Pay Archives - Moss Letters

5 August 1945

Dear Folks:

Am burning up a little time waiting for a show so I may as well write. The show is ‘Blood on the Sun’ with James Cagney. Should be good. I’ve heard a lot about it.

Well today was Sunday so I didn’t do much. Went to church this morning at eleven, again tonight at six to a communion service. The chapel is something to be proud of – each Sunday it looks a little better. The chaplain now is a Mormon, and a pretty good one.

We also got paid today and I sent you another twenty bucks. Sounds like a few poker games are going now that some money is in circulation. I’ve been playing mostly hearts and pinochle nowdays.

Had a letter from Duane a few days ago. Wants me to be sure to see him – he has some pictures of Marge and the baby to show me. He also said Jack C. was going to get out of the Army – boy what a deal that is? I don’t see how he can do it. He always has it easy in his outfit and hardly know what combat is. Don’t let his decorations fool you – but when you see an Infantry guy or one like Dick you know they earned it. I heard a rumor today that all over 85 [points] would be off this island before the end of September. But let me warn you it is only rumor and I don’t believe anything until it actually happens. The CO told us again yesterday those of us with 85 would not go into combat and if the outfit left, we would stay. That is a big relief.

The other day we had a bunch of Okinawans come up to do some work in the area and they were all women. But how they can work, better than men. They are short and some pretty pudgy and most of them wear what looks like golf pants. A couple of young ones looked pretty cute but most look like the effects of a life of work and drudgery. Most of the civilians seem pretty cooperative.

Getting dark and that means show time so better get going. So until the next time.

Love,

22 July 1945

Dear Folks:

Sitting on my bunk in a pair of drawers trying to keep cool and trying to decide whether to write or just be lazy. Well I decided to do both – write a while then relax. Today is Sunday and it is a day off. A few days ago we moved into our permanent area which means rehabilitation and taking it fairly easy. Afternoons will be given to baseball or some kind of athletics. This morning I went to church at eleven o’clock in the artillery chapel. A simple but impressive altar was built by a couple of carpenters. It makes a better place than out in the open as it was before. Now we have a PX and a choice of four movies in the evening, also the Red Cross has a canteen but I haven’t been down yet. Having lights in our tent I hope to get some reading done also. We don’t black out in the evenings as you might think but it blacks out fast if a red alert comes in.

Had two letters today one from Dad and one from Gladys Davis who is now Mrs. W. R. Johnson. She’s pretty happy. I certainly think you and Dad should go to Denver and take a good vacation and just do nothing or whatever you feel like and the longer the better. I hope you go. Dick and I will not be in combat and you shouldn’t be disturbed as you were last year. So you better be sure and do it.

Sent you a check for $108.00 about a week ago so let me know if you get it. You should also get four bonds for the months of March, April, May, and June.

Nothing new to report on getting home although my hopes are still high.

Glad to hear you are better Mom and perhaps the vacation will do you some good.

This is about all I have so until next time.

Love,

2 July 1945

Dear Folks:

I haven’t been writing all I should lately but it seems like when I have the time I don’t feel like it and vice versa. The weather has been steaming hot and it kind of knocks the sap out of you. Two days from the 4^th [of July] and I suppose it will be hot as hell. The nights are cool and with a slight breeze from the ocean. The stars come out bright and close every night. The days are long and it’s about eight o’clock before it gets dark.

Two days ago Dick called me up about eleven thirty in the morning and even though I was busy, managed to get off for the afternoon. All we could do was find a shady place and talk but that was enough. We talked about everything as usual and swapped mail. He is looking good but was covered with dust from the long ride he made to get to me. Soon we will be [in] a permanent area and then I [am] going to try and have him spend a few days with me. He is not having it too tough and before long he will be taking it easy. I think we have much to be thankful for as we both came through alright. I feel almost certain this will be my last combat and that is a great load off my mind. Sometimes you think maybe something will happen the next time. The artillery fire we got a couple of times was making me pretty nervous, but it’s kind of humorous to think about afterwards – some of the incidents that took place. Dick and I both remarked about how our knees got to shaking a couple of times and even if you grab hold of them they still shake, even after the danger has past.

Your mail reaches me in as good a time as mine gets to you so you see how good the service is. And almost everyday I get one from someone. I received one of the first class Free Presses, and the most recent I’ve yet gotten but the packages and other magazines must still be on the way.

I have been allowed to tell you I’m in the XXIV Corps and I will wear that patch when I get back. It is a white circle with two blue hearts. My stateside uniform will look colored up with the Asiatic Pacific Ribbon with two stars, the Philippine Liberation with one star, good conduct, and American defense ribbons. I will have six overseas bars and one three-year bar. I will look like a veteran. But I hope it won’t be too long til its Mr. Moss and current scuttlebutt says it will. I think that regardless of what others say. My old eyes got misty as hell last night when I went over to the radio and heard some music that I used to play in the symphony at [the University of] Nebraska. What I want to do when I get back is just be a complete independent loafer for a few weeks and sleep every morning til ten, and then get up and eat strawberries and cream on breakfast food and tear into some fresh eggs and milk, then stick around the house and look at Dad and you and get re-acquainted. Another thing I’m looking forward to is new clothes, it will seem funny not to have everything the same. I will get $300 at discharge and I suppose it will take about all of that for a new outfit.

You probably haven’t been receiving any bonds. The last one should have been for February but before long you will get four at one time. They are only sent when we get paid and I haven’t been paid for four months. About the only good aspect of this place is that you can save money. To control inflation we can draw only ten bucks a month and the rest must go home. So I will probably have something over a hundred to send. I hope I will apply my savings in a wise manner when I get back and I would appreciate postwar ideas from both of you. Dick and I talked over my orchard deal and he is for it so I told him I would investigate when I got back and find out first hand its possibilities. I would like to go in [to] the deal where Dick could farm as he wants to and me be the partner but an inactive one. I think the Army has made me want something solid and be my own boss. I have had enough orders directed at me. Some officers think they are right solely because of their rank regardless of what an enlisted man may think and sometimes I feel like it’s a slave and master set up. But that’s not true of all of them but a few can make it bad.

Haven’t seen Duane for a long time. I wonder what he thinks now. He was pretty cocksure and had certain ideas of how to win this war. He thinks he’s going to be home soon but how in the world he figures it, I don’t know. I suppose Marge is getting fatter every day. Wished I had a heart interest myself. These married guys really say it’s great.

I hope I can read my law books again soon when we get settled down. I’ve hauled them around in a box since Oahu. On Leyte I gave one to a Philippine school and they were really glad to get it. Also I expect to get some books on advertising. I signed up for an Army Institute course about three weeks ago. If I get out this year I think I’ll get back in school, sometimes I think by golly I’ll get an education and a good one if I don’t have anything else. I may be a little older but there will probably be plenty like me. But I don’t know just how I will feel when I get ….

[possible page missing]

wonder when his discharge was coming.

I started to quit once before and I better do it this time. So adios for another time.

Love,

10 January 1945

[The second of two letters written to his parents, just hours apart]

Dear Folks:

I just wrote you a letter only a few hours ago but after writing it I thought it wasn’t a very good one and I know you want to know all I can tell you. It’s a little after suppertime now and I feel pretty decent. I think by tomorrow I will feel almost up to par again, and I hope I never get another attack like that again. I’m so glad you liked the watch and I hope it was just what you wanted – Dad wrote me about it so I knew you were getting it. I can imagine Dad hardly being able to wait until Christmas. I’m darned glad to hear Phil is going to the Merchant Marines. I know he seems very young to you to be put into the world, but even though he will run into a lot of hard talking rough minded men, it won’t hurt him if he doesn’t want it to. I’m sure he will be better off there than in the Army. On a boat he always knows where he’s going to sleep, gets good food, and can always keep clean, while here you’re often moving, sleeping in the dirt and eating boxed rations. I’m glad all over, that he will (should be ‘went’?) where he did. I know you’re hearing all the news about what’s going on in the Philippines and where and what I’m doing but I can’t tell you much about that. Perhaps at some later date they will let us put out more information. About a week ago I sent you forty dollars and it will come in the form of a treasury check, probably you have received it by this time. I will probably send more next month. Also this morning I had three letters from Dad including one V-mail and one from Nancy, and to me they mean everything – other letters don’t spell much. Also there was three letters from Mom and all of them were recent. I understand our mail is routed direct from Frisco avoiding the stop at Hawaii. The mail situation has been pretty good although nothing but first class has arrived in many months. I haven’t received a Reader’s Digest in five months or a Free Press since last August, and aside from the two packages, no other boxes have arrived. But we’re expecting an avalanche one of these days. There must be tons of it somewhere.

I have thought of a couple of things that would come in handy now. One is either a rubberized bag to hold toilet articles or else a small zipper packet to hold the same thing. I think a flat folding one would be the best, pretty compact but one that will hold the standard size articles. And a good sturdy one that water and banging around won’t hurt too much, and put about three combs in it. And the other is a waterproof cigarette holder, to keep cigarettes dry and unsmashed, and a cigarette lighter with plenty of flints, I know they are hard to get and probably you can’t find them.

I think this is all I have in mind now, and twilight is starting to take over, so can’t write much longer anyhow, so goodnight once again.

Love,

30 December 1944

Dear Folks:

I hope you will excuse all the V-mail I have been using lately but I haven’t much stationery and then this has to travel a hell of a long way, and I think this is the surer and faster way. Had a letter from Dad tonight and good and interesting as ever. You were discussing Dick and his post war future and so I thought I’d write about what I might do. Dreaming of when I get back and what I’ll do is a very important part of my thoughts and I have a lot of time to put to them. I think the first thing is to take a good, independent, lazy rest, with nothing to do. And after that I want to take advantage of this education deal. But when I arrive at the conclusion that this is what I’ll do, I think I ought to get started in something but then I think the best way to do this is to go back to school and pitch in like nobody’s business and get all I can out of it. Of course I’d like to get married too – I’ll probably be thirty before I can get around to it. I was almost a kid when I came in this army but here I am 26 already and will probably be twenty-eight when it’s over. Although I’ve been travelling around quite a bit, I think I’d like to take a honeymoon in Mexico or Panama or Brazil. What do you think of all this? On your letter today I noticed you are still using APO 969 – I thought by now you would surely have my new APO of 235. It’s a fairly nice evening here tonight and pretty quiet. It’s just a littler after supper and some of the boys (are) playing cards and others listening to the GI radio. On this radio we can get almost any station in the world and we listen to the bull from Berlin, London, Tokyo and Japanese controlled China. Australia also has some good programs. After it gets dark there is little to do for there is a pretty rigid blackout and the Japs might come flying over looking around. My work has been going at a good pace and it seems to me the administrative work of the army is increasing. Lugging our typewriters, field desks, and records we sometimes get a rib from the other sections but just the same plenty will depend on these records in the future. I have been thinking of increasing my allotment, but believe I will send treasury checks from ‘Frisco so if you get one it’s from me. There is almost no way to spend money here and lugging it around, it might get misplaced. That is one good aspect to this situation. From where I sit, it looks like the Philippines are shaping up for a good loss for Japan. At the first I guess it was a little tough but things are coming around. The Japanese on the radio are admitting the situation is becoming very serious. I hate the guts of every Jap. One morning a Jap came around the area and he was blasted in a hurry. They’re sneaky as hell. In these grass huts that were burned usually there is several burned, crisp Japs lying around. Some of them are very gruesome, as you can probably imagine. You can certainly tell when any dead ones are around but the terrific stench – boy it’s something awful. Well it’s beginning to get a little dark, so guess I’ll finish off the evening by listening to the radio and maybe some of that good stuff from the ‘old country’. I read about guys getting home everyday but it doesn’t seem to come this way. The same routine every day, and the slim prospects of getting back on furlough sometimes darken my outlook but it will come some sweet day, and like Mom (said), that will be Christmas no matter what day it is. Yesterday we had an issue of four bottles of beer, but don’t worry about us getting too much. I believe this is it for tonight – tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve – wow here is 1945.

Love,

7 November 1944

Dear Folks:

The postman rang three times tonight, and every time I hear from you I feel like answering right away so here goes. One was from Dad and one from Mom and one from Washington side. Your letters are a job to read Dad and I’ll bet even the Free Press doesn’t have as much news in four pages as you do in one. Sometimes I have to read lines twice or rearrange it, but I always come out (with) the right meaning. This week’s beer ration was in the form of Pabst Blue Ribbon, and though it’s not very cold it tastes pretty good – we get six bottles a week. I have a bottle of that liquid sunshine half gone now.

This Cannoneer’s Jive is a paper that was put out by another artillery battalion and if you will read it over carefully perhaps you can get some sort of what the GI thinks about. Most of it is about Betty Hutton which I think was far short of what I expected – her show I mean. Of course rotation is a much discussed topic among all and I think you will enjoy the humorous rambling on page 5. And I like the article ‘Then and Now’.

Undoubtedly you have read in the papers of the air raids in this neck of the woods. A lot of guys can sleep on through whatever goes on, but not me I gotta see what’s up. When the raid sounded I was stark naked except for my helmet, and I must have been a comical sight. I saw some of the planed knocked down and I don’t mind telling you I get a little uneasy. But C’est le Guerre. I’d like to tell you a little more about this but I guess I hadn’t better.

For the first time in six months we were paid and I had some money excess and no way to spend it so I thought an appropriate gift would be the money orders. I hope you will use it for your own enjoyment for that is the way I want it.

I’m afraid I haven’t much else to write about tonight and it’s getting about time for lights out so I better go, and you keep that promise of two letters a week.

Love,

5 November 1944

Dear Folks:

I guess it’s high time I tortured this typewriter again and see if I can’t take care of a few current unanswered letters. Just finished off another Sunday, an easy loafing one although a ball game this morning took a little of the vinegar out of me, and this afternoon I had no trouble sleeping. I play shortstop on the team but my prowess is doubtful.

Well last night after the show two communiques from your front were here–one with the drawing of the house layout. Even though you’re no civil engineer Dad it was plenty okeh and I looked at it a long time before I had to go to bed because I couldn’t stay awake any longer. Of course I have the whole thing figured out in my mind and I’m sure it’s fully as nice as I think it is, and you don’t know how much I’d like to make an inspection.

Hey you people when you see any clippings about me or any of the others, cut it out and put it in the envelope. We haven’t received any 2^nd class mail in two months and if I have to wait for the papers I may never receive it. So the next letter be sure and get those articles you mentioned and send them. I’m pretty anxious to see them. I don’t know how many Free Presses must be on the way but I know the number is pretty high.

Perhaps the biggest thing since D-Day happened today. We all had the long delayed pleasure of sinking our fangs into some fresh meat. Good old steak, and besides this there was the rest to go with it, so my outlook improved considerably today. After this I reposed in customary Sunday style on the bunk, read a while then slept until about four. The Army should have more days like that.

Those much discussed but elusive furloughs were again given out a few days back, but its wait some more for me. We had the drawings at the theatre, walking by a can and grabbing a slip, and the one I pulled out was the blankest looking slip of paper I ever saw. I felt a little tense like the fellows you wrote about, and when it was over felt let down and a little defeated, but there’ll be another day (I hope). To be eligible you must have two year’s overseas service, so Dick won’t be eligible until about next May or June, I believe. If it is possible to get a quota every month perhaps my time won’t be far off, although getting the quota may be problematical.

Another high spot in last week’s seven days was the first payday in six months, and of course everyone is loaded with dough. I arranged a sort of Christmas present for you and I hope I can send it in my next letter. Working in personnel I’m glad to see everyone paid off as it means less paper work and liquidates a lot of little things to accumulate.

Also received a letter from Nancy last night and she sounds like she’s growing up. I’ll be plenty surprised when I have my first look at Philip and her because probably I don’t realize how much they’ve actually changed.

I think I better take off for the cinema–our shows start at six so I have to hurry to write you. I really enjoy your letters Dad. You put all the stuff in that interests me more than you think, and your style doesn’t make any difference. I wish I could tell you all I know because of course every GI has his ideas about what will happen next but I can’t say anything about that. Probably you have read about the little excitement we had the other night. Well I’ve really gotta stop and I’ll be around again soon.

Love,

8 October 1944

Dear Folks:

We’re having an early chow tonight and I only have a few minutes to write but there isn’t much news anyway. Last night a furlough quota was given the battalion and in order to pick the lucky ones, a drawing was held. Of course I sought the help of the gods but they were all drawn before I got a chance to pull out a ticket. It would be too good to happen I guess. Now I’m hoping we will get another quota next month and perhaps I’ll get lucky.

Received your letter with Katies (letter) in it – hope she gets settled soon.

So you saw a movie The Battle of the Marianas? We haven’t seen any newsreels of it yet and I’m sort of looking forward to it – wished I could have seen it with you.

Last night it rained a pouring downfall and my house started leaking and was finally forced to abandon it and set up in the office. Boy was I sore. I’ll tear the damn place down if it leaks again.

The office is still very busy and it doesn’t seem it will let down. Now it’s payrolls. We haven’t been paid in five months and preparing the rolls is a big job. Having completed 3 years service I get a five percent increase which will give me a little over one forty now. You may not receive my bond (until) after September as a result of a new issuing system but you will get them as soon as I get paid.

Well not much else and it’s show time so, so long for this time.

Love,

16 September 1944

Dearest Folks:

Yesterday was a banner day (as my banner days go). During the morning I had been a way from camp doing a little firing and when I returned about eleven Jack came busting in like a Kansas cyclone. Now the situation was reversed, I had been going over to see him and here he was chatting with me in my boudoir. He had gone to Aslito airfield on Saipan on his day off and while there decided to pay me a visit. He went to operations and found that in order to get over (here) he needed a signed certificate to the effect that he was officially off duty, and having only a few minutes he got such a slip from an engineer captain and so just made the plane over. Said he was a little outranked on the plane – opposite him was a colonel and two lieutenant colonels. After a long trip of four minutes he landed at Tinian and immediately started to find my outfit. First he hooked a ride with (a) navy chief who took him in a general direction. Next he was picked up by a Seabee and finally after a half dozen lifts, he found me. You usually wander around in fifty different directions trying to find an outfit. Jack came over on some picture business and brought a little New York photographer with a camera the size of a typewriter case. The major was good enough to let us use his jeep and so from noon until five we traveled the length and breadth of the island and I pointed out to Jack and Jake the interesting points. They were happy to have a look around and we were especially lucky to get a car to do it in. They ran around getting the choice shots and while they were doing it I wondered how by the fortunes of luck and war Jack and I were nosing through the debris of Tinian, much as we had knocked around together back home. Every now and then when we would ride along or do something we could liken to a similar situation back in Nebraska. Jack was wearing a shoulder holster and dark glasses and looked like a swashbuckling commando general. We went in some rough places and the jeep nearly threw us all out more than once. Jack had been stuck pretty close to camp since being on Saipan and it was a treat for him to get out and see something. All in all it was a good sightseeing tour and I’m sure Jack and Jake enjoyed it. I hope to get over to Saipan once before I leave although it’s hard to lay plans much in advance.

Aside from this break in the routine tonight was another beer issue day and another three cans is waiting to be opened. Cooling it is a problem and I don’t go for it lukewarm.

Yesterday received a notice from Reader’s Digest about a postwar deal so returned the card. Also had a letter from Nancy. She must be quite grown up by the tone of her letters and probably I’ll be plenty surprised at the change when I get home. I can well imagine the changes that have taken place in three years but even at that I’ll have to treat them different when I get back.

In case you had forgotten this month is my third anniversary – I mean in the army. The 18^th will end up three years and a five percent increase in wages. I must be getting to be what they call a veteran – although I can’t see myself one of those things. I hope I won’t put in another hitch before I see home again.

Well I don’t know much else there is to write about. I surely enjoy your letters too especially those l-o-n-g ones. Probably when we are home again you will swear never to write another, and I’ll bet that gets to be as much a problem as the washing used to (be). My correspondents are very few and aside from you I don’t do much writing, although as the war nears the end I better start looking for a spouse. I keep thinking how lazy and ner-do-well I’m going to be for a few months after the war – and how sweet and heavenly it will be to stretch out in a full bed and when the sun comes up pull the covers up a little higher and sleep a couple more hours – or feel the heavy blanket when it’s still and frosty and freezing outside – or a hundred other little things that I think of from time to time.

So I guess I’ll know(?) off tonight and maybe open up a can before bed time.

Love,

14 September 1944

Dearest Folks:

No show tonight and I have about (an) hour to spend before hitting the hay so I should be able to get a few letters finished. Received my last one from you a few days ago, but haven’t had much time to do any writing since then. Today was Sunday and I had expected to put in some leisure time watching a ball game or playing volleyball, but neither materialized. Have been going strong all day and it looks like we will keep up the pace for a while. The paper war is still going strong. Well for all they ride it and cast humorous aspersions at it, I still think it is pretty important and at some time in the future perhaps a good many arguments will be settled over them. We have not been paid in five months and preparing a payroll covering that length of time is quite a long and arduous job. Well I think that (is) enough shop talk. Now to my very limited personal life.

Yesterday went to Saipan on a ‘duck’ which is a two and a half ton amphibious truck. Pretty convenient machines – you just drive till you hit the water and then start the propeller going and there you have a boat. But they don’t move very fast and it was about a two hour trip. After taking care of a small amount of official business at the Finance Office, hitchhiked up Jack’s way and had dinner and then spent part of the afternoon with him. It was his day off so we took off our clothes, sat, sweated and talked, and there was a lot of talking done too. This time we discussed Jack’s love life and dwelt on the probable paths that Emick and Chambers and I will take, also. And then we got around to what our postwar plans were. Jack seems undecided between going to a photo school in Los Angeles or back to the University. And I’m undecided about taking a world tour (haven’t I had enough already?) and just taking it easy or going back to school. I hope you put the pressure on to go back, and Dick too. Probably that’s what I’ll do, although if I were to go back now I think I would feel a little funny somehow. It’s rather unexplainable but the circumstances seem a little different now. We were also a little irritated about the reports of civilian laxity back home and their little regard for the war, but I think it’s all pretty human and natural. But it seems to be a growing topic of discussion.

I haven’t seen Dick for quite some time now you know and I suspect he’s no longer around. I wrote to him about three weeks ago and haven’t got a reply yet. Even though he’s been gone only a short time I sure long to see him again. He’s such a good guy and I hate to see him run into any more trouble the same as you do. About his letter with the ‘beefing’ in – I don’t think he’s much different than many others. He used to talk to me about the subject and in many ways he is right. I’m surprised that the War Department would write about his injury since it was so light. And it would have to ruin your Denver vacation. That scrap he got into was certainly a rough one, and when I think about it I wished some people back home could have had a glimpse of the sordid scenes of Saipan when things were the hottest. I was just interrupted by the air raid sirens, and things were blacked out in a hurry but nothing showed up and now I can see again. The Nips haven’t given any trouble in the air since the battle ended. I heard the news yesterday about the Task Force strike near Manila. Sounds good and the noose is tightening quickly now. Another interruption, and this time a good one, a fellow just brought me a letter from Mom, a good long one and full of good stuff to write about. Whenever you hear any little gossip about somebody I knew or any clippings, be sure and give me the lowdown. Your first paragraph was about Dick and I believe I explained that pretty well a few days ago. I don’t know anything about the trouble or whether Dick received his box – I haven’t seen him in quite a while. Yeah, I am having a ‘spitting’ good time with all the seeds – the problem though is too keep the ants away. The major has been very good to me and loaned me his jeep to take Jack around the island last week. I’ll explain the circumstances some day. And I often wonder about why some people get the breaks as you say and seemingly don’t deserve them, but that often seems the case, and it doesn’t do any good to think about it. So the Carroll’s took off – that’s spotlight news. By the way Jack and I really get warmed up on how Duane is helping win the war. It’s hard to imagine him in the army with as many furloughs and leaves he has had. And probably Mrs. Carroll is anxious to expound on his experiences and army career. And Mildred Fry – that’s hot stuff too – we talked about her too, but it wasn’t all good.

It made me good to know that you remembered just how long I have been in – and last night I was saying this will be the 4^th Christmas away from all of you. The wonderful feeling of being free again I believe is beyond your imagination, and sometimes it seems hard to tell myself that it’s bound to be over someday. Well I’m going to taper off for tonight and I’ll be looking for some more mail from you tomorrow.

Love,