000 gallon or barrel tanks and I believe that there were 40 of those monsters) and the pipelines to the Lake Sentani air strips. A sample of aviation gas was submitted to us on September 16 to determine if it was contaminated. Although we did not have the facilities for testing, somehow, the enlisted men in our group who had experience in petroleum products laboratories were able to give to give an answer from the data collected by using a distillation apparatus borrowed from the engineering company.
On the 25th of September we were assigned a new area for the laboratory camp site and this location was directly behind the liberty dock at Tanahmerah Bay. Our living area was on a hillside; we looked down on the road between us and the Bay and behind us there was a cliff. I suspect that this area was worked on by engineers to create a flat area. The road was composed of coral; I know this because I was one of those that dug a ditch across the road for a water pipeline. We made ourselves a decent place to live by building wooden floors in our tents and we used the water that was piped in for showers that we rigged. Our mess hall was about five miles from our area and we had to drive east over the mountain pass to eat. Behind our camp there was a company of combat troops, usually black units, who were there to guard the petroleum storage tanks. We supplied them with electricity when our generator was set-up and in return we got some better meals at their mess hall than at ours and this also enabled them to run a movie projector so we did not have drive a long way for that entertainment.
The buildings that we needed to construct were not covered by a blanket work order for the Petroleum Installation which resulted in a scavenging operation par excellence. First Lt. Murphy arrived from Finschaffen on the 8th of October and took command of our unit. Our laboratory equipment was unloaded in Hollandia and trucked to Tanahmerah Bay. We finally built some buildings for the laboratory and I was designated as the laboratory supply keeper. I had an area in the lab that was enclosed by an open-wire wall. I had lots of time to read. We got copies of Yank magazine and my major memory of this magazine is that it had the Sad Sack, I believe the Willie and Joe cartoons by Bill Mauldin and centerfolds. Sad Sack was a fictional GI (Soldiers were labeled as General Issues or GIs) who always was in trouble. Willie and Joe, who were fictional GIs in the European Theater of Operations, although humorous, caught the spirit of the horrors of war. The centerfolds that are memorable are photos of the actresses Betty Grable in a bathing suit and Rita Hayworth. Paperback books were available for us Gis. I worked my way through a physics book which was about the atomic theory and a physical chemistry book. I actually started to work on a correspondence course from the University of California at Berkeley. The course was Chemical Thermodynamics and this did give me a head start when I entered graduate school after my discharge.
Merchant marine tankers (100,000 gallons per tanker, I believe) and navy tankers came into our dock to discharge their cargoes. It was in November that we finally became involved in what we came overseas to do. Our laboratory personnel were busy. We went aboard incoming tankers to get samples of their petroleum products, mainly gasoline.
We discovered that the best time to get samples was at mealtime for we usually got invited to eat with the merchant marine personnel. As one could well imagine we were all eager for this duty so we ended up by taking organized turns with two men assigned to this duty each time. We also found it interesting to visit with Chief Petty Officers on the naval tankers for they spun yarns that were unbelievable.
In November 1944, the actual work of the unit was now being performed in earnest. Samples from tankers were tested to determine if specifications were being met. If contamination was found, rather than dump the cargo at sea, there were means for blending materials to serve purposes other than the intended purposes. High octane gasoline could be blended with other products to produce lower octane gas for use in automotive vehicles. We tested captured Japanese petroleum products. There were cases where contamination was thought to be responsible for aircraft engines not performing correctly so we looked at the oil and grease products to determine if those were the causes of problems. I was assigned to do some grease analysis one day and somehow I came up with a total of the components equaling 120%. On repeating the analyses I came up with better numbers.
It was in sometime in October that we drove to Hollandia and we looked down on Humboldt Bay one evening to have an amazing sight of lighted ships; this resembled looking down on a well-lit city. Loading was going on for the Philippine invasion. What was really eerie was that the next morning there was not a ship in the harbor—the invasion fleet was on its way to Leyte, the Philippines.
After the island of Biak (which was west of us and off the coast of New Guinea) had been invaded and on November 13, 1944 a small detachment of men from our unit left for Biak with the trailer equipped to do petroleum products laboratory testing.
Up to this time I have not mentioned the toll on us due to the environment. We all had to take the antimalarial pill of Atabrine once a day. After a while our skin was yellow. The yellow color of the skin displaced the tan from the hot tropical sun. When I finally came back to the States it took about a year for the yellow color to disappear. Captain Ferguson was sent back to the States after his hospitalization. Master Sergeant Blake had fungus growths or "jungle rot" on both hands and the severity of this condition resulted in his return to the States. Most of us had jungle rot on various portions of our anatomy but as yet the conditions was not severe enough for a trip home. The medics did not have any real way to deal with this fungus. We tried different things ourselves. I was given a formula of a mixture that included iodine and a salicylate (the major Aspirin constituent) so I made a batch of this material. I became unpopular for a while because when my mixture was applied there was a sensation that one's skin was on fire. I had put more iodine into the mixture than I should have. One day I suddenly began shaking with chills and a high fever developed. I ended up in a Sea-bee (Sea-bees/U.S. Navy Construction Battalions) medical installation where I was diagnosed with dengue fever. Actually from what I know now, it was not dengue fever or breakbone fever. I was given high does of Atabrin and the medication alone was sickening. Even with a high fever I was ambulatory and I got fed in the Sea-bee mess hall. My main regret is that I couldn't eat much of anything and their food was like being in heaven as compared to what we were getting in our mess hall.
Native villages were built over the water on the coast. Occasionally we did see a long line of native woman walking toward Hollandia carrying empty baskets and babies while the two or three men that accompanied them carried walking sticks only. They were headed for a Dutch commissary for supplies. After a several days we would see the same group walking back to their village with loaded baskets. The men still carried their walking sticks. We did see fishing going on from outrigger boats. There were plantations in the area before the war and the natives worked on the plantations. Both in Finschaffen and here at Tanahmerah Bay we were visited by natives and they were certainly inquisitive when they saw laboratory tests being performed. We certainly had plenty of native children around and we tried to communicate with pidgin English If we had time we would try to teach some of the older children English. One thing that stands out is that malnutrition was rampant among the children (big bellies) and they had sores on their bodies that evidently did not heal well. The life span of the natives as I understood it was about the middle thirties.
Sometime or other a notice was posted that there would be interviews for OCS (Officer's Candidate School) in Australia and one of the options was medical administration. So I applied. I got as far as going in front of a Board for an interview where I was told that the only openings were for 2nd lieutenants in the infantry. My devout coward personality came up, so I looked at the Board officers squarely in their eyes and said that our country would be better off if I stayed where I was. Goodbye Australia! Actually, by this time I must have weighed 110 pounds and I was still considered to be on limited service status—in no way did I have the physical stamina to be effective in a combat situation, especially in a hand-to-hand fight.
I should mention that several men in our group swung deals with the merchant marine people for they had cases of whiskey and we had the means of transportation to the base in Hollandia area. Cases of whiskey were transported to the Air Corps and other Officer's Clubs and in return our transporters were rewarded rather well. One of the rewards was that it became possible to build up a stock of alcoholic beverages in our unit. I do have to mention that on St. Patrick's Day in March, 1945 there was quite a celebration by our unit and us two Jewish boys joined in. I didn't think that I was drinking any of the hard stuff but apparently I was as my beer was being spiked. I remember that I became dizzy so I had enough sense to get to my cot and get the mosquito netting down. For some reason or other I still remember wondering how I could be relieved of this vertigo when a thought came that I read somewhere that bugs oriented themselves to the north. Then I thought why don't I point my head north but I became confused because we were south of the equator, so how could I determine where the north is. Needless to say that was my last thought that night. When I woke up in the morning with a hangover I noted that of the three other occupants of our tent two were sleeping on the floor—they didn't make it to the cots.
In December, 1944 a Navy Commander, who had been a chemical engineer in civilian life, was attached to our unit for several weeks with a secret mission. He rigged up a distillation column and distilled various kinds of petroleum products. He very carefully took fractions of solvent from the distillation columns. After the Commander left we found out that he was producing cigarette lighter fluid for an Admiral who was somewhere among the northern islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The only address the family had was the APO number and this did not indicate where we were. We could not get a letter through the censorship that stated our location. I received a letter from cousin Ruth who observed that I had the same APO number as her relative by marriage, Milton Feldman, whom I knew. She sent his unit designation. I found out where his outfit was stationed (toward Hollandia) so on a Sunday that I was off-duty, I hitch-hiked to meet him. He was a Captain in the Sanitary Corps and they were on the way to the Philippines. We had a nice visit and I got a ride back a Jeep assigned to him.
For recreation there was the inevitable volley ball game late each afternoon, there were the evening poker games, a game which in which I did not excel so it was a good thing that most of my 35 dollars a month was being sent home automatically. In Finschaffen we got paid with British money so the poker games were played with shillings (about 16 cents each) and florins (about 32 cents each). In Dutch New Guinea we were paid with Dutch money; the unit was the guilder or gulden, which was worth 50 cents each. The poker games got more expensive in Dutch New Guinea. We read a lot being we had electric lighting.
One of the members of our unit latched on to a motor boat left behind by someone who left for the Philippines. On Sundays we were able to cross to a beach opposite our area for some swimming. This beach was very nice but blood had been shed there as it was where landings had taken place during the invasion of the Hollandia area. An unenviable task was performed when a grave-diggers unit dug up the bodies buried near the beach and brought the bodies to the base for burial I know not where. The water was very clear on this beach area and one could look down at the coral formations and the colorful sea life. Things got even better when the WACs came to Hollandia and starting in January, 1945 some of the WACs joined the enlisted men who had Sunday as an off-duty day to be transported to the beach for a swimming party.
One incident occurred when I was assigned to waterproof our tents. Each 55-gallon capacity barrel of gasoline or other petroleum product has two metallic bungs (or stoppers) on one end; one bung is small and the other large and after being screwed into each opening each bung is tightened with a wrench. The small bung is usually cracked open to allow the escape of a vapor buildup and then the large bung is open for pouring out the contents of the barrel. Being that in the tropics it is hot there is the vapor pressure is high in a barrel of gasoline. Many a time we ridiculed someone because the large bung would be loosened without regard for the high vapor pressure and the result would be a shower of gasoline. I was perfectly aware of this but I made the mistake of thinking the high density waterproof material would have a low vapor pressure. I learned to my chagrin that the vapor pressure even of a dense tarry material was high enough in the heat to give me a shower. Needless to say I spent at least one hour taking a water shower with the use of a scrub brush and the harsh yellow soap issued to us for cleaning purposes.
Sometime during the rainy season which seemed to occur in this area during the winter months the pass to our mess hall was closed because of a landslide. This did not turn out to be a disaster as some our men who were excellent scavengers boarded some of the merchant marine tankers and came back with boxes containing fresh eggs, bread, meat, and other supplies. We had refrigeration for laboratory purposes so we could maintain some of the perishable food. After a steady diet of dehydrated foods such as eggs and potatoes, Spam which I can't look at today, and other nonmemorable rations supplied by the army we ate well for over a week while it rained and rained. We could care less that the pass was not open as long as we could eat well from the supplies we kept getting from the merchant marine people. One day, our clerk got through to pick-up some mail and I had a letter from a friend (Barney Meyer who was stationed in Mississippi: in the letter he complained about being in a "hell-hole." Needless to say that when I wrote a letter to him I stated that I would gladly exchange hell-holes.
Then there was the day that we heard about the death of FDR (President Franklin Roosevelt). Most of the men in the unit were shocked and we were disturbed by this event. I will say that several members in our unit were elated after hearing this news. These were the same individuals who in political discussions stated that Hitler was O.K. and that we should have fighting the communistic Russians.
When we heard that Japan was finally being bombed by our aircraft it was a morale elevator. For each island that was taken in the Pacific meant that we would be going home sooner. The news of the cessation of the war in the European Theater of Operations in May 1945 was received with the feeling that maybe the war effort would be accelerated in our theater. None of us had enough points in the point system for rotating personnel from their theater of operations. By May of 1945 we were all weary from the long working hours and no furloughs from this jungle paradise, which most of us could do without. In May, Tec 4 John Shade was suddenly hospitalized for degeneration of the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae and he was evacuated to the United States.
On the 27th of June while working on the pier, leg and pain that developed during the day became excruciating and I could barely walk. I was hospitalized for several days and the diagnosis was mild arthritis for which I was treated with pain-killers. I went back to the outfit and it wasn't long before I was hospitalized again. I went in front of Medical Board and the result was that I was to be returned to the United States because of the back and leg problem which may have been exacerbated because of climatic conditions, the fungus infection (jungle rot) on my chest which was not healing because of the environmental conditions and when they looked at me with my weight down to about 110 pounds they probably thought get this guy out of here before he disappears. On July 20, 1945 I boarded a Liberty ship built by Kaiser and after what seemed to be an infinitely long voyage we docked in the Los Angeles area. Aboard the ship we had wounded veterans and many men who were infected with a blood fluke (schistosomiasis) that came from the fighting in the tall grasses in the swamps in the Philippines.
I met an artist (Lee Greenwell) who had worked for Hallmark and while serving in a mortar company he did paint with supplies given him by the Red Cross. I did keep in touch with him and apparently he had a show in Cincinnati where he was acclaimed for his work. Sometime in the late forties, while my wife, Galla, and I had dinner with the artist in Cincinnati while I was attending an annual American Chemical Society meeting the artist averred that we should go and drop the atomic bomb on the USSR. We never saw him again.
While on the approximately 20-voyage I had time to think back about how I was never in a combat situation even though I was given an Asiatic-Pacific Theater ribbon with a battle star on it for the New Guinea campaign. I thought about the natives of New Guinea who worked for pittances for the rich British and Dutch plantation owners, and I thought about the children who suffered from malnutrition and sores over their bodies. I thought about the black troops that we worked with and their feelings about the separation of the races in the south. I though about causes of war and how helpless an individual seems to be to prevent war.
It was in 1946 that I met with one of my tent-mates, Morris Altman. He told me that soon after I left New Guinea our outfit moved north to the Philippines, the war ended before the outfit could get settled and it was soon moved to Yokohama.
When we crossed the international dateline we had a Friday that was 48-hours long . We were traveling without a convoy and one night while standing in front of the ship I thought I saw a fire that appeared to be on the horizon. Others saw it because there was an alert and the guns aboard the ship were manned. The fire turned out to be the moon that was rising and the atmosphere was such that the moon appeared to be of a bright orange color. On Monday, August 6 we heard about the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima; this resulted in my explaining to some of the troops what an atom was and the thought that the nuclear energy could some day be released. Before coming into port we all threw most of our army possessions overboard with the hope that fresh clothes would be issued. When we landed in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday August 8 we saw the headlines that the USSR had declared war on Japan. It was on Thursday, August 9 that the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. At the hospital staging area we were all treated as heros. We were allowed a free telegram and free long-distance telephone call. I sent a telegram to my father in which I stated that I was back in the States from New Guinea. At that time it was not known where I had been. We were given some days of leave, so fortified with pain-killer I headed for San Francisco and Berkeley. People all over were friendly and there were comments about my yellow skin which identified me as a newly arrived soldier from the tropics. I visited the bride, Mickey, whose wedding I could not attend and I met her husband Justin Shapiro. I had dinner at Mickey’s parent’s home where an aunt and her Chinese fiancee along with the other people were very interested in my experiences. It was that day that the San Francisco newspapers carried headlines about the offer to surrender by the Japanese. It was on Saturday morning that I visited the campus in Berkeley and spent time with my former Professor of Biochemistry, Dr. Sundstroem. Then I headed back to the hospital in the Los Angeles area. I should say that I hitch-hiked both ways and got rides easily. On Sunday night I called my father and there was no answer, so I called my cousin Ruth Kalish. The first question was "whom did you marry?" It turned out that the telegram that I sent stated that I was married in New Guinea. They wondered at home if I had brought home a Melanesian bride.
We left for the east on a troop train and it was on Tuesday, August 14 that contrary to orders I went out on the platform of our train car and purchased a newspaper in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The headlines said PEACE in very large letters. I got chewed out by a non-com for violating orders on a secret troop movement. It was a sad scene when I looked across the aisle to see a Master Sergeant in a straight Jacket. He had no idea that the war was over.
We finally arrived in Utica, New York and I became a patient at Rhoads General Hospital. By the end of the trip my chronic pain had diminished. I was fitted for a back brace which I used for a good number of years until the pain did not seem to return. I still think that i had a slipped or degenerated disc and as I understood it later on, the discs can be regenerated if you can stand the pain and wait. Also being young helped as did the back brace. I wish I knew the M.D. who spoke to many of us in the ward about our future plans. As the possibility of financial support for working toward an advanced degree came about by a GI Bill of Rights, I said something about going back to graduate school; I mentioned Columbia University. The physician arranged for a six day pass so that I could go to New York City to see if I could enroll in Columbia University. I sat in the office of the Head of the Medical Biochemistry Department at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and had an oral exam that lasted several hours. Dr. Hans Clarke then told me that I seemed to know the subjects of biochemistry and physical chemistry, however, I was deficient in my knowledge of organic chemistry, so why don't I go from this W. 168th Street medical school complex and to the Columbia University campus on the W. 116th Street campus and enroll in the Chemistry Department. This I did and they knew that I would start classes late after my discharge from the army. I must have had a session with an advisor in the Chemistry Department, Dr. Mary Caldwell, as I came away with a schedule for classes I would attend.
Thanks to the physician at the Rhoads General Hospital my discharge was only dependent on the construction of the back brace and this apparently was expedited. I received an honorable discharge on October 9, 1945, exactly two years and eleven months after going on active duty.
It seems to me that I had very few personal effects. Of course, I was still in uniform and I had the Asian-Pacific Theater Ribbon with a bronze star on it. The bronze star indicated that I I had been in a combat zone. I kept and still have my “dog tag,” which has stamped on it my name, my serial identification number (32615941), which is forever etched into my mind, some code letter and number, and my blood type AB. The chain holding this tag was kept around my neck for the duration so that if anything happened to me, I would be identified. I was given a pin which showed a crippled duck and it was called the ruptured duck. This was to be worn on civilian clothes to identify one as a veteran.
A large part of my $35 per month was sent home automatically and it was deposited in a bank by my father and Mary. On my army honorable discharge record of separation, I note that I was given $128.25. One hundred dollars of this sum was part of the $300 given as mustering out pay and the rest was for travel home and any owed pay. Even though I had some money in the bank and pocket money given to me at my discharge from the army, I would have to depend on the GI Bill of Rights to support me financially while in graduate school.
So, with a back brace on my body, after leaving Rhoads General Hospital I headed for New York City that day on a New York Central train. I carried my apartment key throughout my service and I was questioned as to why I was doing this. My stock reply was that when I ame home, it was possible that my father and Mary would not be there. It did happen. When I arrived at the apartment noone was. It was my key that let me get in.
My father and Mary came home later that evening and we sat and talked for quite a while.
The store on Steinway Street had been closed as it was not economically feasible to buy goods for dresses and aprons during the war. Both my father and Mary went to work in some garment making factory. At home, I found that books that I had collected before the war were gone. I did some civilian clothes left. Inasmuch as my relations with my father and Mary had improved over the years, it was understood that I would be welcome to stay in the apartment. Being that it was a one-bedroom apartment, I would again sleep on a studio couch in the living
So, on the next day, about four years after receiving my B.A. degree in biochemistry, I would be able to begin working toward an advanced degree. I still had the aspirations of becoming a biochemist. To do this it seems that I needed to enhance my knowledge of basic chemistry according to Dr. Hans Clarke, the head of the medical school biochemistry department.