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| The ward tents at Hollandia (note the muddy roads and sand bags!) |
3 May '44
Beloved,
One of the fellows gave me some envelopes so now maybe I can write you more often. I'll still depend on you to tell the folks though I will try to write them, too. My boil is coming along lots better and I hope I'll be back in circulation tomorrow. I hope so for things were very busy last night following a visit by our "Hon. Foe". It is the first he has been around for some time. No, he didn't touch us, fortunately.
No mail! It will just have to come thru before long. They can't hold it forever. At least it never has been done!
It seems that an outfit like ours has the distinction or duty to hand out the purple hearts [after the beginning of WWII, Purple Hearts were awarded for wounds received in action]. Those eligible usually have the citation and the medal by the 2nd or 3rd day, which is speed the way things usually go. There really have not been so many after all. It is funny to hear some of the needling the recipients get from the other fellows in the ward, just on general principles. But it probably is a good thing for it keeps them from feeling sorry for themselves.
Unless the wind keeps up today will be a scorcher. It is said the average temperature for this place varies but little all year thru. I think the rain fall is slated at 100 inches a year which isn't as high as one might expect. Personally I think the "romantic and beautiful tropical isles" are considerably overdrawn.
Gosh but I'll be glad when our waterproof bags come with our extra clothing. For too long a time we have had just 2 suits to alternate wearing and the last few days I haven't been able to wash any clothes. I just know I attract flies!! Will it ever be nice to wear a fresh shirt every day again. But speaking of luxuries, the other evening we had Jello that was cold! That was done without portable refrigerator. Sugar, that reminds me - do have plenty of lemons on hand when I get home!
I've had a taste of Jap beer and Saki [sic]. The former is about like ours and the latter tastes something like brandy. Certainly it doesn't taste like that gosh awful stuff Sam Wong gave us. Bill Varley doesn't seem to miss his alcohol, not any of the fellows, for that matter. I don't see much of George these days. The receiving tent is quite a way from the wards and he sleeps there. Besides we've no chess set! Oh I tell you, this is one time I've really traveled light!
From where I am I can look up the hill side. After last night's visitor a few of the boys are doing a bit of development on their foxholes. Ray N. was in and said he'd like to get the son of a gun who pushed him over a small bank and then jumped on his chest last night!!
All my love, Eugene
4 May '44
Beloved,
I suppose we should dance around the maypole, since it rained last night. But somehow the air lacks "that breath of Spring" smell. A very quiet night was spent by all except some of the patients being a bit restless. Poor boys. It is the great exception for one to complain. they bear up mighty well. I'm still parked on my fanny nursing this blame infection. Arnie [Niemeyer] opened it yesterday and got some pus out so it should come along faster now. We are still expecting mail. Maybe today it will come. I will continue to write daily unless events do not permit. By this time you should be accustomed to gaps in the mail. Me too, only I don't like them. This morning I censored mail. It is funny to read the different reactions to a given situation.
All my love, Eugene
Marjorie Christie shared the following excerpt from George's letter with Beth: It's funny how one gets used to anything - almost. We certainly appreciate small favors - last night someone opened a bundle of new pants and we each got a pair. It was just like Christmas. We still haven't had any mail since coming here but it will all catch up eventually. I went down for a sea water bath yesterday, but haven't had time to go fishing as yet. In fact, I've stayed mighty close to the job. There really isn't anything to do anyway. We are still short of paper so pass the word that I am well and safe.
5 May '44
Beloved,
What a night! 3 or 4 air raid alerts from which not a darn thing materialized and a rain which came thru the tent and fairly well soaked all of us. But I slept in spite of it for there was no use trying to move. My infection is better this morning. The swelling is going out of the rest of the foot, but I can see it will keep me off my feet for a few days longer. It is inconvenient but not painful. I had no clean shorts since my other pair got wet last night so this morning I put on a lap-lap (pronounced lop-lop) which is the native term for the Jap underwear. Still no mail yesterday. Poor Mike [Maj. Michels] and 2nd Lt. Medical Administration Corp Ed] Gray with their "ids" [trichophytids, a fungal infection]. Gray has the same thing on his feet that I had for so long and Mike has it not quite so bad but also on his hands. I don't know but that I prefer my boil!! Dick [McIlroy] sent a silk parachute to Mercy yesterday and included a few items from me to you: a thermometer in a case, some small items I judge to be akin to sen-sen [breath freshener], some paper and metallic invasion money, a sulphanilimide powder shaker, a small flat piece of wood with characters on it. Just between you and me, I didn't send you a parachute because I didn't consider the silk good enough and the one I had had been wet and was rotten. There was also a peculiar bean or nut.
The boys got ahold of a few murder stories for me. Mike and Gray are keeping me company. Fenton will be leaving us. I certainly hate to see him go but this life is just too rugged for him. I'm glad for his sake that he isn't going to try to stick it out. I hear Tipple [a major like Mike] will also be leaving. But since Mike took over Surgery, he just hasn't cooperated or done anything. He's much too infantile in his reactions! I hear we have a new Padre, though I haven't seen him. Everyone else is doing fine.
All my love, Eugene
6 May '44
Beloved,
Oh boy! Oh joy! The mail came yesterday afternoon. I had 9 V mails from you and two air mails, 2 other air mails and 5 V mails and a roll of film. Did I ever have a good time. I was feeling a bit low anyway for my foot seemed so slow in clearing up and right away I felt better and the foot did too. My foot really is better but it is sort of slow. Of course I haven't had it for quite a week yet so I shouldn't expect too much --[Beth typed a series of dashes here, which I think meant she was omitting some personal items] --I am so glad you had a nice time in Pueblo and Canon City. ----- I've already mentioned it to George and I will to Dick and Bill. I know you must have enjoyed the kids [Mercy and Dick McIlroy's two sons]
I had a nice air mail from Mother and a nice V mail from your Mother and V mails from Mary X, Mr. Beck and Oliver. ---- ... Wish I had brought more film with me for it looks like it will be quite a while before we see our footlockers again.
Well, Terstegge is gone to another outfit - good riddance, no doubt. All the flattery to Ireland got him no where, after all, and he and [Maj. Robert] Sterling locked horns several times. Tipple will also leave shortly for another outfit, on a trade. I can imagine what we will get, knowing what they are getting in return!! That does leave us 6-8 short. Sterling certainly couldn't leave me behind or ship me out even if he wanted to, which he doesn't. Mike is doing a darn good job as chief of Surgery.
All my love, Eugene
Excerpts from George Christie's letter to his wife, Marjorie: Yesterday was red-letter day because we got our first mail in 18 days. It was certainly welcome and good to hear of all your doings. Arch was lucky and smart to get a navy commission. We envy them for their dry beds, clean quarters and uniforms, and plenty of fresh water for shower baths. I think the greatest single drawback to life in the field is lack of facilities for personal hygiene. But we'll make the best of it - we've had plenty of practice.
I have already had a dip in the ocean this morning because I slept on the beach 10 yards from the water and I just got up and rushed into the warm water just as the sun came up. Last evening some fellows came by on the beach with a lot of native curios. They had two long bows, one with a bamboo string. They also had an elaborately carved and colored prow of a boat. We have seen several native dugout canoes which are quite ingenious. Also there were various paddles and carved sticks, probably used in ceremonies. I haven't seen any native villages.
May 7. 1944
100% better!
8 May '44
Dear Folks [Mary X and John],
Stationery has been so scarce, I couldn't write sooner. Your nice V mail of April 2nd came 3 days ago, in out first mail of almost 3 weeks.
As you no doubt know, I've been in on a bit of a show. Really, the Nips took to the hills so fast it hasn't amounted to much. We have had a few visits from "Washing Machine Charley", as the men call one aviator who has a darn accurate eye, but no damage to us. I did a fair amount of things, until a week ago I came down with another infected foot, which is now doing fine.
We certainly get plenty of Jap stores - medical supplies and instruments, pants, jackets, shirts, shoes, boots, towels, soap, tooth brushes, food, beer, saki [sic] - in fact just about everything. I haven't collected many souvenirs, for they are just too much to carry. Oh yes - one complete set of lenses for fitting glasses, John [he is an optometrist!]. They were well supplied. Oh, I'll have lots of yarns to tell!
Love, Eugene
May 9, 1944
Out of the hospital. We're living on the beach - again Sterling gets us no accommodations at all. George and I have quite a hogan. Found some [fishing?] lines.
Excerpts from George Christie's letter: Gene got out of the hospital yesterday morning and we went up to supply and availed ourselves of the free clothes. In the combat zone they are furnished by Uncle Sam. Then we put all our plunder on a litter and carried it to the spot on the beach where I had been living. It's about 1/2 mile from where the hospital was located.
We immediately fell to and constructed a very neat and cozy hut using poles from the jungle tied together with native vine that tie just like rope! We used Japanese shelter halves for a roof. We put palm fronds for protections from the rain and got all our equipment inside, and none too soon because for the next half hour we had to hold the whole thing down to keep it from taking off in the wind. And then it rained - and I mean rained! Everything cleared up after supper, however, and the full moon rising over the ocean with incoming tide was something out of the movies. We are seeing some unmatchable sunsets these nights too.
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| George and Gene in front of their hut on the beach |
11 May '44
Beloved,
This is a cloudy morning and the rain is gently pattering on the roof. It makes lots of little circles on the waves. I'm glad our roof is of fairly good construction! There is a cloud across part of my ersatz Fisher's Peak [the most prominent mountain viewed from Gene's home town of Trinidad, Colorado; probably part of an earlier letter for which Beth substituted dashes waxed nostalgic about Fisher's Peak and how one mountain he could see looked a bit like it].
My foot is doing fine. Since we had the hut built, there was nothing for me to do but lay around most of the time. I went over to supply and got some shoes - 7 1/2 D - they fit me better than my 8 B's did. For free, too!! The kind the army puts out now has the smooth side inside and the rough side outside and have a plain toe. I did need this pair to give the others a rest!
Still no mail! But maybe tomorrow!
Last evening George caught a shark about one and a half feet long. It has the biggest mouth for its size. I saw some beautiful pieces of coral that one of the fellows found on the reef. It was all a sort of gray but on some of the tips was a deep rose and on others a deep violet. Oh it would make beautiful things for a goldfish bowl!
I tried my hand at making thatch the way the fuzzies do, but soon gave up. The variety of palm used has the most immense fronds, 20 feet or more long with "leaves" 4 inches wide and 4-5 feet long. I found to my dismay that the darn things have a row of fine thorns along the edges like the prickly pear cactus. Powers made a nice piece of thatch by interlacing the ordinary fronds.
Some Seabees landed yesterday and do they ever get things done!! they cleared off a section of the beach to live on, and started a road in just no time. They have the things to work with and know their jobs.
It looks as though the tide came to within 5 feet of our hut! I slept very well. The sound of the waves is a lullaby. The moon was behind the clouds most of the night.
George is going to try to make a sheath for his hunting knife from the shark. He is skinning it now.
The natives go back and forth here several times a day, sometimes with a sail on their prow and sometimes with 4-5 rowing. Their canoes usually have a single seater that had been made from a hollowed out log.
I'm catching some rain water in which to shave and wash. There is a sort of self-service laundry the fellows have set up with gasoline drum tubs to heat water and a well made by sinking the drum down into the ground about 10 yards back from the beach. The water is fairly soft since it is mainly seepage from the jungle and swamp behind. I'm due for a go at it soon by the looks of my clothes. The fellows are going for breakfast. About half are wearing rain coats and half aren't. It is remarkable how little you mind getting wet.
The few destroyers or corvettes [a small, lightly armed warship] are a familiar sight on our horizon for they are on guard day or might. It is remarkable how little bombing we have had. I guess the Japs just don't have the planes to do it even though there are numerous good targets.
We hear reports of the news at times and can't understand why the European front doesn't come off. There aren't many coconuts here. I guess most of them were blasted off. And the trees growing naturally don't grow anywhere as large as those on the plantations.
All my love, Eugene
11-12 May '44
Beloved,
This business of them not getting our mail to us is getting very irksome to say the least.
The rain didn't amount to much. It has been cloudy and sprinkling all day. I've written a few letters and read a bit. This morning I did a bit of laundry. I find that a good stiff scrub brush and soap does mighty well. And of course the ironing doesn't bother!! For a while we had no restrictions of clothes - could go naked as much as we liked, but today it comes out that we have to wear pants and a shirt or jacket unless in swimming! It's because of mosquitoes and malaria. I know, but it seems a shame for there are so few skeeters. Here on the beach the flies aren't even bad.
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| Front of the board from the wrecked native canoe |
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| Back of the board showing that it was mailed "as is" to Beth |
These Jap socks without heels certainly do tend to creep down on your feet. I don't have to wear them but it saves my others! My foot is doing just fine for which I'm thankful. Gray's feet are better but Mike's are bothering him a lot.
... Your V mails from April 22 to May 2 were very welcome and full of news. I read and re-read them avidly and most of them out loud to George who misaddressed an envelope the while.
He calls me "Prairie". I'm glad this is the dry season. I hope that when the wet comes we will be under regular tents. At that, the sand is so much better than the red mud. My new shoes are most comfortable. Whenever the boys wade out toward the reef, they wear shoes, for cuts from the rough coral heal slowly. There are even bright red and blue star fish!!
Our fellows are baking bread for us. Is it ever good besides these dry crackers. Thru some sort of fancy trade with a boat, we have fresh meat and fresh butter for a while The boys will find a way!! It would be nice to have some of the fresh vegetables you are raising!
All my love, Eugene
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