Zane Edison Jacobs

Zane Edison Jacobs born at 6 A.M., Monday, 12 Apr. 1926,

two miles north of Canton, Blaine County, Oklahoma. AKA Jake and

for a short time in Wyoming was called Jay.

Vallejo CA Times Herald. The afternoon of 7 Dec. 1941 I was

setting in the Hanlon Theater on Virginia Street in Vallejo

watching the beginning of a movie when the manager of the theater

turned on the lights and made an announcement over a microphone.

He said Japanese forces had just bombed Pearl Harbor Hawaii and

that all news delivery people were to report immediately to the

Times Herald news plant for a special edition of the news to be

delivered to regular customers. I was 15 years old at that time.

live in a boarding house at 1930 Sutter Street where I lived till

I graduated from high school in June 1944. My land lady was named

Carolyn. I can't recall her last name but she married Bill East-

land, one of the boarders who was quite a few years her junior.

Carolyn had been married 3 or 4 times before. She was a sweet

lady who often ignored my raids on her kitchen late at night when

I was hungry and would get food from her icebox.

Office. When I first arrived in Vallejo, I looked around and

started working as a newspaper boy. Then went to work as an usher

for a theater which lasted a few months but paid little and after

that was delivering telegrams for Western Union. That was uncer-

tain in pay but the part time job for the Post Office paid good

wages for one who needed a job and went to school at the same

time.

summer and my supervisor at the Post Office said my job would be

waiting when I returned so I went to Plumas National Forest on

Lake Almanor and became part of a crew that was involved in the

" Blister Rust Program. " It seems about 1905 a shipload of logs

were brought into British Columbia from Asia. These logs were

infested with a disease that caused the bark of trees to die and

killed the conifers. The disease was only transmitted from tree

to bush , in this case , wild current and gooseberry, then from

bush back to the tree. Our job was to strip out the bushes and

hope to stop the spread of the Blister Rust southward into Cali-

fornia. We were also to fight forest fires and that summer I

helped fight 13 of the fires in Northern California and Western

Nevada. That is hard, dangerous and dirty work.

seemed I was not learning anything worthwhile and even though I

was getting fair to good grades in school, I felt I was wasting

my time. My sister Inez persuaded me to continue school till I

graduated. No one has ever asked me for my graduation certificate

since, but the forms I have had to fill out have all asked my

level of education. I feel in retrospect that I cheated myself by

not taking College Prep courses in high school instead of shop

courses.

left his Model A Ford with me. I had ruined the engine the summer

of 1943 on returning from the mountains and had to have a new

engine put in that winter. The Model A was in good running order

by the spring of 1944 so I headed east for Oklahoma after the

high school graduation ceremony. Orrie Robinson, a high school

chum went along with me to as far as north Central Kansas where I

turned south and he went on east to his family home in Missouri.

We had trouble as we were approaching Carson City, Nevada.

The right front wheel bearing froze up. There was a junk yard

about a half mile off the road so we walked over and talked to

the man who owned it. He just happened to have a wreck of the

same year as our Model A. Said he would replace the bearing for

five bucks so we left him to do that and walked to town to eat at

a steak house on the south side of town he had told us about. I

had the best steak I ever ate in my life at that place which also

had home made ice cream and home made pie.

ration stretch, we occasionally added a gallon of kerosene with

the gas. It smoked white as we drove down the road but stretched

the mileage.

headed south across the state for Oklahoma and Orrie continued

east. There was a strong south wind blowing up across the plains

states from the Gulf of Mexico that day. It was so hard that the

little Model A slowed at least 5 to 10 miles per hour which ate

up the gas because of the wind. It was searing hot with a dry

wind that I knew about as a kid in Oklahoma.

engine running rough , so a few days later had a mechanic look at

it. I had burned out two valves bucking that headwind across

Kansas or at least in making the trip from California. I had the

valves replaced and left the car with the folks when I went to

Missouri a couple of weeks later.

month or so till Mom sent me notice from the draft board to

report in at Oklahoma City the end of August. Though it was the

middle of summer in Hamilton Missouri, we worked at delivering

coal for the winter. Coal dust was every where from the time we

off loaded it from the train car till we got it stashed away in

coal bins under homes.

leave a memory more vivid than any other event. Graduating from

high school may be such a thing to some but that event is but a

dim memory to me. The event most vivid in my mind, even to this

day, was a 2 1/2 year stint in the U.S. Army.

City, Oklahoma. The group I was in was put aboard a train and

headed for Fort Sam Houston, Texas. At that time of the inducting

ceremony, we were all interviewed by members from the Army, Navy

& Marine Corps. I asked to go into the Navy but of 78 men that

day only two were allowed into the Navy. The rest were sent into

the Army. Such is military induction.

ing heavy and as his drunkenness progressed, he got messed up in

his mind. He tried to poke a window out with his fist. The train

lurched on a rough stretch of the rail bed at the time his fist

went through the window and it almost cut off his arm. There was

blood every where in that car. They took him off the train in

Austin, Texas for hospitalization. We heard later he got an unde-

sirable discharge, even before he had any Army training. I sus-

pect that was what he wanted when he was drinking.

4 weeks while the Army tried to find gear for all that had inun-

dated that receiving station. There were no shoes that fit me so

I had to wear my civilian shoes all that time till the gear could

be brought in. Finally all my Army issue was received and they

sent me to Camp Hood, Texas for Infantry training for 17 weeks.

We were put into over size or Balloon training companies. There

were over 250 men in my company. After 10 or 12 weeks we had a

late night muster and about a third of the company was shipped

out the next morning. Those to be shipped out were easily picked.

Every third name on the company roster was called and that man

stepped out of the formation and was told to pack his gear as he

was leaving in a couple of hours. A few days later we found out

those men, who were poorly trained in the use of Infantry weapons

and tactics, were sent to Bastogne.

into the German heart land by breaking through our lines to stop

our advance. Colonel McAuliff had created a bit of a stir in

German Headquarters, when the German offer of surrender to the

U.S. Forces under his command were met with a word they did not

at first understand. Colonel McAuliff told the German commander

"NUTS" when the German offer was made. Some of the green troops

from my training company were killed in that action. The rest of

us continued through the required 17 weeks of training.

aboard the USS Cape Henlopen in San Francisco's Fort Mason. I had

spent a couple of weeks at home with the folks in Oklahoma then

caught a train to Fort Ord, California where I was staged out to

the ship in San Francisco. The ship was old. It may have been a

converted cattle ship. At least that was what we were told. The

ventilation system did not work. We were lined up each day for

hours waiting for the two meals we received. Fresh water was

rationed for drinking only while salt water was used in the pas-

senger showers. We were considered passengers on this voyage. A

so called salt water soap was issued that worked in a haphazard

fashion but after one of the salt water showers a body felt slick

or greasy. This voyage was my first crossing of the equator.

at a place called Finchaven in New Guinea where we off loaded a

very sick man. He was almost dead from chronic motion sickness.

Then we went up the coast to Hollandia where we took on fresh

water and supplies. About 50 or 60 men from various combat units

came aboard at Hollandia. They were being returned to their units

for duty after being in a hospital at Hollandia. These men kept

to themselves for the most part. They took over the forward part

of the main deck to sleep on and to play cards. There was always

a poker game going on in that group of men and they used all dif-

ferent kinds of money from the various countries of the Pacific.

They were all an odd yellow color from daily dosages of Atabrine

they had been taking as a prevention for malaria. The new troops

of which I was one, had not yet been introduced to Atabrine. From

Hollandia we sailed to the Philippines, Crossed the equator from

the south this time. Arriving at Tacloban on Leyte in early April

1945.

was in a Replacement Depot near Tacloban at that time. The days

spent in the depot were used to get acquainted with the different

diseases in the tropics and the medicine we were required to

take, including a daily Atabrine tablet. We were also sent on

mail and ammunition unloading details. There were acres of mail

just piled in the jungle near Tacloban. I doubt that much of that

mail ever got delivered.

father was a Colonel in the Army. We ditched the detail and

sneaked out to the beach where we undressed and swam out about

500 yards to the Ammo ship. We crawled up the anchor chain and

peeked through the chain hole to see what was going on. A sailor

must have heard us as he walked over toward the anchor chain. We

dove off and swam back to shore. Was almost run over by one of

the barges (believe they were called DUKW) loaded with boxes of

105 MM ammo on the way back but the worst part of it was there

were a lot of sharks in the area.

ment, the 164th Infantry of the Americal Division. We were on an

LCI when we approached the island of Cebu, just off Mactan is-

land, which is the small island near Cebu City Harbour, we start-

ed hearing sporadic gunfire. This in addition to the heavy smoke

that drifted up from Cebu City, was a bit scary. American forces

had landed south of Cebu City a few days prior to this but the

Japs had a Naval gun hidden in a cave back of the city that would

roll out at times to lob in a few rounds to let the folks know

they were still around. A few days after us green replacements

arrived the shelling stopped and the island of Cebu was official-

ly secured. The Regiment was drawn down for a couple of days

rest. The Regiment had taken a number of casualties in this

action and the fighting on Leyte just before Cebu. All the compa-

nies were under manned. I was assigned to a Platoon with 18 or 19

men in it and my squad had 5 men. Jack Kachel was the Platoon

Sgt. and leader. He was from Arizona and a Regular Army man. he

made me Second Scout of the squad he assigned me to. Less than a

week later we boarded LCI's and headed for the island of Negros.

My Battalion landed a couple of miles north of the Dumagete

airport and the other Battalion in this operation landed south of

the city. Tanks approached Dumagete from both directions while

the Infantry companies made a pincer movement to cut off escape

of the Jap troops to the west.

suspicious people we encountered. By late afternoon we had

reached a point due west of the city and set up a perimeter

across the road that led west into the hills. About midnight

three trucks loaded with Jap soldiers came through the ambush.

The city side of the perimeter waited till one or two of the

trucks had entered our surround then opened up with our heavy 30

caliber machine guns. We opened up when the trucks passed through

the west side of the ambush. We stopped all 3 trucks and next

morning counted 18 to 20 dead Japs. We took no casualties in that

skirmish.

going up a ridge and near a knob we got hit by a Nambu ambush.

(a Nambu was a Jap .25 Caliber Machine gun). Lazono was point

scout. He dived across an opening in the underbrush which had

been made earlier by an artillery burst. I was right behind

Lazono. A bullet cut across his forehead. That temporarily blind-

ed him and we never seen him again after we got off the hill and

he went to an aid station. A big tall Texan named Hale was our

forward BAR man. (BAR was our .30 Caliber Browning Automatic

Rifle). He stepped into the artillery opening and opened up on

the Nambu position. He had a good shot up the hill about 50 yards

and stopped the Nambu for a couple of minutes till the dead

gunner was replaced. The new gunner cut loose a few rounds and

caught one of our men through the ankle which shattered the

joint. We never seen him again after he went to the aid station.

Hale took out the second gunner also. Then he carried the ankle

shot buddy down off the hill.

we took fire from the Nambu and worse of all, one of our water

cooled .30 caliber heavy machine guns about 700 yards down the

hill started firing to give us cover. He dropped fire into our

position a few times. (Friendly Fire).

veteran of other campaigns panicked. Chris was from McAllister or

Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. He scooted around the hill till he came

upon me. He was scared and said he was going back down off the

hill. I was located about 15 yards below the Nambu by that time

and below its line of fire. When the gun fired bursts I could

tell he was depressed as low as possible and was shooting 3 or 4

inches above me from the way the grass and brush was cut and fell

from the bullets. I told Chris to calm down and we might figure

some way to get through the brush without being seen and wipe out

the gun.

him into the line of fire and within a couple of minutes after he

left me, I heard the Nambu sweep another burst of fire and it

caught Chris. The brush and grass must have given his position

away as he moved through it. I heard the bullet hit Chris and

heard him die. Didn't take long.

side of the hill. He or the heavy .30 knocked out the Nambu. Jack

asked me if I knew where Chris was located. I asked about a BAR

man named Gower that I thought had also been hit. Gower had

gotten down OK. We dropped about a hundred yards off the hill

when we were talking and Jack said we would have to go back up

and get Chris as we never left dead or wounded. I was not anxious

to go back but the only one who knew where Chris was located so

Jack and I went back up to carry him down. Chris had taken a .25

caliber round through his chest from right to left and the left

was a gaping hole big enough to put a fist through. I knew he had

died fast from the sounds he made right after being hit.

Next day we took that knob again. About a platoon of Japs

charged up the hill in front of us in a Banzai. We got over a

dozen of them but the guy carrying the sword never got hit and

made it off the hill. An American GI about 30 feet from me was

hit by a bullet that detonated one of the hand grenades he was

carrying on the strap across his chest which was a part of his

field pack. That blew his chest open. I had been carrying gre-

nades in the same place but seeing this, hastily took mine off

and stuck them in my belt ... not that getting hit there would

have been any better.

artillery observer attached to our outfit was watching back down

the trail. All of a sudden he cut loose with his tommy gun and

when I turned about 45 degrees to my right to see what he was

shooting at, seen he had taken out 3 Jap soldiers about 50 feet

down the hill that we had just came up.

war stories than a bucket of worms. A few days after we took that

hill we were on picket duty in support of Fox and George compa-

nies. Half a dozen of us were gathered around a small fire we had

built to heat our C rations. The talk got around to strange

things between men and women. The Artillery observer casually

mentioned tattoos and that sparked an interesting discussion

about some of the strangest ones we had or had seen. At that time

I did not have any tattoos but was interested as I had seen

tattoos on others. He said the strangest one he had was that of a

fly tattoo on the head of his penis. Every one laughed and

thought he was kidding. One GI the same as called him a liar to

which the AO bet the GI ten bucks that he had a fly tattoo on the

head of his dick. Money was deposited and the AO dropped his

britches and skinned it back to reveal a small fly tattoo on the

head of his penis.

mortar fire down on us. All the rounds were landing on the for-

ward edge of the ridge though about 75-100 yards from our perime-

ter. Captain Walker, our CO called for artillery support to

silence the incoming from about 300 yards up the ridge. Within

about 10 minutes there was no more incoming and the Captain was

talking to Jack Kachel about why the mortar was falling away from

our men and in one area of the hill. Jack asked for volunteers by

pointing at me and two other men in the squad to go have a look.

We discovered a cave entrance with what appeared to be a huge

amount of small arms ammunition and bangalor torpedoes.

The Captain was made aware of this and knew right away that

if a lucky hit had entered that small opening and ignited that

ammo, the hill top we were on would have erupted. So again volun-

teers were asked to empty the cave and bring all the ammo into

our perimeter. Three of us took turns of carefully passing out

the boxes of high explosives. We all were aware there could have

been time for booby traps so we only took about 10 minutes at a

time to work inside the cave. In addition to the ammo there were

several items of a personal nature which we figured belonged to

at least 3 or 4 of the enemy. All ammo and souvenirs were moved

within 3 hours and before sunset.

range. The crest was about 5,000 feet above sea level. We contin-

ued pushing up. My squad was out on a reconnaissance patrol. We

were down to six men in the squad by that time. I was temporarily

carrying the BAR and was last man in the squad on this patrol.

The second or third day out we stopped for a rest about noon

and to eat our C rations. Being tail lookout I was about 75 to

100 yards down the trail from the rest of the squad. The weather

was hot and humid with no breeze. A stirring of the air brought

an overbearing, nauseating stench across my position. I quit

eating and searched the underbrush for the cause. About 15 feet

from where I was sitting I spotted the body of a dead Jap. He

must have been dead two or three days as his body was bloated to

at least double its natural size. The skin had not ruptured yet.

There was nothing I could do so tried to find a place where the

odor was less without giving away my position.

countries. These men are generally old and execute the plans for

War. If all the leaders of all the countries were required to

meet in a closed space where decaying human bodies were emitting

such an odor as I experienced that day, I believe there would be

less war in the world today.

meeting place about half a day before the rest of the company

came up. We had dug in and the company spotted us at a distance

and opened fire on us before knowing it was us, even knowing we

were in the place we were supposed to join forces. No one was

hurt before we could stop the fire by radio contact.

A few days passed and Fox company was up on point again.

They took fire one night. Next day, three of us were used as

guards for the water and ammo bearers up to Fox Company. As we

were climbing up toward their position and within about a hundred

yards of their perimeter, Fox company opened up to return fire

from up the hill above them. We stopped the Filipino bearers

behind a small ridge till the fire died out. I scouted around the

ridge about a hundred yards to try and get a better picture of

what was happening above us and to see if enemy forces were

coming in from our side. A burst of fire popped over my head and

I ducked toward a big tree a few feet up the hill. I ran right

into what was left of a dead Jap.

was left was his torso. I looked around and decided he must have

been a platoon leader as he had the platoon battle flag with him

as it was in his helmet that had been blown off with his head

inside it. The battle flag was covered with blood and brains but

I took it as a souvenir. One of his arms and hand attached was

hanging in the branches of the tree about 10 feet up. Another

hand was lying on the ground about 10 or 12 feet up the hill.

Near his torso was also a U.S. Navy Colt .45 pistol. He was

likely carrying the pistol and probably had taken it from one of

our men earlier in the war. I later gave the battle flag to a

buddy but kept the pistol. Tom Purvis had been with the 164th

Infantry since its Guadalcanal Campaign and had never gotten a

memento of his fighting except malaria. He was going home to

Baird, Nebraska so I gave him the Battle Flag.

and less Japs to stop our advances along these ridges. One group

of six stopped George company for 9 days on one spot. We had 6 or

7 air strikes on that spot during those days all because of half

a dozen well placed enemy. (Have discovered these figures wrong.)

tal Commander had a standing offer of a case of scotch to any man

who brought Colonel OI's head in. No one ever collected.

The nights became quite cool as we passed through 4,000 feet

on the mountain. We were resting one day after taking a knoll on

the ridge. I was on the downhill or safe side of the perimeter

and had dug a nice deep foxhole in the soft soil. I looked east-

ward and seen a large number of ships sailing some 15 or 20

miles away toward the island of Bohol. The sun was relaxing and I

had field stripped my M-1 on my poncho, as it had been several

days since cleaning my rifle. Suddenly we started catching small

arms fire from up the hill. I paid little attention at first to

it as I felt safe on the downhill side. Suddenly my perspective

changed. A bullet smashed into the tree about 3 inches from my

shoulder. I grabbed the poncho, folded my rifle and rolled into

the foxhole where I hastily put the rifle back into working

order.

We finally reached our objective and withdrew to the beach.

After a couple of days rest, my platoon was sent out on a recon

patrol about 30 miles southwest from Dumagete. We were on this

patrol a few days and never made contact so withdrew to the

staging area near Dumagete and went back to Cebu Island.

There was some disturbing incidents on that patrol that are

vividly remembered. They are embedded in my mind to this day. One

most interesting was the discovery of a small village of about 50

or 60 people. All had poor dental work as they seemed to all chew

lime and beetle nut which made their mouths purplish in color. We

had 3 interpreters with us who in a combined capacity supposedly

spoke some words of all the 86 known dialects at that time in the

Philippines. None of the three could understand the language of

this village. A U.S. Lieutenant who was a semanticist or some

such thing in college spent about 15 minutes with the leaders of

the village and communicated with them. They had seen a large

force of yellow troops about a handful of days before but the

yellow men had not seen them. We were the first white people they

had ever seen and none of them had been to the big waters to the

east or west of their village.

forest and the darkness was so intense there was an absolute

absence of light. I had just returned that afternoon about the

time we went into the village. I had been, along with half a

dozen guerrilla fighters, escorting a dozen bearers with ammo and

supplies. Had been separated from the platoon for 2 or 3 days and

had very little food during that time. I had eaten something from

the woods that did not set well with me and I had loose bowels.

That night I had to go outside the perimeter and it was so Sty-

gian I could not see my hand in front of my face. I crept very

quietly outside, knowing if I made any noise I could be shot by

the other guards. We stood with one awake and two asleep so there

were always ears to listen. I managed to slip out and back with-

out being detected. My movements through the jungle floor dis-

turbed something that glowed in the dark on the ground. It was

similar to the phosphorescent glow produced by a ships screws

going through warm tropical waters. Only this bioluminescence was

on the land. Very eerie.

ing the main islands of Japan. Captain Walker our CO, was picked

up as Major and as such was not allowed to rotate home on points

but was assigned to a higher position in the Regiment. A new CO

took over the Company. He was a First Lieutenant fresh from the

states and OCS. One of the first things he ordered us to do was

turn in our grenades and M-1 ammo. We were still required to

stand night guard around the Battalion motor pool which was a

small clearing hacked out of the jungle. We knew there were still

a lot of the enemy troops in the hills behind us. Our temporary

camp was a few miles south of Mindawi on the west side of the

island. (This is the name of the town as I remember).

after we were ordered to turn in our ammo. The new CO tried

sneaking up on me when I had guard duty about 0100. He had driven

to within 300 yards or so of my position before stopping his

jeep. Guess he thought he was in the U.S. and was holding a

surprise inspection or some such nonsense. I had developed

instincts of survival by this time and knew the man was nearby

when he stopped the jeep. By the time he had gotten within about

50 feet of where he thought I was located I stepped out behind

him, with my left arm jerked his head up and put my bayonet

against his throat. I was sure who this man was but made him go

through the rigid routine of revealing his identity before re-

leasing him completely. We had a very soft voiced chat as I

informed him there were many Japs still in the jungle around us

and I did not want my position known. He gave an order the next

day to issue ammo again. None of us had turned in all our ammo at

any rate on the previous stupid order he had given.

were slowly starving to death and had no medical treatment. We

accepted the capitulation. There were 2667 (According to "Under

The Southern Cross") well organized military troops in units,

fully armed that laid down their arms that day.

I believe there were about a Company (less than 150 troops)

of my Regt. there to accept the surrender, including our Division

General. When the enemy troops came into the clearing in what

seems to me to have been an early afternoon, in formation, many

if not all of my buddies were very uneasy. These Jap troops were

fully armed and appeared to be in good shape with uniforms neat

and clean. I felt the tense situation and could tell others were

very much on edge. Our General and his staff seemed at ease and

we observed the orderly surrender of arms.

percent casualty figures for our landing zone. Naturally we were

all on edge. In early August we were told about the bombing of

Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A few days later we were told Japan had

surrendered. Thank you Harry Truman for ordering the dropping of

those Atomic bombs.

fully armed and off loaded at the docks in that bombed out city,

ready to fight. A lot of Yokohama and Tokyo had been fire bombed

and was leveled ruins. The Americal Division was sent home in

Nov. or Dec. 1945 as a Division made up from other men of other

units who had enough points to rotate home. I was transferred to

the 7th Regiment of the First Cavalry Division to remain in

Japan. There was a mad dash to disarm at the end of the war. Our

armed forces had trouble keeping anyone in. Everyone wanted to go

home and get out of the service.

place to guard munitions that had been made in and on a college

campus, we had the opportunity to go into Tokyo on the train. I

believe we were at a small place called Tachikawa at the time and

it was some distance into Tokyo. There was a huge sign as we

approached Tokyo, put up by the First Cavalry Division. It read

"Many May Come, Many May Go, But We Were First In Tokyo." It is

true they beat the Americal Division there.

Discharged at the Headquarters Troop, 2nd Squadron, 12th Cavalry

at Yokohama, Kamagawa, Japan 14 Nov. 1945. I reenlisted in the

regular Army at the same time for 18 months. My rank was Private

First Class at that time.

General H.B. Freeman. About 3 days out of Yokohama on a Great

Circle track for Seattle we went through the worst storm I have

ever been in and I have sailed many thousands of miles since

then. One man was washed overboard during the height of the

storm. We dropped 7 life rafts and the next day could locate only

3 of them. That sailor's body was never found. He was a Stewards

mate 2nd Class.

Calif. with the 2nd Engineers, I had a Saturday morning Personnel

Inspection. A new 2nd Lt. snapped my M-1 rifle from my port arms

position and after inspecting complimented me on how clean it

was. He then asked my name and rank. I replied PFC Jacobs, Sir. I

did not have the PFC stripe sewed on my shoulder and he asked me

why not. I replied that I had asked supply for stripes 3 times

the past 3 months and was not issued the stripes so had not put

them on. He then asked me if it wasn't worth it to me to BUY at

least one set for inspections and I told him "No Sir", the Army

is required to issue them. At that reply the Lt. turned to his

writer and told him to put me on week end KP duty for having a

dirty rifle. I replied in what I felt was a very respectful voice

"the Lt. could take my rifle, which he had just told me was

outstanding and shove it up his ass crosswise", or if he felt

that would not be proper, I would do it for him. The Lt. said

that would be all the smart-alec remarks from PRIVATE Jacobs. Two

hours later reduction in rank orders were posted on the bulletin

board of the company and I pulled 5 weeks of weekend KP duty for

mouthing off.

38572198, Headquarters Company, 2nd Engineers Special Brigade at

Ft. Ord, Calif. 8 Mar. 1947. I was released a couple of weeks

prior to that and my discharge papers were mailed to me at Can-

ton, Oklahoma.

U.S. Army. Just a brief abstract of the main events have been

listed here. During conversations with people, from time to time,

memories dredge up brief events that seemed unimportant at the

time of their happening but either humorous or entertaining in

the later stage of my life.

was how new conscripts in the Army were paid. Payday was once a

month and we had to line up alphabetically. There were two tables

and the first one was reserved for an Army medic. Each man had to

step in front of the medic, lower trousers, grasp ones penis with

thumb and forefinger, skin it back and milk it down. The reason

for this was for the medic to determine if the soldier had VD. It

was a carry over from the 1930s when any soldier who had VD was

given a bad conduct discharge. If the medic was at all suspi-

cious, that man was not paid and was sent to the hospital for a

more complete examination and if found to have any type of VD was

discharged from the Army.

of Infantry Basic in Camp Hood, Texas. We had to march out one

night a distance of about 20 miles from our barracks area to

participate in a week in the field. Part of the idea was for us

to live off field rations for 3 days without having a hot meal.

This was to make us appreciate how barracks life could be enjoyed

over field life I suppose. Anyway, the cooks came out to our area

the evening of the third day and about dusk we had hot rice,

beans and hot bread. I was so hungry I went back for seconds.

While not so hungry on my 2nd field kit full of beans I looked

closely at the beans and discovered about every third bean was

not a bean at all but in fact was a cockroach. That stopped my

meal and I strolled up to the Staff. Sgt. who was the cook and

casually mentioned that I thought he was cheating us on the meat

which he had been allotted to cook with the beans. I asked him if

it was worth his time to round up so many cockroaches to cook

with the beans to save a little ground meat? He hustled me to one

side and told me not to mention it to anyone else as it was so

dark no one but me had noticed it. Then explained that the beans

were already cooked before he discovered they had been infested

with the cockroaches and besides, cockroaches were protein. I

managed to keep my food down but did have a few queasy seconds

there. No one else noticed it that night and next day was too

late to worry about it when they were told.

Japanese Aviator who had gone down off a carrier in the Battle of

the Philippine Sea. She was desperate for food and had started

living with a Supply Sgt. that came out to see her 2 or 3 times a

week. He brought her supplies of flour, coffee, sugar, etc. that

she traded for other foodstuff on the black market. The first

winter (1945-1946) after the end of the shooting war, were bleak

times for many displaced people. She was a survivor. I had very

little to offer this woman who was several years older than me

but she had a way of enjoying what I had and she sure knew the

intricacies of sexual pleasure.

hitch hiked back to Oklahoma to visit my folks, I felt that was

the end of my life in the Military. While in Oklahoma I had both

my discharge papers registered at Taloga, Dewey County, on 18

Mar. 1947, Book 3 pages 40 and 41 of the Dewey County Records.