Manila (63)

Post card with bullet holes and an old registration card
picked up by Gene in the Manila Hotel

     Capt. Eugene Pfile barely squeaked in a trip to Manila before the 92nd Evacuation Hospital was moved from Guimba to Agoo, which was closer to the fighting.  During the move he didn't have much time to write letters.

March 6, 1945
     To Manila.  Stayed overnight at the 5th Field [Hospital] (Fawcett, in my class at N.W.[Northwestern University Medical School]),in the Ed. Bldg. at Santo Thomas University [a private, Roman Catholic university used as an internment camp by the Japanese until the Americans liberated the prisoners in February, 1945].  The oldest U. on U.S. soil [the Philippines was considered a U.S. protectorate until 1946], established about 1611.
     Saw the burned out city and other sights.  Went thru the Manila Hotel [considered the most luxurious hotel in the Philippines from its opening in 1912 until the Japanese occupation].
     I bought 3 sleeping mats (Buri palm fiber). P 5.00 [$2.50], 3 straw purses P 3.50 [$1.75], 3 Chinese embroidered handkerchiefs P 2.50 [$1.25], wooden shoes p 3.00 [$1.50].
     At the church of Quiapo, I bought 2 votary candles for 60 centavos [$0.30].  The Quiapo Church district was established in 1586 and the church built of bamboo and nipa palm.
     Saw the Malacaňan - the president's official house.  I took 3 rolls of Kodachrome, in all.

Street scene in unbombed section of Manila

Bombed out section of Manila

March 8, 1945  To move.  Stopped receiving.  Admitted [released?] about 1000 patients.

March 9, 1945 Closed hospital at Guimba [in his records, Gene states the 92nd Evac admitted 2,520 patients while in Guimba].

March 10, 1945  Packing up. 

March 11, 1945  Moved into bldg.  Tents down.

March 12, 1945 
     Moved 70 miles N along the coast to Agoo.  North of where we landed at San Fabian.  In a small school house at the east edge of town.  Rice paddies behind us for a half mile, then the hills, Mt. Santo Thomas [sic Tomas], on the other side [of the mountain] is Baguio.  There are barbed wire entanglements around town, and the street corner strong points that the Japs had to put up to defend themselves from the guerrillas.  The 33rd Div. captured this without trouble, a week ago.  The 33rd is moving up the coast, and from Rosario towards Baguio where the main Jap force is entrenched.

Modified Rand McNally map showing location of Guimba, San Fabian and Agoo

Spurs of Steel (62)

     In the following letters Gene updates his report on some of his patients and goes into more detail about the cock fights.

26 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     I'm sitting in surgery waiting for work.  [Maj.? Cy] Burroughs and I are on minor so we may not be so busy.  They are bringing them in by small planes.  That is a good deal, for we have a better place in which to work and the patients can still reach us very soon.  Besides, they don't get the jolting they would in an ambulance.  One poor fellow was hit through the belly yesterday afternoon and lay out all night before he was found.  I doubt if he makes it.  Today I got rid of most of my women and children patients for which I am just as glad.  Some of the relatives would darn near drive a person crazy.  The husband of the woman with the emphysema of the chest [see post # 59] brought me a watermelon today!  It's the color you'd call "rattlesnake color".  It's almost round and about the size of a volleyball.  I have it in the reefer cooling, or should I say chilling!  Which reminds me that the day was cloudy and cool.  We may be building up for a big rain.  Last night we received a batch of patients from a field hospital some miles away who had a big rainstorm and most of their tents went down!
     Later - Well, he died on the table.  Too bad, but he just didn't have a chance.  At one place the Japs made one of their banzai charges and our men mowed down 300 of them.  Ordinarily, the infantry likes nothing better than for the Japs to come out in the open.  Then they can really clean them up.  It is when the devils are so well dug in that it breaks their [the infantry's] hearts and they get discouraged.  The F. [Filipino] fellow I did the supra-pubic cystectomy [see post # 57] on a week ago began to bleed.  It came from the path of a bullet!  He was wounded over a month ago.  I finally got it stopped and decided it was from some veins.  I sewed them up and thought all O.K. then after supper about an hour later darn if it didn't bleed a little more, but pressure had stopped it before I came back to see.  So it goes.  They say one of the soldiers had one of his hands cut off by a saber - completely off!  This morning I took care of a little Chinese girl who had a bad wound of the knee and fractured tibia [upper leg bone] two weeks ago and no care for it.  Her mother was quite slant-eyed and rather pretty.  Poor kid will have a short leg for it hit the growing part of the bone.
     All my love, Eugene

March 1, 1945  Still getting a few casualties from the 6th Division.

March 3, 1945  We bought (Officers' club) 2 bottles of good Manila rum for P5.00 [$2.50] a bottle.  I sold one to [Maj.] Hiram [Armstrong].

4 March '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister and brother-in-law, Mary X and John],
     Believe it or not, but your package came last evening!  The tin cans were a bit bashed in, but everything was O.K.  The knife and case is really a dandy [Gene had lost his knife some time earlier].  It certainly looks like excellent steel, and that is the most important thing.  I have a copy of the S.E. Asian map, so I put this one up on the wall in surgery for everyone to see.  The towel is just [the] right size.  Thanks so much for everything.
     Speaking of the knife reminds me of something I've been meaning to tell you, John.  I think you would like to use a machete, such as we have, on camping trips or around the yard.  I find it superior to an ax or hatchet in everything except chopping trees or driving stakes. It is really the handiest item for chopping brush or grass, leveling off the ground, cutting poles, stripping bark, etc., etc. ad infinitum. [After the war, Gene used his machete extensively in gardening, mainly for chopping up plants to put in the compost.] With an army belt, the sheath hangs at your hip, though usually we carry it on the side of our pack.  I had an Australian machete first, but it soon broke.  The U.S. True Temper [steel one] is fine.
     Your letter of Feb. 8 came 2 days ago.  It is a coincidence that you sent a picture of a cockfight, for I'd seen one last Sunday.  But I rather doubt that picture as being the real stuff.  The roosters pictured are not the real fighting games [gamecocks] which have a very small comb [actually, according to Wikipedia, the comb and wattle are often cut off].  But I didn't enjoy the spectacle.  3 jumps and the one cock was on his back, kicking his last!  But it was no wonder, the weapons used!  Why the single spur each wore is fully 3 inches long, slightly curved and about like a darning needle [the natural spur on the cock's left leg is partially removed and a metal knife or gaff is fastened on to that leg].  

Filipinos in Guimba waiting for the cock fight to begin

The fights go on all day Sunday, so I plan to go back today for some pictures.  It wasn't what you'd call colorful.  They are held in an arena, surrounded by bleachers, and there is a roof over it so the light isn't strong.  When I was there, at least 200 Filipinos and S.I.'s were present and excitement ran high, with lots of betting.  You could see that the cocks were accustomed to the ritual - sticking out their necks and ruffling their feathers at each other when placed on the ground, though retrained by the tail.  Their spurs had a large guard on each, until they were put down for combat.  When first put on the ground, they walked slowly around looking at the noisy crowd.  Their handlers gently shooed them a bit, then they took their stance "en guarde" and then bingo, up they went, flapping and kicking.  Down to the ground and up again.  The next time down the one cock staggered, but was game for another jump, but then he stayed down for good.  At least there is no arguing about the decision!  The actual fight didn't last 30 seconds.  I certainly wouldn't care for it as a regular thing!
     Later - I went to church then to the cockfights.  Our chaplain is Catholic, but if he is unable to obtain a protestant minister, he gives us the service himself.  He did a very fine job today.  At first he was very hesitant about doing it, but he was told that in the Army he was first of all a chaplain!
     There were no cockfights going on, so we left.  But I did ask to see the spurs [gaffs].  What weapons!  The blade is 3 1/2 inches long and about 3/8 inches wide, hollow ground and sharp as a razor along one edge and the tip.  They cost P10.00 [$5.00] apiece!
     Tuesday a few of us plan to go sightseeing in a large city [Manila, but the censors won't let him write that].  Our C.O. is allowing us to go, a few at a time.  We plan to stay overnight with some hospital outfit, and return the next day.
     I'm pleased that you thought my pictures O.K.  By the time I get to see them, I'll feel as though I had never seen the spot, I suppose!  They would be better, I believe, if I had more time to spend taking them.  for example, the other day I had a free spell, so I walked about 1/2 mile or less from town and took a roll in about 20 minutes.  I had reconnoitered the area once, kept watching for a time when the mountains would be clear to make a background.  And a certain number of pictures I take are of the very ordinary things, and very drab therefore as to color, but it gives an idea of the average sights.  So far I've seen only a very few flowers - small vines of bougainvilleas, and a few others. 

Yard of a thatched house in Guimba

People in this area use their yards (in town, too) as a parking place for carts, bed down their carabao, run the pigs, chickens and children, etc.!  There is little greenery at this time of year.  The rice fields are losing their yellow-gold tint, for one of gray as the straw ages.  Even the bamboo trees are losing part of their color.  I hope I get to go to some of the mountain valleys some time.  They say it is about like Colorado.  I'm getting a lot more people in the pictures here, for it is easy.  People are everywhere yo go - fields or towns!  I never saw such crowded spots!
     No doubt your Spring weather is close at hand.  It often is in the 90's around noontime, here!
     Again, thanks very much for the gifts!
     Love, Eugene

Dinner with a Filipino Family (61)

Gene's letter from February 25, 1945, to Beth continues:

     What a time I'm having with my civilians!  They don't want to be moved to the civilian hospital and to be taken care of by the Filipino doctors.  That is flattering to us, but hardly possible to grant.  Most of them will be moved tomorrow except my two sickest ones - the thyrotoxic woman [her thyroid is producing too much hormone due to a tumor, Graves disease, or something else] and the little girl with osteo [osteolysis or degeneration of the bone due to bone cancer, TB, or something else].  The woman is so much better this evening that I'm encouraged.  The little girl is some better.  Then I also received a woman with tetanus [also called "lockjaw", it is an infection by a type of bacteria that often enters through puncture wounds and causes prolonged muscle contractions, usually starting with the jaw, and often without treatment ends in death ].  She had her foot amputated somewhere else.  After the antitoxin yesterday and today she is practically over the tetanus.  Amazing!  This evening after supper, I was surprised when the one nurse, Mrs. Vigilian who gave me the fan, invited me to supper at her house - and to see her mother!  Her brother in the guerrillas is coming home today and they are having a roast pig.  Darn if I know if I'll be able to eat very much.  Anyway, it's an opportunity I don't want to miss.  Her mother has ulcers but since she's 51 and this started in 1941 with vomiting of blood, I'm afraid it may be a malignancy.  But I'll be glad to "sing for my supper" [and examine her].


Street in Guimba, with a thatch-roofed, bamboo house (and pigs!)

     This will be the first time I've "dressed up" for a long time.  When I went to the fancy tea, I had no other clothes to which to change.  Dress up will consist of putting on clean pants and shirt and my other pair of shoes! 
     Later - Well, that was very interesting.  They called for me at 6 instead of 7 in a guerrilla command car.  Her husband is a fine clean cut chap.  He had finished two years of Law Prep School when the war started.  Since then he's been a Sgt. in the guerrillas.  He saluted me before he shook hands!  They live only a few blocks from the hospital.  It is a typical F. [Filipino] house - bamboo and thatch, bare floor but plenty of chairs and seats.  There must have been a couple of dozen there, not counting children, about half GI's.  They said that before they invited me they hadn't known there would be so many!  I met her father, mother, uncle (who is head of the local high school), brother-in-law who commands a guerrilla squadron and some others.  It was quite noisy, but I talked to the husband about various items. 
     Pretty soon they asked me to come into the next room and eat.  There was a long bare table set with large platters of rice and other food.  They said most of the others had eaten, so there were only about 6 eating.  I was placed at the head of the table!  They asked if I cared for wine so I said certainly.  But by golly I'd call it brandy!  It is made from sugar cane juice and distilled.  I was the only one to get some and they said it was pre-war.  I felt the honored guest.  The main dish was plates of barbecued pig!  He explained how they split it and put rice in the body cavity and roasted it over a fire.  It was quite good.  Sure was a good sauce, not too hot - of what, I don't know.  Then there was some stewed goat meat.  There was hard rice and soft rice.  They eat with a fork in the left hand and a large spoon in the right and no knife.      
     Then she brought up her mother and we went into another room to talk.  All I can determine is that she has an atonic type of constipation [atonic constipation occurs when the muscles of the large intestine become weakened, but the muscles don't spasm].  She was quite dark in color.  I told them to bring her to the hospital tomorrow for further examination. 
     The nurse and her husband are Methodists!  We talked a while longer and they gave me some "turnips" to eat raw.  But they are a lot better than ours, being quite sweet and succulent [it was probably jicama, which is called a turnip in the Philippines].  They gave me some to bring back and brought me home about 8 o'clock so it was an interesting experience.  Their law, medical and nursing courses are quite comparable to ours in length of time, etc.  Among themselves they habitually speak the local dialect.  They have quite an accent when they speak English.  The girls all seemed rather shy around the soldiers and were rather quiet.  Maybe that is just when their elders are around.  It is easy to see that the people are quite poor, but everything seemed to be very clean.  For lamps, they had small bottles of kerosene and a round wick up through the cap and no chimney.  I had no qualms about eating their food.  But golly, that shot they poured for me was a stiff one.
     ...  All my love, Eugene

Gifts and Fights (60)

     Casualties from fighting have abated, and conditions are quiet enough at the 92nd Evacuation Hospital for Capt. Gene Pfile to learn more about the country in which he finds himself.


24 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     Do you hear that ta-ta-ta-tat?  No, not the war!  The fellows are just trying out some new machine guns we obtained. Now that we are a complete arsenal I hope we won't need them.   Amazing, this mail.  I received your Feb. 11 letter and one of the 12th from Mother and a Valentine of the 8th from your Mother.  It is so clever.  On the front is a pipe and open pouch with real tobacco spilling out of it.  And such a nice verse.  I collected some items today!  At noon the nurse on my ward gave me the dandiest palm leaf woven fan, dyed a brownish color.  She is the married one.  I've never seen one like it before.  And this evening one of my 18 year olds [patient] gave me a fancy fiber under arm bag [purse, see photo]. 

Photo from two of Gene's civilian patients with their
embroidered under arm purses

 I'd seen it before and asked her about it.  Also she gave me a small picture of herself and two sisters and brother posed in a studio.  Her sister added a fine handkerchief with the initial P on it.  The sister is the one who had the large fragment in her cheek and which I'd removed.  I also had their mother.  The sister's first name is Purito [?] hence the P.  Now I must wrestle up [rustle up?] a box in which to send home things!  And soon!  For I know you are anxious to see them.  Right now I'm waiting around to help [Maj.? Cy] Burroughs operate on a soldier with a ruptured peptic ulcer that happened suddenly a few hours ago.  Say, I'm glad I ate but little of that ersatz chop suey [see post # 59].  The colonel was sick from it last night.  I'm hoping that I can get caught [up] on my work this morning so that I can both see the cockfight and go to church!

The thank you note with the photo
and purse

     I almost forgot one of my interesting patients.  She is the wife of a guerrilla captain and is two months pregnant and has a terrifically toxic thyroid [produces excessive thyroid hormone, a condition from which Beth had suffered]. Her pulse is running 160.  Her condition isn't at all good.  And today I met a guerrilla nurse.  They must have had quite an organization.  I'll bet they cause the Japs plenty of trouble.  I think maybe I'll try some cheese and some beer!  It will be good for me besides helping me [this was one of his favorite expressions in later life!], as [Maj.] Hi [Armstrong] says.
     All my love, Eugene

February 25, 1945
     I watched a cock fight, and I don't care for it.  3 jumps and it was over - about 30 seconds. ...

25 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     [Maj.]Sparky [Adams] is just chortling in his beard about a news item.  It seems that since animal fat is no longer so much in demand (vegetable oil substitutes it) they began remodeling hogs.  The result is more ham and bacon per hog.  Also the super hog is now nimbler on his feet, free from danger of sunburn and nervous breakdowns!  Amazing!


Cock fights in Guimba

     Well, I didn't get to church this morning.  I didn't get my work done until almost 11 (church at 10).  So Sparky and I grabbed helmets and guns and tore out for the cockfight.  A goodly crowd was there - about 200 in all.  When we arrived, two cocks and their handlers were in the ring.  The roosters had a long (3 inches) fairly wide blade [strapped] on one leg.  They were going through a preliminary neck feather spreading and head stretching at each other.  The book makers were walking around taking bets.  After about 5 minutes the babbling grew louder.  The handlers took the sheath of the spur off his contestant.  What I thought was the spur was just the sheath.  The spur itself is certainly a wicked gadget - thin, curved slightly and apparently with a regular needle point.  The cocks were set down and they strutted around looking at the crowd.  The handlers sort of shoved them together, and bango, they went up high in a leap.  Then hit the ground and up again.  Then the one cock sort of wobbled but gave another jump and it was all over.  The poor loser kicked a few times and that was all.  Ugh!  I don't like it!  There is nothing sporting about that!  It didn't last a minute.  I'm going back some time to take pictures of the crowd, but I'm no longer interested in cockfights.

More of the letter on the next post!

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!

Homesick (58)

Mail is the lifeline for many soldiers, a reminder that home is only an envelope away.


21 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     Today was the day - three packages!  One in a coffee can and one in a square tin from you and [one] the cheese!  But what cheese!  It smelled distinctly loud and moldy.  The four round balls of it were almost examples of Einsteins relativity theory in arrested form!  I read one time of that theory that if a cannon ball would travel with the speed of light, it would be a disk instead of a sphere.  Well, these cheeses were almost flat.  I pulled away the damp moldy package and peeled away the paper and put them in cellophane.  One I cut in half and tried.  It was a bit on the sharp side but O.K. though I suspect the flavor was not originally that intended by the manufacturer.  [Maj.?] Hi [Armstrong] and [Maj.? Ed] Niemeyer tried some too but not [Maj. Francis] Sparky [Adams]!  He shied away and practically brayed at it.  Tonight Hi plans to hide the parings under someones bed.  No doubt I'll be credited with the prank.  Your tin boxes were rusted and the paper moldy in spots but things inside were in good shape.  Golly, I almost cried when I opened the small box of pine needles, the tiny cones and kinnikinnik [a ground cover plant that grows wild in the mountains of Colorado; it has shiny green leaves with red berries during the winter and was always used by Gene and Beth for Christmas decorations].  They are still so fragrant.  It reminded me about the poem about a bit of ground where a soldier was buried in some forgotten corner of the world that "Is forever England"

["The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke, written in 1914:

                                                       If I should die, think only this of me:
                                                            That there's some corner of a foreign field
                                                       That is forever England.  There shall be
                                                            In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
                                                       A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
                                                            Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
                                                       A body of England's, breathing English air,
                                                            Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home.

                                                       And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
                                                            A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
                                                       Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
                                                            Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
                                                       And laughter learnt of friends; and gentleness,
                                                            In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.]

Not a bit of the shaving lotion leaked out.  The shrimp and ice cream mix will be swell.  Please thank Mrs. Jamieson for me.  The pipe tobacco is O.K. and now I have enough Kleenex to have another cold!  Which I don't expect to contract for a long time.


Closeup of a carabao

     This evening I took a half hour stroll (carrying my helmet and trusty .45 as per regulations) out across the little creek and up to the rice fields on the other side.  I passed quite a few F.'s [Filipinos] on their way to town.  Some were riding in with a few carabao in tow.  One youngster passed on his horse - an 8 year old pony not quite so thin as most.  All the ponies are a sort of dun color and are branded on the near hip.  I saw one branded with what appeared to be APO!  The sunset was rather pretty.  There appeared to be quite a lot of smoke in the air.  Probably from burning straw stacks.  However we saw two batches of Liberators [heavy bombers] on their way today to make trouble for the Nips.  Maybe they have something to do with it.

Rice stacks near Guimba

     My day was as usual, except that I performed the first vaginal examination I've done since I've joined the army.  This 47 year old lady is the aunt of a very cute and rather shy nurse on my ward.  I found a fair sized fibroid tumor [a benign tumor of the uterus].  She needs to be operated upon, but I don't know if we can do it here or not.  She and her niece both want it done.  The nurse (whose name I admit I haven't asked) says menopause is usually from 45 to 50 over here.  Nurses before the war received P8 to P10 [$4 to $8] a day for private duty, 12 hours, and P6 for 8 hour general duty.  Hospital rooms run about the same as ours.  She worked at the Lying In [maternity] hospital in a large city.  Under the Japs their pay was P25 but what money [Japanese Invasion Money, sometimes called "Mickey Mouse Money" by the Filipinos].

Old Wounds (57)

18 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     ...My patients kept me busy all day.  They may be transferred to another hospital for civilians and I hope to heck they are.  I opened an abscess of a cheek and took out a chunk of bomb fragment on a young girl.  It had gone in just below into the side of the nose, cut off four upper teeth, went through the pallet [roof of the mouth] and maxillary sinus [just behind the cheek bone] and stopped next to the angle of the jaw.  Some more have osteo [osteolysis, or degeneration of the bone] of the femur and foul discharging wounds.  Poor people!  And tonight I opened a fellow's bladder about the pubis [the forward part of the hip bone] and put in a catheter.  He (a civilian) had been shot by a sniper six weeks ago and urine drained out a hole at the side of his thigh.  I must say I prefer caring for fresh wounds!  All outfits held a Thanksgiving Service for the liberation of the Philippines today, at MacArthur's order.  But I was operating and couldn't attend.  I missed church too, and the cockfights I wanted to see.  Another time!

Capt. Eugene Pfile in the Philippines

     Well, we've been ashore over a month and quite a few events have happened, both to us and elsewhere.  One of our men who was wounded that night [January 19, 1945, the night the 92nd Evac was attacked by Japanese snipers and 5 men were killed] returned.  He had a grenade fragment in his thigh.  I don't believe I wrote that we've had a shower in operation for about a week.  There is lots of water and lots of shower heads.  My but it is wonderful!  The water is from a surface well in the rice paddy and is very soft.  A shower is much more satisfactory than a helmet bath!  I hope I don't get lousy!  It seems that some of our F. [Filipino] patients brought a few colonies of pedicullii [lice] with them!  That is something new for us.
     There is one subject I've neglected in my photography and that is the guerrillas.  They are somewhat colorful!  Several soldiers have told me that they are fine on scattered fighting, but can't be relied upon when there is concentrated shellfire by the Japs.  Then they remember business elsewhere!

Gene's scrapbook label: "Filipino guerrilla detachment eating breakfast
after doing night guard duty on our perimeter"

19 Feb. '45
     ...  I now have on my women's and children's ward a graduate F. nurse and a nurse's aid.  Both seem quite capable so order is coming to chaos.  This morning when I reached the ward (after seeing my other patients) they had already started in to do dressings.  The nurse (what her name is, I haven't the faintest idea) wears a white nurse's uniform and can interpret.  She wears a wedding ring.  I haven't gone into her private life!  Then there is the regular ward man and his F. assistant.  Also a self-appointed F. assistant.  Also the various relatives of the patients.  So it is a tent full!  Some of the people bring food, such as rice in a polished coconut shell, chicken and I don't know what all.  One little girl with the osteo and the pneumonia wants rice to eat.  She doesn't like our food.  I've had others tell me the same.  I inquired at the kitchen and we have practically no rice.  Now to get rice, I'm certain it would have to come from the States, when we are in the rice center of the island!  The rest of the people with the phosphorus burns are doing O.K.  Speaking of coconut shells reminds me that there are no coconut palms around here.  There are some of the "palm leaf fan" palms, if I make myself clear!  Their leaves are about 3 or 4 feet across the fan part.  It is funny how I once thought that was the shape of all palm leaves!  Someone brought bouquets of flowers to the hospital today!  I recognize several of the various kinds.
     I appropriated some [second class] magazines and papers that came in for departed members [92nd Evac doctors that had been sent to other units] today.  [Maj.?] George [Christie, his former tent mate and good friend] "contributed" Colliers, [Capt.?] Ed Powers some Los Angeles Times, [Lt. Col.? Albert] Tipple a November's Readers Digest and one of the nurses a Montgomery Ward Christmas catalogue!
     All my love, Eugene