Guard duty Archives - Moss Letters

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,

16 April 1942

Dear Folks:

Time to write a few lines while everything is quiet after supper chow. Just got a letter from you that was put in the wrong slot in the mailbox.

Well, well-founded rumors are astir that we are moving out perhaps tonite or tomorrow. In fact all we have been doing today is loading and greasing trucks and getting our personal equipment in shape to pack quietly when the order comes. Where we are going is of course not known but the latrine rumor is to Los Angeles. Whether this is in preparation for something bigger I can only guess. The latest is that we may move after midnite tonite.

Tonite also we are having alittle battery party with talent supplied from our ranks to refreshments from the battery fund. Suppose we will have a lot of fun singing and horsing around.

I wrote Dick a few days ago asking him to come up so we could both talk to you on the phone. However if we move I’ll make the call, if possible, myself. I haven’t been down for three weeks now and would like to see them before we leave but perhaps this won’t be possible. The 19^th will also be the monthly anniversary of my army induction—seven months.

I am sending my mail free, but because I had a little supply of stamps thought I just as well use them for airmail.

Don’t know exactly when our $42.00 will be effective but will probably effect our pay on the first of June. I will send you $20.00 to use in coming out. Wish you could come on the train. I think Dick and I can arrange it that way. If we each donate $20.00 or so you could afford it then. It would be better for you than riding in a car.

Yes, even get to sleep late if we walk at nite—the usual tour is 4 hours on and 8 hours off. We haven’t heard anything about furloughs for our bunch and are not expecting any—at least I’m not. We took all of our shots in the arm and after about three they were nothing.

Right now I’m reading ‘Inside Europe’ and ‘The Green Lights’, but if we move won’t get to finish them and incidentally, I’m wondering how I can return them to the library.

Last Sunday I was on KP and while looking around the kitchen saw a carton of beef from Cook’s Packing Company in Scottsbluff. Kind of surprising.

I gave up my job as assistant battery clerk for lack of anything to do in there so now I’m in the communications detail. We string wire from gun phones to the switchboard to the observation point (OP). From the OP the CO (commanding officer) relays his firing data to the guns which go thru the switchboard hidden in the brush somewhere. It’s a pretty good assignment and more interesting than doing the cannoneer’s hop. Pulling two or three miles of wire by hand is a workhout. One of our trucks has a small gasoline engine for this purpose mounted on the back.

Well guess this is all this time. Will write you all I can about what’s going on.

Love,

10 April 1942

Dear Folks:

Suppose you will be surprised by the series of lots of letters but I’ve had so much time to do nothing that letter writing becomes a good recourse when the time drags.

Finished my tour of guard duty at Carlsbad so I’m back in Escondido. Two letters were waiting for me—one from each of you. When you send me a box again will you include a heavy bath towel and perhaps a couple of hankies? I know you will send a box as you always have so I just as well make my suggestions. Some other things—hair shampoo, whole peanuts, that’s just about everything. I’m as proud as pie over the sweater and hate to have to wear it underneath. I can wear it on the outside only on unofficial formations.

Guess I’ll dig up your letters and take care of your questions. First—the actual temperature doesn’t seem to get so low but somehow the nights are very chilly and invariably we wear jackets and overcoats on nite guard duty, and then we still get cold. Yes, I sleep in my sleeping bag every nite. I would freeze without it—or I feel like I would. Usually in the evening we have a fire going in our little cone shaped stove so it’s comfortable in the tents. In fact your Easter card and the letter about the suit—take your pick—and I also hope Dad is making use of them. When the day comes that I will be handed that precious little document inscribed with the word ‘discharged’ I am going to wear different clothes everyday just to see what it feels like. Now that I got to thinking about it, it will seem odd very different to get back into civilian life. I never realized the freedom and privileges that I enjoyed. Suppose you will for awhile have to wake me with a bugle, blow a horn for chow and give me an inspection on Saturdays. How good it will seem to be relieved of the regulations of uniformity that we all follow.

Last Wednesday got a letter from Gram inviting me to a Nebraska picnic at Long Beach. Dick, Loyd, and June are going but I’m tied up, of course, so can’t attend! It does no good to make plans for anything—take your liberty as it comes and make arrangements later. Last nite a group of women with the Women’s Club in Vista entertained about forty of the soldiers to a dance and games in their clubhouse. I became entangled in a good bridge game with three of the town’s solid (+ solid) women who rank with the sharks. Of course I’m not acquainted with all the intracies and opportunities of the game but we got along pretty good and they were very gracious about my ineptness. They hung on all my words and finally we both recalled someone we knew in Scottsbluff so we became very chummy.

Another Sabbath tomorrow which means pancakes (a rare treat) for breakfast and church later. Besides pancakes-I also saw a boiler full of chickens so suppose we will have chicken for dinner with some good mashed potatoes.

I don’t know any Hoover in my battery although he may be in another battery of the battalion.

I see Dad you mentioned something of going to Alliance to see the army pass threw. Well I suppose a uniform would cause a mild sensation back there but out here they are so commonplace they are never noticed. Everyday convoys of trucks for miles in length pass through the town and P-38 interceptors, bombers and fighters fly over incessantly. Searchlights cut swatches of whiteness in the nights, and boys sit in rooms of sandbags keeping accurate logs of every happening along the coast. Troop trains sweep along, blackened out like a deadly animal and the yellow light of an alert flashes on once in a while. Rumors fly like confetti in a March breeze and the next most important topic is dope about furloughs and passes and (of course) women. I wish you could visit our battery and see what we do. Each move a vital cog in a big war wheel.

Well this covers about all from this news front and perhaps a little to much space so until the next letter.

Love,

10 April 1942

Dear Folks:

This is one of those days that are conducive to letter writing and getting undone things done. It has been raining since early and now a little after one it is still coming down and seeming to draw one’s spirit down too. The other fellows are sleeping or writing or just shootin’ the bull over the war or what move we may make next. Usually on Friday afternoons we have organized athletics but because of the weather is has been called off.

Got your box a couple of day ago. It was knocked around pretty much but still intact enough not to lose the cookies. The sweater fits like a Hollywood bathing suit and I’ve already broken it in with the past few nites on guard duty. A piece of clothing other than a GI issue is like a new suit in civilian life. As to my suits for a suit you to want to make for yourself take your pick—except the black one—unless that is the one you especially wanted.

My pocket watch seems accurate and the zipper bag is handy as a toilet closet. I use it every day and have in it my toilet articles that I use to shave, etc. Formerly I had to scoop them up in both hands and hope I didn’t lose anything on the way so it fits the bill well.

This coast patrol guard duty gets a little tiresome trudging in the sand five or six miles a night. The OP (outpost) I am at now is housed in a little building with a fireplace and benches that was formerly used by some wealthy dukes for ‘picnics’ and steak frys after a swim. It is of stone and set between two very large summer homes that are really swanky. There are big places all along the route.

Guess we start getting our raise this month of $42. Hope I can send home some of it. We signed the payroll today.

Got an Easter card from Colson’s.

This is about all there is this time. Los Angeles had a blackout two nites ago.

I would like to call you up sometime soon say about the 19^th—Sunday about 7:30 our time (Pacific Standard Time).

See you in the next letter.

Love,

5 April 1942

Dear Folks:

Suppose you are wondering what has happened to me for not writing so long but last week was a busy one with moving and guard duty and I feel off a little.

Last Wednesday thirteen of our battery were transferred to Carlsbad to join another battery in our regiment, to patrol the coastline. It is about twenty miles from Escondido but a little closer to San Diego. We are living in tents in a eucalyptus grove just about a mile from the coast back in the hills. A nice shower room and washstand has been built so it isn’t so bad here. Carlsbad is about a mile away and Oceanside about four. We do guard duty six hours at a time, either from six until twelve or twelve until six at nite only. Each outpost is dug out in the sand and lined with sandbags and equipped with a stove and charts, etc. Ours sits on a bluff overlooking the sea. Two stay in the dugout while two walk on patrol, our post is 3 ½ miles so we walk seven miles each nite. Time seems to go pretty fast though, walking along the beach or highway 101 and watching the surf pound in. In the afternoon we drill 3 hours.

Well today was big one on the calendar, being Easter. I got up at nine and hitchhiked to Oceanside and went to the Episcopal church there. I also took communion. The church is right on the highway 101 in town and during the sermon he was forced to almost yell while a marriage party went by. After church I hitchhiked back to my station.

Was in Coronado last Tuesday on a 23 hour pass and had a nice time with the folks there. I talked to Dick again about the Navy and I believe he will refrain from joining.

Just got Dan’s letter and picture. Boy, he’s good looking. He shouldn’t have any trouble with girls. Also got a card from the Colson’s. By the way even tho I’m here at Carlsbad still address my mail to Escondido. It will be sent out daily.

Haven’t heard from Kate for some time. Believe she owes me the letter.

I just had Sunday chow a few minutes ago—peaches, cheese, cold meat, beets, coffee, and potato salad. Pretty good. Guess I’ll read awhile tonite before going out on guard.

Well another Easter has come and gone and for the first time I didn’t have to be particular about what I wore. Everyone was dolled up in church and was the only soldier there. Hope I’m not wearing OD’s when the next one comes around.

Sorry I didn’t write in time for the box but I know everything you put in it will be something I can use.

Love,

22 March 1942

Dear Folks:

While I’m waiting to go on guard at ten I just as well write you a few lines about stuff and things. Last Wednesday a.m. battery began a week’s tour of guard duty so I’ve been confined to camp when I’m not on post. I walk from ten until two o’clock at nite and in the morning with eight hours off between each tour. I’m posted at a lake set up in the hills. It’s very pretty up there and this morning it was so bright and sunny it didn’t seem possible that a war could be going on. Every day is so lovely and full of spring. Spring don’t mean much around here but just the same March 21^st spells something that the parts describe.

Got a letter from Bill E and Margie a few days ago. Bill seems on the verge of getting married. Margie, by reading between the lines, seems pretty low about everything. I get the impression she’s a little worried about Duane and his future. Rightly so, I believe.

This day was one of considerable leisure for me. Got up at nine and had pancakes for breakfast then walked guard from ten until two then laid around on my bed and listened to the radio and finished reading “Flotsam’. Later I washed my hair and shaved and now I’m writing you and waiting to leave soon.

Want to get to see the folks, yes I will too either this coming Wednesday or the following weekend. Even though some of my visits are not very far apart, I look forward to everyone as though I hadn’t seen them in ten years. If I don’t get down Dick said he was coming up. Dick is sure swell to me and we sure have a lot of fun together. It’s swell to have him so near.

Marge said that June K would look me up; also said that the former Dolores Dunbar often came to Escondido so maybe I will have some visitors soon. I hope so.

I’ve had such a supply of toilet articles that only tonight did I begin to use what Grandma and June gave me for Christmas. The buck cornsheller keeps good time and I look on it as something that almost lives. I left my other one with the folks to put in safekeeping. I couldn’t think of a thing that I need. Grandpa gave me an old fishing box with several shelves, that I was a little reluctant to accept, but it’s just the ideal thing to keep supplies in.

Patsy sent me another box of cookies. She seems to be taking quite an interest in my welfare.

Walter Winchell just came on the radio. I hope you listened too.

Guess this winds up this little edition of ink slinging.

Love,

18 March 1942

Dear folks:

I have plenty of free time while I’m waiting to take my guard tour so I can catch up on any back correspondence. Today the battery begins its tour of battalion guards which will last a week so that will mean no going out for awhile anyway. Walking four hours and sleeping eight for six days gets pretty old stuff but we will get a 24 hour pass when it is over.

Last weekend I had another pass so left about four o’clock for San Diego and the folks. I was there in time for supper. When I got there Dick was sleeping on the couch and Gram was in the kitchen and I walked in and had my soaking clothes off before they knew I was around. Boy was it raining! In the evening Dick and I went to a dance. The next morning Gram, Dick and I went to church and in the afternoon we played 18 holes of golf. The Johnson’s (Mrs. E. Johnson and Helen) were there when we got back. I missed the last bus to Escondido but had no trouble hitch-hiking the 35 miles back.

I hope to get down again a week from this coming Saturday. Dick is really swell and we had a great time.

Well the war goes on and on and everyday I wonder what will happen next. This morning at reveille formation a circular about pay allotments was read. It said that all men in eminent prospect of being shipped should consider allotting so much of their pay to dependents or to their family. I think I will do this.

You say men are enlisting everyday, yes that is true, what I mean is that any man already in one branch of the service cannot enlist or reenlist in another, which means because I am in the FA I cannot transfer to the Air Corps (except flying cadets), Intelligence, or any other branch. Right now I’m hoping to get a chance at a commission in the FA as a clerk of some kind. I have applied for an application and believe my background of ROTC and college and banking will swing it. It is as an officer in the Adjutant General’s office. Each candidate is interviewed before a board of officers and graded on appearance, bearing etc, and I hope I can get over this hurdle if the chance comes for me. In my army intelligence test I scored 132 out of 150 and only 116 is required for an officer, and 100 for the Air Corps. That’s a pretty good rating.

The weather has been so sunny and the sky so clear, except for the rain last weekend. I suppose you noticed when you were here how big and bright the stars were. I can’t get over it. Suppose you know Palomar, with the telescope, is only 18 miles from here.

Well finished ‘Kabloona’ and ‘Mantrap’. Kabloona was sure a good one, so descriptive and such a study of values and the real worth of our ‘civilization’. When the war is over I’m going on a trip like that.

The oranges are pretty plentiful now and the other day when we were in an orange grove with the gems we all had our fill. Also lemons.

Patsy sent me another box of candy yesterday so I’ll have to answer and thank her. Gramma also sent a box of fruit, and cigarettes and cupcakes.

Well so much for another letter. I got all the Free Presses so I know about everything in Minatare.

See you in the next letters.

Love,

8 March 1942

Dear folks:

I guess it’s about time I took myself in hand and began to start writing again. Sort of had a vacation last week being in San Diego. Fifteen of us were sent there for guard duty at the fire central station and it so happened that I was a KP man so I had every nite off and went to Gram’s during all my time off. It was a real visit with the folks and when I didn’t sit around with them Dick and I went out. We took in a couple of dances and a show and then Gram and I went to a show one nite. We had it so soft there that I hated to come back to Escondido. As we had no officer there we had only two meals a day; at ten and three so I was free from about four o’clock on, not much KP for fifteen men. My last nite there I stayed overnite with Gram. Dick seems pretty contented and I think he likes his job with Cudahy’s. He’s getting heavier and huskier and is a swell guy. The folks do everything for him. One afternoon as I was going to Grams, I met Dick on the ferry and he sure looked funny in his old clothes. He has a white cap with a little black bill that makes him look like an armchair engineer.

When I got back a carton of cigarettes and a box of candy from Pat and Uncle Harold were waiting for me. Some fudge that was broken up but good.

I’ve begun to read a good deal lately and by the way if you ever want to send me something make it a two-bit ‘pocketbook’. I got that book “Kabloona’ last nite and just finished reading Lewis’ ‘Mantrap’. Currently I’m about half through ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and last week finished “We Are Not Alone.’

Hope Minatare comes through in the states meet or did they get there? I read the clippings Hank sent to Dick. Also got Stub’s letter. Good to get it.

Well the war gets more involved and blacker for us, so it seems, by every communiqué. I can hardly believe it is almost spring already, but a spring that will make history. By the papers we are sending great reinforcements over but they are a mere dribble at present.

I’m just the same, had a pretty bad cold last week but it’s coming around now. Well I’m going to write to Pat and Katie and as I’m about out of news so will put the curtain now.

Love,

15 February 1942

Dear Folks:

I guess I’ve been getting a little lax in my letter writing. Guess I don’t realize it.

Today was Sunday and Gram and Dick came up on the eight o’clock bus but I had to leave for Camp Callan just as they arrived. However I was back at one o’clock so we had plenty of time together. We saw a show and then ate in a restaurant and talked until time for their bus to go back home. I showed Gram around our encampment and even brought her in our tent. She seems to be very happy and healthy. Dick is a little restless not having any work yet but he’ll get on soon and he’ll be a good worker. Suppose they have written all about his offers and courses. If he is not thinking very seriously of going to college I believe he should take advantage of the four year deal. Tool and die making is a very definite profession of its own. A man skilled in that line is usually in demand.

Got all the good cookies nice and fresh. A bunch of chowhounds were here when I opened the package so one can has met its fate. Grandma brought me some apples, some peanuts and popcorn and some cigarettes so my locker is well stocked. When I miss a meal sometimes for any reason such items fill the gap. The bugler’s sister works in a bakery so we get eats from him too.

I remember in one of your letters you wanted me to tell you what I did and how my schedule works. So here goes. First call is at 6:15, reveille at 6:25, and assembly at 6:30. After assembly we fall out until seven when we put on the rest of our clothes and the ambitious ones wash and cleanup. At seven we have breakfast. At seven twenty until 7:40 we have calesthenics or “calahooics” followed by police call at 7:40 and sick call at eight. At 8:00 the ‘work’ of the day begins. Usually the battery will go out on a problem, that is, into the field to simulate firing. However I’m a clerk so I remain here at the camp and loaf around the office tent. At noon chow and at one back to what we are doing. Recall is at 4:45 to get ready for retreat formation at 5:30 followed by chow at six. From then on, time is our own and we are allowed to go to town but not outside the city limits. Taps at eleven. That’s a usual day but interspersed is KP, fatigue, and latrine duty and also guard duty. Guards walk two and sleep four hours for a 24 hour shift.

I have some more pictures I took of around here.

What a blow to the Peters. That’s a terrible tragedy that makes this whole thing seem like a devil’s mad dream.

Suppose Stephensons were struck dumb also.

I’ll write sooner next time. Got my glasses fixed and put in first class shape.

Love,