Capt. Pfile continues in his diary:
May 4, 1943 This morning I went thru the field identification of gases - PS (phenylacetyl -?) [actually chloropicrin], lewisite, mustard gas and phosgene. They exploded small containers and let the gas drift down wind. We all had a good sniff.
May 7, 1943 (Friday) Some inspectors are here today from DTC who say the Inspector General's outfit will look us over next week. How the rumors fly! These fellows claim we won't go to Austin at all, but will go to an embarkation point June 1st and then probably overseas shortly.
Here I was counting on a nice post for 2 or 3 months before going overseas! But it still could be. We have no orders and plenty of outfits have changed even after they had orders. ...
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| Torney General Hospital in Palm Springs |
May 10, 1943 Took my 1st shot in my second series of typhoid today.
They are starting to make boxes to crate stuff for overseas shipment. ...
The latest dope is that we leave May 25 for a point of embarkation, but no one knows which one.
Tonight (officially May 11 [at] 0001, [but] actually May 10 [at] 2000 or so!) to start a 4 day leave. It looks as though it will be the last in this country for quite a while. My only regret will be leaving my Honey so far behind. She is the center of my universe. But I'm counting on a glorious reunion after this mess is over.
May 16, 1943 (Sunday) Returned last night - Boy but it was lots of fun. Tuesday we puttered around. I checked the car, we sorted things and discussed plans. Wednesday we went to Palm Springs. I saw Christie at Torney - he seems to be doing OK. We took some color pictures and did some shopping. Then we drove up to Idyllwild. It was so nice and cool, and the pine air was grand. It was just like being in an entirely different world!
Thursday Beth had her hair fixed. We went back to the QM sales at Torney and I bought some Oxfords I heard about and didn't need a ration stamp! Shot arrows with Dr. Smiley.
Friday we went to San Bernardino (the natives shorten it to San Berdoo!) and shopped to beat the band - only we couldn't find a nice cotton dress for Beth. We drove to Arlington and looked over the country. It was too nice there to be a point of embarkation for us, I'm sure! Then we went back to Riverside and shopped and finally located something for Beth. ...
Saturday we talked and got things ready. This was in the Indio paper: "after the defeat of the Yanks at Fayed (?) Pass in North Africa, Patton was giving his men a pep talk. He said, 'If you g___ d____ s___ of b____ don't get in there and fight better than you've been doing, I'll take the whole g___ d____ bunch of you back to Camp Young!' Suffice it to say since then they have been winning!"
An EM [enlisted man] told Capt. Adams [Sparky] that when he went on the battle inoculation course he noticed the fellow ahead of him sticking his head up a lot, so he told him "Keep your G__ d__ head down!" Later he saw that it was Lt. Col. Ireland and he was worried about what he'd said. So Adams spoke to Ireland about it. Ireland laughed and said to tell the man that next time he should just add "Sir" at the end of what he said! ...
This is to be our last day as a hospital. The 36th takes over at midnight. They are taking our trailers over today. No other news about when we leave or where we'll go!
May 20, 1943 (Thursday) ... Some big shots from the DTC indicated that Matthews won't be back. Some of the officers said that this was the first time they'd heard of "cold feet" being an etiological agent in causing sinusitis!
Beth writes: 20 May 1943
Dear Mary X,
... The much hated commanding officer, Col. Matthews, got acute gang plankitis and rushed to Torney General Hospital to get his sinuses treated the day after the Surgeon General's office called and said "prepare for embarkation". I am sorry they can't find anything wrong. I don't care what they find just so long as he doesn't go with the unit. He claims acute pain so I don't think he will get sent - all hope not. ...
All my best wishes to your men. Love, Elisabeth
May 21, 1943 Now I can truthfully say that I've been under fire! I went thru the infiltration course at Camp Young. We went along in a trench at the side and then turned into the trench (irregular) at the back of the area, crawling on hands and knees. We crawled out at slanting places on our belly and crawled towards the machine guns, with bullets cracking over our heads. There were 4 guns, firing in bursts, traversing the area. The ground under us was sand and small sharp rocks and took a little skin off. The sun was hot and it was dusty and darn hard work. And what I mean we stayed as flat as possible on our bellies! You could look up and see the tracer bullets flash by! It was a distance of about 75 yards to crawl with one barbed wire entanglement and then a single wire to crawl under. It was a funny feeling to look at the machine gun right in the face and know that it was shooting real bullets just about 3 feet over your head!
It just seems that we are going to a port of embarkation near Frisco. Our boxes are all marked that. 6529N is the important number. If we knew what that stands for, we'd know where we are going and when and how and all about it! ...
Today we get our tetanus and smallpox.
May 30, 1943 (Sunday) Still no orders - that we know about! I think the Col. knows but just won't tell us until about 48 hours beforehand, because he probably knows somebody would be bound to talk and talk plenty! I'm going again to Indio today just having returned yesterday morning.
The Col. (Matthews - the SOB) has definitely been relieved of command here. Rumor has it that he is assigned to Camp Young! Someone said that if we keep our nurses it is a sign we will not be very close to the Japs [he must already know or assume they are not going to Africa].
Lt. Col. McCarthy from the Inspector General's office was here to go over us and did it in a good fashion. He shook his head over lots of things that Matthews did. ...
June 4, 1943 (Friday) This is certainly the 92nd Vacation Hospital! I've been arriving back at camp for breakfast and leave the following afternoon about 3, have the next day off and back the following morning. Sure fine! Still no word. They claim we will have to be out of this camp by June 20. Probably we'll be moved to Camp Young! As somebody said it is a case of "Hurry up and wait"! ...
According to the new TO [travel orders], I'm to be the receiving and evacuation officer.
June 9, 1943 ... Travel orders have been issued. I'm in charge of baggage! McIlroy is my assistant. I took drill this evening. My platoon did fairly well!
June 10, 1943 Finished drill this morning. Then I took the exam and instruction for a gov't driver's license. I drove a command car up and down hills - 60 or 65°! They were never made to make it but they did. The man with me said I caught onto the double clutching better than most! Then thru deep sand. Then we took a jeep out and that was most fun of all - more so than driving a tank. I certainly did go thru some sand with it. The 4 wheel drive and low gear ratio in both did it. I got my license!
Beth writes: 10 June 1943
Dear Mary X,
... I am out of circulation for a while. I am leaving here Sunday or Monday to visit a relative near San Francisco [I think this is a code, because Gene will be the "relative"]. I do not know where I'll land and will notify you as soon as possible for I am so anxious to know what goes on [the father of Mary X and Beth is scheduled to be checked out at the Mayo Clinic for a problem with anemia]. My good friend Jean Adams [Sparky's wife] will drive with me and we will "convoy" with Mercy MacIlroy [Dick's wife] and her two wild Indians, Jack aged 5 and Dick aged 3.
I expect Gene in tonight. He will be here until midnight Friday and I have no real assurance I will see him again. Of course I expect to. ...
Much love, Elisabeth
June 12, 1943 (Saturday) Out this morning - Beth brought me out to take the car back, for we are now restricted to the area until we leave, which is Monday. I spent part of the morning checking men while they packed their "B" bag (which goes with the freight and which they will not see until we get overseas), and part of the time packing. Out foot lockers are all out to be loaded by 4 P.M. Our hand luggage goes in the morning and our bed rolls Monday morning.
June 13, 1943 McIlroy and I went in to see to packing luggage at Indio. I got to go out and eat dinner with Beth. Then back to Camp to find a campaign to shave off mustaches, on. They held Sparky Adams down and got his. I told them very plainly that I'd try to knock a few teeth out, etc. before they got me down. They made me plenty riled. As a result they only talked. Bill Baker was back of it all. He did the same thing at Ord before we left there. I fully expected them to jump me during the night but they didn't. It was such a kids' play idea in the first place, for grown men to engage in such horseplay.
A train brought them to the desert, and now they prepare for a train to take them away, and most of them are ready to leave.
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