Stand and Wait and Sit andWait andEat and Wait(6)

Capt. Pfile and the 92nd Evac had been in the desert near Freda, California for about seven weeks.  Their days are not very stimulating.  Gene continues in his diary:

Inside a ward tent (without patients!)

September 25, 1942: Rat tracks in the sand - somebody should write a book by that title. ...
September 26, 1942: Typical day - up at 5:30.  Dress, wash and ---- in 10 min.  Sit and wait until 6 mess.  Thru at 6:15.  Shave.  Thru by 6:30.  Sit until 7.  Go to ward tent [the patients are housed in ward tents].  Check etc.  Thru by 8.  Sit until 11.  Go to PX [post exchange, a general store for the military] and sit for 15 min.  Back to tent and sit until 11:45 A.M.  Rush over to tent, wash in 5 min.  Sit and wait until 12.  [Eat.] Thru by 12:15.  Shower.  Thru by 12:35.  Sit and wait until 1.  Go to ward and sit until 5, with occasional trips to ward 2, bulletin board, or PX (mail arrives either A.M. or P.M. - that takes 10 or 15 minutes!)  Sit in tent until 6.  Mess takes 15 min.  Then sit in tent until 8:30 and then to bed, unless a show is on.  Then to bed at 9:30.  7 weeks of this.
October 13, 1942: First the news that we leave for Tulare [Sequoia Field Airport is in Tulare, California; during WWII it was used as a training field for army pilots] Oct. 22!  Then the word that we stay [here] indefinitely.  Words can't express our feelings! "Pissed off" is the word for it.
October 14, 1942: We're starting to come out of the black depression a bit.
November 19, 1942: Rumor!  48 nurses are coming!  Are we getting ready for foreign duty?  Africa?  China?  India?

Setting up the pyramidal tents, including stoves

     Moving day today to pyramidals [heavy tents with sides that can be completely opened or closed] and stoves!  We all scurry around getting boards, nails, wire, etc., setting up our nests - just like when we first arrived here.  Reminds me of pigs before a storm, scurrying around with straw in their mouths.
November 26, 1942: Thanksgiving Day - army style!  After some difficulty from the brass hats, we had our wives out for dinner.  Beth got to see my lowly hovel.  She thinks Christie and I have ours fixed up nicely!  And so we have.  I hope next Thanksgiving the war will be over and we'll be home.
November 28, 1942: ... 92nd Evac Hosp (Mtz [motorized, which meant it was mobile] ) officer knocking at the "Ebony" gates, greeted by the doorman who said, "This is the hot place."  Officer - "Yes, I know.  I'm used to it.  I lived at Freda during the war."  "But I'm the Devil."  "You are!  Why your brother used to be our C.O. [commanding officer]"
December 7, 1942 (Monday):  This has been a great day for rumors.  We were attached to the 4Δ for supervision, etc.  Now it seems we will have to move nearer to them, maybe, just 10 miles down the road to the aqueduct.  Maybe up near Needles with them.  What a prospect.  Also, leaves have been cut down.  Also we and the 151st Med. Bn. [medical battalion] may soon go to a staging area [to be processed for overseas duty]!  I do hope I can get to see Mother before I go across.  I'm worried about her.
     Later - no, we'll stay!  And Ireland [the doctor who organized the 92nd Evac] goes to [Medical Field Service School at] Carlisle [Barracks in Pennsylvania] Jan. 2 for 6 weeks.
     S.N.E.F.U = situation normal, everything f_____ed up!
     So we won't be leaving the country, very likely, until Ireland rejoins the unit.
December 15, 1942: Another week has gone by.  Matthews [the commanding officer] returned last evening.  Cheers and greetings were conspicuous by their absence!
December 19, 1942: Adams had to take in a body for post [post mortem].  It had been in the Colo. River for maybe 2 weeks - Full field pack - apparently he was drowned in a practice river crossing.  It is reported there were 4 lost!  It seems needless!
December 24, 1942:  Whoopee! V.O.C.O. [verbal orders of the commanding officer] to leave today at 1630 and return Sat. morning reveille (I should know how to spell that!)

Coming sandstorm - the lower "clouds" are actually sand!

Christmas (Friday)  What a glorious Christmas!  Christie and I left at 4:30 (after duty) Thursday and didn't return until Saturday morning before reveille!  It was so wonderful to be with my Sweetheart on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I received such nice gifts, too.  We returned to find there had been a 12 hour sandstorm Christmas Day (it had rained a while Christmas Eve in Indio [the town where the officers' wives were living].  One tent burned (utility tent).  It was reported that some of the nurses cried over the storm!  We were glad to have missed it.
     Tyson's [the owners of the ranch where Beth was staying on the outskirts of Indio] made us feel so at home.  The fireplace was grand!  I gave Beth the buckskin jacket I made for her, and the ironwood book ends which received more working on that day on the power sander.
December 31, 1942:  The year is ending.  What will the new bring?
January 1, 1943 (Friday):  I went to bed at the usual time (after a few quiet drinks).  No cause for hilarity!  Where will I be next year on New Year's Day?  I hope when it comes, I will have done my part.  With the boredom of the desert, I would welcome any change, even foreign duty.  I don't fear it.  I would only have the regret of leaving my dear Beth, and Mother.  My chances of returning are as good as the next ones, so that doesn't bother me particularly.  But I do so very much want to go back to living just as we did before this all came along.  It gives me a lump in my throat to think that it might never be, again.  But I will do my best, and trust to God.
January 13, 1943:  I just counted it up - we were here at Freda for exactly 150 days in 1942!
January 19, 1943:  Boy was it cold last night!  It is 19° this morning - and this the desert!  And California!  Water bags hanging outside are almost solid, while inside it didn't even freeze the water bucket.  I stayed quite warm in my sleeping bag.  I'm glad the car was in Indio.
January 31, 1943 (Sunday):  Father would have been 60 years old today [in 1918, when Gene was 8, his father caught influenza on his way to enlist and died two weeks later].  I wonder if he is watching!  He hated war.  I remember vaguely the summer of 1918 - how he received his draft notice and how worried he and Mother were.  He died before the war ended and before he was inducted.  Such is Fate.  Here I am in the army - almost 7 months already and have seen no action as yet!