Brave Little Boy (59)

     When things are calm, Gene doesn't write much in his diary, but he keeps up writing to the folks at home.

22 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     What another haul of mail!  23 cards and letters.  Christmas certainly extends itself this year, but the way the letters and tier dates [when they were mailed] jump back and forth sort of make me dizzy.  There is no explaining the mail.
     Today was rather quiet.  I'm getting rid of some of my F.'s [Filipino patients].  One way to get them home is to tell them their family can see them only on visiting hours [American hospitals at the time had specified visiting hours, but evidently the Filipino hospitals did not]!  I have a girl of about 18 on whom I wanted to do a skin graft, and darn it, she wants to go home!  She has an area on the buttock about 4 x 6 inches that is just an ideal shape for a split-thickness graft [taking just the top layer of skin from one part of the body and putting it over a wounded area to help it heal].  I'm disappointed!  But I can understand the rule [about treating civilians and visiting hours] - we'd be snowed under doing elective surgery and have no room for soldiers.  Besides civilian hospitals are being organized.  It is a joy to see how the lady with emphysema of the chest (old shell fragment wound) is getting along.  I aspirate the pus every other day and inject penicillin.  I'll certainly be ahead of the home docs on penicillin!  But my poor little 11 year old girl with the osteo [osteolysis or resorption of the bone], T.B. [tuberculosis, which, although more common in the lungs, can attack the bones] or malignancy of the bone of the right leg, we can't determine which, is in very bad shape.  There are some cute youngsters.  One a boy of about 6 [see photo] who has a chest wound and a 1 1/2 inch long piece of fragment still just under the skin of the chest (which I'll remove later), is such a brave one and his parents were both killed.  It certainly reminds me of private practice. 

Two Filipino ward men and a brave little orphan boy who is
Gene's patient

The young fellow on whom I did an appendectomy asked me today what he could give me.  I laughed and told him it was on Uncle Sam.  My officers [who are patients in Gene's ward] are an interesting lot.  One left this A.M. and left the cleverest cartoon.  It showed my ward man (caricatured) in one corner of the room - book shelves and all in the background - with a bed pan in his hand from which a fish is jumping.  "All right, who's the guy that's passing guppies?"  It's a lulu and the officers are always good for the news from their outfits on what goes on in the war.  I have a Capt. Brown, a Methodist Chaplain.  I'll keep him over Sunday!
     [Beth must have asked a question about the kamikaze pilots that struck the convoy Gene was in when the 92nd Evac. came to the Philippines in her letter to Gene:] What was I doing when the Jap suicide planes were about?  Why trying to watch the show and still be ready to duck!  When one of the ships to our port side began shooting too low over us, I ducked.  Then when I stuck my head back out again they were shooting still lower, so I ducked again!  Oh you can bet your last peso, Sugar, I'm taking good care of this "precious" hide of mine.  Sure there are ladders on Liberty [ships] - they aren't luxury liners!  Of course there are only about two of them [ladders], but they were handiest.  I even got so I could go down facing out!  And come up carrying [a cup of] coffee!  And they are between the deck and the boat deck, forward.
     This fellow who was wounded when we had out little fracas [January 19, 1945 when the hospital was attacked, mentioned in a previous post] had a darn sight worse time after he left us than before.  The place [hospital he was moved to] he was at was shelled by a 16" Jap gun in the hills and the fellow in the third bed from him was hit.  Then some Japs sniped at the place.   And a Jap plane strafed them.  And some MP's and guerrillas had a battle with 8 Negroes in a cemetery next to them!  But he took it all as matter of fact as could be.
23 Feb. '45
     This evening I received a big 5 lb. can of Guthrie's candy [from the Guthrie Candy Shop in Trinidad, Colorado] from Margie [Bersano, the daughter of Gene's office nurse].  It is in perfect condition.  I wanted to attend the market this morning but was too busy.  I took a piece of fragment about 1 1/2 inches by 1/2 inch from that little boy's chest wall.  It was just under the pectoral muscle [chest muscle] and not hard to reach.  When we put him on the table he asked if I was going to  ---- and he drew his finger along his skin.  I said yes, we had to take it out.  He looked scared but didn't cry a bit.  [Capt.?] Donovan gave him an anesthetic.  When I got back to the ward, the nurse told me they'd used [just] a local on him before at another place.  No wonder he was a bit apprehensive.  This P.M. I got rid of the two women with the fractured femurs, and the draining wounds.  [Maj. John] Mihalick and I took them to the local civilian hospital where they had made up bamboo beds with a framework for traction on the legs, as is needed.  The hospital had only about 25 patients.  There are two civilian doctors and some nurses.  The beds are all just bamboo frames with bamboo slats close together, on which a single blanket is placed.  There is an army doc in charge of an area of such hospitals.  I think that many of the doctors in these small towns are not so hot.
     The moon is beautiful tonight.  It's like a balmy June night here.  Did I tell you we had a beer ration yesterday?  Six cans for 1 peso [about $.50].  But we have trouble getting it chilled.  Now we can try beer and cheese [see post 58 to find out about the cheese]!  Later - The colonel just called up the office and said he had some chop suey.  I was to get a few of the officers and come over, so I did.  It was cold and not very good.  In fact, not chop suey that I could see!  Besides, it contained green onions and you know me [this was lucky for Gene, as you will later see]!  Roger [Farquhar, a Medical Army Corps officer attached to the 92nd Evac] brought in a bottle of pre-war wine he got while sight seeing in the city the other day.  It was turning to vinegar!  Well, I guess I'll have to go make my rounds of the wards!
     All my love, Eugene

23 Feb. '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister and brother-in-law, Mary X and John]
     Tonight I'm O.D. [officer of the day, so he has to stay on the wards] so it is a good night for letters!  A real hero just left the office - a Filipino who won the Congressional Medal of Honor [the highest award that can be given to military personnel].  He is a quiet, short, homely fellow!  What a man! 
     Christmas packages are slowly trickling in.  They'll all get here some day!  Yesterday I received your V mail of Dec. 16, Jan. 26 and letter of the 30th.  The time-range confuses me!
     I'm glad to hear the picture of Beth turned out well.  Most of the pictures I've taken here are of the ordinary things and the way people live, but I think that will make them interesting.  All my shots have to be taken just as spare moments permit.  We've been quite busy though not many battle casualties lately.  I have a ward of women and children - almost like civilian days.  Most of these were wounded quite a while ago, and never had proper care.
     The moon is nearly full.  It always brought Jap bombers before.  Here we don't have them.  But the Japs pester us in other ways!
    I'm doing fine.
     Love, Eugene

23 Feb. '45
Dear Jack [the teenage son of Mary X and John],
     I've just been laughing at one of the men poring over a sheet of comics he received from home.  A lot of these soldiers are still just boys.  At least the war doesn't make them morbid.
     Here's the Australian currency: 12 pence = 1 shilling = 16¢.  12 shillings = £1 (one pound).  In Dutch New Guinea, 100 pfennig = G1.00 (one guilder or gulden) = $0.53.  Here it is easy P1.00 (one peso) = $0.50.  But I've found nothing to buy here except bananas, and a bit of "abaca" cloth [see post #55]!  A haircut is 50 centavos.  They give you a dandy neck trim, but aren't so good on the top.
     Many of the women smoke cigars or cigarettes, and some place the lighted end in their mouth and draw on it that way!  Few men smoke pipes.  The guerrillas guarding us are a picturesque lot - rifle either an old English Enfield, a Jap rifle, or one of our make, lots of cartridges slung around their waist or over their shoulder - sometimes a bunch of grenades hanging to their belts - a straw hat or Jap cap or GI cap, and often barefoot.  Blue jean pants, very ragged, sometimes white shirts and pants.  But they can fight!
     Love, Eugene

Up next: cock fights!

Cars, Cigars and Sugar Cane (52)

After being stuck in the New Guinea jungle for a while, Gene is enjoying the cars, towns, and markets.  He is interested in learning about how things are done in the Philippines and is able to do this because there isn't much threat from the Japanese in this area.

13 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     This afternoon Steve, our Red Cross man, asked me if I wanted to go with him to a town about 15 or 20 miles from here.  I'd spoken to him about going some time.  McDaniels went along.  Steve bought this '38 Chevrolet from a civilian, or rather the Red Cross bought it a la Steve.  Ordnance worked it over and it went OK until a few days ago when it took to stopping - vapor lock, defective fuel pump or something.  He thought he had it fixed.  We left about 1:30.  Just a mile from our destination it began its old tricks.  If allowed to cool down it would start.  We got into town and walked around to see the sights.  Practically all the buildings (business and so forth) had been burned by the Japs.  In some places there were the bodies of as many as a dozen cars.  They must have been late models from the looks of them.  There was one street of buildings (poor ones) still standing and doing some business.  I priced some cigars - 30 centavos each [about 14¢; in U.S prices ranged from 4¢ to $1 each, but the Philippines produced lots of tobacco, and even women there smoked large cigars].  I laughed at them! 

Filipina woman smoking a cigar

And the wooden sole slippers the women wear - 13 pesos [about $6]!  We asked F.'s [Filipinos] how much such things were worth - cigars 5 centavos and the slippers P1 - were the proper prices.  But no doubt some Yanks are fools enough to pay it.
     There were still Jap handbills plastered on the walls.  The market was some market.  Originally it was a good block long, though some of it had been destroyed.  The people say that under the Japs, they seldom held market days because the Japs would just take what they wanted.  Even though this was afternoon part of the market was still crowded.  Such a display (and smell!) of food.  Numerous large trays of dried shrimp (all [parts] of the shrimp!) ranging from about 1 inch to 6 inches in length, a dried flat fish resembling shiners, fresh meat, leaf and root vegetables, peanuts, dried corn and various confection things.  There were a few small stalls of dry goods.  I took a picture of one corner of the thing. 


Sugar cane press near Guimba

     Then we went on Steve's errand and the car [vapor] locked some more.  We stopped in at a hospital motor pool and their mechanic couldn't decide what it was.  So we borrowed a jeep and came home in that, for we had no yen to sit out on the "lone prairie" all night, especially since a few stray Japs wander around at night.  I spotted several "cane squeezin' " places on the way up so on the way back I took a picture of a carabao-powered press.  The press is really just two heavy steel rollers about a foot wide between which the cane is fed three or four stalks at a time with an arrangement to catch the juice.  But I think I messed up the picture for I didn't turn it all the way and took another picture over [it].  So I shall borrow a jeep some other time and go back for some picturesque rice stacks of which I want a picture.
     The fellows who went to the grand opening of the nightclub figure they got a yenzzing [were hoodwinked or deceived]!  For their 10 P they had a good chop suey dinner , a drink of rum and some sort of wine in plenty and some dancing!  They said the gals were nice (apparently too nice).  All the guys were home by 9:30 which is our curfew hour.  They say they'll mark that 10 pesos to charity.  I had a nip of F. scotch - it is really brandy, I think.  Not bad, but not good!  Some of our men have helped other outfits move to a city (Manila [either Beth guessed and wrote it when she copied the letter, or the censor missed it]) and report they are glad we aren't there.  They drove trucks.  They say they were all sniped at but that the Japs are punk shots!  The men who know (I mean they've been on the receiving end) say that the Jap equipment - guns, tanks, artillery, and etc. - on this island is much better stuff than the Japs had in New Guinea.  Steve went to a city on business one day.  That night he stayed with an F. family.  They took him upstairs to sleep.  He slept well.  In the morning he looked around - no one upstairs or downstairs.  The family all slept in foxholes that night!