World War II Letters: Guam!

Posted on October 19, 2011 by John
Guam Barracks, 1945
As of September, 1945, the war had been over for a while, but Dad was still on the island of Guam in the Pacific.  His buddies were breaking up and leaving a few at a time, but Dad was not really celebrating yet.  He was still on guard and yearning to get back home before I was born.  Again he and his twin brother Eddie had lost contact with each other, Eddie being in the United States Navy and stationed elsewhere in the Pacific.  I love the photos of celebration in newspapers of England and the United States.  My favorite is still the most famous, of a sailor giving a nurse a kiss right in the middle the street surrounded by jubilant onlookers.

Sept. 7, 1945
Guam

Dear Mom and Dad,

     Here I am half way around the world again, and this time the war is over.  As soon as the Japs heard that the 367th was on a ship and on the way over here, they threw up their hands and surrendered.  I’m right as two rabbits about that too.

     How are you?  I sure hope everything is all right.  How did you feel when you heard the war was over?  Yes, I guess you did the same thing we did.  Some people went out and celebrated by getting drunk and getting into a lot of foolish trouble, and others stayed in their homes and thought of their boys in the war, just as those boys were thinking of them and thanked God that this was finally a thing of the past.

     I tried my best to find Eddie on the way over but didn’t find him.  I was told he was probably in Tokyo Bay waiting to protect the landing.  We made two stops before we arrived here on Guam, one at the Marshall Islands, and one at the Carolinas.  In both places I inquired about Eddie’s ship, but he wasn’t there.  Well, our outfit is breaking up.  Some of the men are leaving for Tinian Island tomorrow morning at five.  As far as I know now, I’ll stay on Guam for a while.  All of my buddies that I have been with since I came into the army are shipping out in all different directions.  Ed Skafish and Bill Haakinson, and Jimmy Scott and I are about the only ones who will be here, and we won’t be here long.  I hope to be home by February, but that is only my hope, maybe just wishful thinking.  I pray to God I’m home when the baby is born.  If I’m not, I know that you will see that Bonnie and the baby are taken care of for me.

     We haven’t received any mail as yet, and it looks as though we won’t for at least another week.  I sure hope I get a letter from you then.  I miss you both so very much.  Dad, I want to ask you again to forgive me for not saying so-long when you left for work that day.

     Tell Jesse and Bee ad Vi I’ll write within the next week.  I want to be assigned and have a permanent APO number before I write.  Now my APO is 234.  Tomorrow, lord knows what it will be.  My whole address will change within the next week.

     I guess I’ll have to close now, because it is getting dark, and we have no lights.  Our shower is a barrel on a platform with a spigot on it, and our helmets are our face bowls.  Nice place, Guam.  I wish they would just give it back to the Japs and send us home.  

     Well, bye for now.  Be careful, and God bless you both.  Keep writing to this address until you hear from me again.

      Your loving son,
          Elwood

p.s.  Tell my baby doll I said hello, and that I miss her.

YouTube video on Guam: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6MXJMRYR4Q&feature=watch_response

About John

About John John Bolinger was born and raised in Northwest Indiana, where he attended Ball State University and Purdue University, receiving his BS and MA from those schools. Then he taught English and French for thirty-five years at Morton High School in Hammond, Indiana before moving to Colorado, where he resided for ten years before moving to Florida. Besides COME SEPTEMBER, Journey of a High School Teacher, John's other books are ALL MY LAZY RIVERS, an Indiana Childhood, and COME ON, FLUFFY, THIS AIN'T NO BALLET, a Novel on Coming of Age, all available on Amazon.com as paperbacks and Kindle books. Alternately funny and touching, COME SEPTEMBER, conveys the story of every high school teacher’s struggle to enlighten both himself and his pupils, encountering along the way, battles with colleagues, administrators, and parents through a parade of characters that include a freshman boy for whom the faculty code name is “Spawn of Satan,” to a senior girl whose water breaks during a pop-quiz over THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. Through social change and the relentless march of technology, the human element remains constant in the book’s personal, entertaining, and sympathetic portraits of faculty, students, parents, and others. The audience for this book will certainly include school teachers everywhere, teenagers, parents of teens, as well as anyone who appreciates that blend of humor and pathos with which the world of public education is drenched. The drive of the story is the narrator's struggle to become the best teacher he can be. The book is filled with advice for young teachers based upon experience of the writer, advice that will never be found in college methods classes. Another of John's recent books is Mum's the Word: Secrets of a Family. It is the story of his alcoholic father and the family's efforts to deal with or hide the fact. Though a serious treatment of the horrors of alcoholism, the book also entertains in its descriptions of the father during his best times and the humor of the family's attempts to create a façade for the outside world. All John's books are available as paperbacks and Kindle readers on Amazon, and also as paperbacks at Barnes & Noble. John's sixth book is, Growing Old in America: Notes from a Codger was released on June 15, 2014. John’s most recent book is a novel titled Resisting Gravity, A Ghost Story, published the summer of 2018 View all posts by John →
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