Cadre Archives - Moss Letters

22 July 1942

Dear Folks:

Time to write another letter while I’m goldbricking and while there is still some semblance of coolness in the air. Next Tuesday, a week from today we will be back in Fort Lewis and that won’t be too soon for me. Last Saturday and Sunday was in Yakima and had a good time getting my fill of dancing and good time. The place is about like Scottsbluff with eight some thousand people. There are plenty of places to go(to) and nice parks to go to. Also went to the Episcopal church, typical of most, covered with foliage and made of brick. Next Sunday and Saturday afternoon thinking of going berry or fruit picking. There is a shortage of workers so the soldiers are making up parties and picking in their spare time. Six thousand went out from Ft. Lewis last Sunday and there will probably be more this weekend.

Had a little excitement last nite when a seven foot rattlesnake attempted to share a fellow’s sleeping bag with him.

There are rumors that when our outfit returns to Lewis the cadre is going to Oregon and the outfit back to California. No word about furloughs. This morning we got a letter from an irate Montanan father who requested his son be granted a 30 day furlough. Of course it was turned down—impossible now.

Yesterday was a day of excitement and a little tragedy. It seems that C battery is a jinx for hard luck. Yesterday afternoon two cooks were burned, one seriously, when a unit in the stove blew up and sprayed gasoline all over the truck and the whole kitchen. The orderly tent is just a few yards from it and when it blew up we heard it first. Both cooks jumped off the truck screaming hysterically and flaming like torches. We threw blankets around them and rushed them to the doctor. Last nite and today one was given blood transfusions. The one most seriously burned happens to live in Yakima and can be with his folks. Before we got him out, two of his ribs were sticking out. That’s the first time I ever saw anyone so seriously burned and I was plenty jittery.

Later in the day we went swimming and when we got back we had to fight a prairie fire that was headed for the camp. The dust and smoke was so thick I could hardly breathe and it was one o’clock a.m. before I got to bed. The whole camp was there with trucks and graders and sprinklers and it was a great holocaust of excitement. Jeeps were tearing around like mad hens and bugles were blowing somewhere in the dust.

Guess this is enough for this time—going to a USO dance tonight if nothing else happens.

Some Red Cross women came around this morning with a station wagon full of cookies to put in our lunches. They wanted to see the stoves and help make the sandwiches so they pitched in. One lady went for a jeep ride and bounced all over the seat. We gave them about ten pounds of sugar and some grease.

Well see you in the next letter.

Love,

16 July 1942

Dear Folks:

I don’t think I’m neglecting you in my writing, do you? I don’t know why I feel so prolific, maybe it’s because I have so much time in the office.

Opened the package you sent me in the presence of my office henchmen, and in the middle of the afternoon a piece of angel food cake was like the end of a thirty day fast. The officers had a piece too and they all attest to its goodness. Haven’t sampled the cookies yet but I know they will be as good as the cake. The cake was real fresh and soft but the frosting was beginning to fall off. The cookies will be a dessert for dinner because all we have then is sandwiches.

Suppose you have the pictures of our Sahara Paradise by now. Well here’s another one. It was taken on a Sunday afternoon at Ft. Lewis. I don’t know the girls at all. We just asked them to pose with us and they consented.

One more week after this, then back to Lewis to furloughs I hope. I’m getting pretty used to it here being so close to town and all but despise the rain. I still like the barracks better. My confinement is over today and I thought it was. Come to find out it was just for over the last weekend. Last nite it actually rained a little and this morning the ground smells fresh and alive.

Haven’t been doing much reading lately however did just finish “The Good Earth”. It was laying around so thought I might as well read it. There isn’t a library here and no pocketbooks to buy so I’m stalled temporarily.

I wish I could foresee what the army proposes to do with us after we get back to Lewis. Some say back to California and the cadre to Oregon but these are pure hearsay. I heard most of the experts predict a siege of three or more years (how wrong they-the experts-were when Germany first came out of her corner). Only yesterday I was reading in a ’39 Digest the opinions of a Yale economist and European expert who flatly declared that the one thing Hitler could not do was wage war. Most of them are “looking for a better ‘ole’ now”, and I think they are too pessimistic in forecasting another three years. I’m going to be home for good in January 1944.

I still droll like a blue bloodhound when I hear an airplane. I’ve asked the CO about the Air Corps again but there seems to be no way out. Oh, well the FA is pretty good.

There wasn’t much to write about but I wanted to thank you for the box. With the sugar rationing you hadn’t better send anymore and canning coming up too.

Well I’ll yet take that all day nap you promised. Goodbye for now.

Love,

8 July 1942

Dear Folks:

It’s about seven o’clock and I’ve just finished shaving and sprucing a bit and I feel pretty good so I’ll answer your letter of today and Saturday. Suppose the main topic is the fourth of July celebration. We were granted passes all day Saturday and Sunday and it seemed like a furlough. A bunch of us left about nine o’clock Saturday and went into Yakima about five miles. On the way in we were picked up by an old couple who were herding a dilapidated fruit truck of about ’26 vintage and before we had gone far the whole back end looked like flies on a molasses jar. Our first sergeant and his wife live in Yakima and previously he had invited some of us over, so we went there. I appreciate a bathtub all the more now because when we got there his wife had eight cases of beer frosted down by two hundred pounds of ice. We did it up in big style singing and carrying on. In the evening five of us got a hotel room then took in some dances. Yakima is certainly a pretty town, trees all over and many beautiful homes. And the people appear very friendly. Stayed in bed til Sunday noon then went to a show and came back 5:00 Monday morning. A swell weekend.

The country around here reminds me of the Platte Valley in many ways. From our camp site we get a good view of the checkered green fields and orchards but up on the hills on either side it is dry and barren. Our camp in relation to Minatare would be about three or four miles beyond Lake Minatare.

I’ll dig up your letter and answer some questions now. The first item—my money situation is good. We were paid the third and I had about $35.00 left after bonds and laundry cleaning were taken out. As a matter of fact we get better food here than at the Fort, plenty of salads, fruit, and fresh meat. Tonite for supper we had roast duck and Sunday turkey (I wasn’t here). When we first came I drank water constantly but now my consumption is about normal. At every meal we are given salt tablets and our food has an abnormal amount. We haul the water from the water tower and drink it from a lister bag supported on a tripod. Yes the cadre is still going I believe after we leave here, which is two weeks after this one, July 25. And we are five or six miles from Yakima. Some guy shuttles a bus back and forth but usually we get a taxi for thirty-five cents. I got the picture of you and Kate and I remarked about it most graciously in one of my letters. Perhaps you didn’t get one of mine. Don’t go out of your way for the cookies, I forgot about the sugar rationing. You said something about watermelon in your letter—well I went to a restaurant and ate plenty and everything else I liked. Furloughs still seem in the offing—an outfit that just left here in our division are on them now so it is told. Only fifteen days though.

Our holiday was marred by a tragic incident Saturday afternoon. A big strapping fellow from Missouri with a pleasing sublimity of the hill country drowned in the canal I told you about. The canal is V-shaped lined with cement and about ten or twelve feet deep and the only place where a fellow can get out is at ladders at about ½ mile intervals. The current is so swift that if you get beyond the ladder it is impossible to get out. The last time I was there another of our men almost went down and it took all of us to get him out. Consequently swimming is strictly verboten there but the battery furnishes us a truck every nite to go to the river. C battery is certainly getting the bad breaks. Last January a fellow was shot on guard duty and now this. The skipper (battery commander) took it very hard.

I actually feel better out here and have much more endurance. The heat is pretty depressing at times but it has been cooler the last couple of days. I’ve lost five pounds though.

Tell Quincy I’ll write her tomorrow.

Guess this is about all for this time—perhaps when I feel a little more literary bent, I can write that letter for the Herald. Wish I could see your new home and take advantage of your sleeping offer. Maybe next month, who knows. Say hello to Jim for me.

Love,

I haven’t heard from Wylma since last March 1^st.

13 June 1942

Dear Folks:

An odd time to be writing a letter—Saturday morning—but I’m dodging inspection because I’m on guard, so I chose a sunny spot by the side of the barracks and decided to bask and write at the same time.

Last nite at the post gym just across the street Lana Turner made an appearance at a fortieth division variety show. Boy what she couldn’t do to my knees. Our division presented her with an insignia on a little banner and while the flash cameras were clicking she shook hands with our general. Then she gave a sentimental little thank-you talk that really sounded genuine and sincere. She had on a purple dress that made her look like a blonde Cleopatra and this was aided and abetted by a cute red hat, set dangerously on her pretty hair. You could have heard a pin drop when she started to talk. During the program she sat in the front row flanked by sober faced, austere generals. During the program at intervals a fellow would come in the back of the hall holding a couple of despairing rabbits and paging Pvt. Peter Potter. The first trip he had two, the next time a half dozen, the next a whole hutch and finally he was dressed as a cook selling them as roast rabbit. One trip he had some fun with Lana Turner but he got a slew of his pictures taken. After the program I got a good view of her passing down the aisle and when she was right in front of me, not more than a yard away, the cameras flashed.

Tomorrow a cook and I are going out for a few rounds of golf if it doesn’t rain and perhaps swimming too if it is warm enough.

Mount Rainier sure looks big and beautiful today as I’m sitting here I’m looking right at it.

Got the letter and the dollar bill yesterday. A dollar goes a long way for recreation if you spend it in camp. Under the new pay schedule and when the cadre leaves I will be getting sixty-four a month. This is for a corporal. I want to save thirty of it. If we don’t get our raise this month I’ll have pretty slim pickings next month because $12.50 besides cleaning, pressing and laundry will be taken out for bonds. As the money accumulates the government converts them into $25.00 bonds. They will be mailed to Dad and made to Mother as a co-owner.

Down the drive a few blocks is Gray Field. Here are observation places that observe the fire of an artillery and communicate by radio with the ground forces. I can see a lot of planes sitting around, wish I was in one of them.

That’s about all there is. Want to see “Gone With the Wind” again. And get that book you mentioned.

See you in the next letter.

Love,

31 May 1942

Dear folks:

I’m supposed to be a fire warden today but looks more like a small town philosopher, leaning back in my chair and taking it easy. This has been a sad weekend. Saturday being Memorial Day we were promised two days off with passes, but as you probably read in the paper, Stimson says the coast is in danger so our leave was cancelled and guards doubled and new ones added. Saturday I was on KP and what was left of the battery went on a 20 mile hike in the woods. Sunday (today) a hike of 25 miles was scheduled but because about everyone is on guard somewhere it was called off. We have guards in the halls, on the balconies and everywhere. This morning (Sunday) we had to fall out for reveille, something we don’t usually do. All of us were in bed when the fall-in whistle blew so plenty were AWOL for not hitting in the line in time. I was afraid my puttees would fall off any minute and my pants weren’t even buttoned. But I got by, I went on guard at ten this morning and will be on until six this afternoon. What a weekend! And then we didn’t get paid on time for some reason and haven’t got it yet. No money, no pass, no liberty I’m disgruntled. Oh well it can’t last forever.

I guess our outfit is being split up to take men for cadre positions. I’ve heard something is in store for me but I’ll write when it’s definite.

All this wonderful chow you read about in the papers is a lot of phooey as far as I’m concerned. Our rations get slimmer all the time. Once in a while we get good stuff but some meals are really terrible. Don’t think I’m not getting enough to eat or the right kind but the way it tastes sometimes is bad. Don’t think the army only uses grade A stuff either. Most of it is second quality.

(author switches from pen to pencil)

Well a couple of days have passed since I wrote. Guess you think I’m getting to be an agitator or something or maybe a guy isn’t a good soldier unless he’s crabbing.

Threw together the above so maybe I can add a little more to my army career.

Our outfit was reorganized lately and I was given a rating of corporal on the cadre. The cadre is a group of sixteen men chosen to form the nucleus as framework of a new battery. The rating will not go into effect until we are moved. I may go anywhere and the latest is to Michigan or the east where several new divisions are being organized. I’m hoping so. Or I may go back to California. Don’t know of course when the cadre will move but I believe it will be soon. My position is battery clerk.

Got Dan’s letter today. Will answer it tomorrow.

Will write again tomorrow so will cut this off here.

Love,