Mosquitoes Archives - Moss Letters

17 June 1945

Dear Folks:

Rather quiet this Sunday afternoon so I better grab hold of myself and get a few letters written. A few minutes ago I just returned from church services in the mess tent. The first we have had in three weeks due to the situation.

It is continuing (to) dry and today it is very warm but a slight breeze is blowing that makes it cool in the shade. Mosquitoes are bad at night but of course we all have nets and take Atabrine to curb malaria. Also planes spray the island often and it keeps the flies down to a minimum. They come soaring over very low letting out a white trail of insecticide.

Well, the Japs are now very compressed on the southern end of the island and I hear we have only about a mile to go – should be over in a couple of days. Our artillery has been sitting up a constant barrage. I suppose the Japs are about gone nuts now. Our sleeping tent is setting upwind of one of our gun batteries and every time they fire, the smoke blows down right over us, and it smells exactly like rotten egg gas, but we get used to it.

I’m still very fine and comparatively safe and little excitement has happened for me. All I’m afraid of is a Jap sneaking in at night, but we are well protected, so that isn’t much of a threat, just a possibility. About a week ago two of them tried to slip in the motor pool but the boys spotted them and fired at them. But they got away and before leaving dropped their packs, both full of grenades.

Just a second ago a guy brought me two letters, one from Dad and from Nancy. Nancy says she doubts if it rains as hard here as at home – well 13 inches in a week is a lot. Never saw it rain that much in Nebraska.

Now that things appear to be loosening up on getting home, I’m getting impatient. Between you and me I figure I’ll hit the September or October quota, but don’t bank too heavily on it. I just cannot imagine myself back with you and enjoying myself at home and being completely independent, at least for a while. But I feel certain I will see you this year and not as Nancy says, by the time she graduates – that’s much too far away.

No, I never get enough of your letters, dad as you say, to the contrary. I’m always watching the mail orderly and it’s very seldom I walk away from a mail call without anything. You do a good job of writing and I know it’s a big job writing to three of us but I hope soon that it will be cut to two, by me getting home.

Love,

7 August 1944

Dear Folks:

In a few minutes I’m going over the hill and down the road to the show but first I better scratch you out a short epistle. The last time I wrote you I was on Saipan where I was with Dick and where I could see Jack, but now I’m three miles across the channel on Tinian. Tinian is a green, oblong island with a plateau down the middle. It reminds me much of Maui. The fields are well laid out, and abounding with sugar cane, sweet potatoes and other small crops. Looking at the valley from Lake Minatare is much like the scene from here. Most of the farm homes I have seen look as though the Jap farmers must have been pretty well off. More presentable than those on Saipan. Tinian towns must have been picturesque little settlements when it was whole, but now it looks like Garapan. I never imagined I would see such destruction as I had seen in newsreels, etc., but that’s all I have seen for the last two months. Every building and shed has been hit, and even small houses setting hidden in cane fields have been demolished. On most of the Jap homes, the house is of wood with a tin roof, while the barn is usually reinforced concrete about eight inches thick, and a large cistern to collect rain water. Water by the way is a pretty important matter here and probably it contributed no little in whipping the Japs. Probably every Jap farmer was forced to build a concrete barn and maintain some stock for the army. On the southern part of the island snipers and civilians are being collected, although the island has been secured for some time. From the wreckage of houses we have taken what was left to make ourselves some shelter against the rain, and I wished you could see some of the Rube Goldberg contraptions that have been arranged. The architectural masterpieces that are showers are something to see. It seems that every piece of wreckage can be put to use in some way. It has been raining a lot lately and the mud is bad to slip around in. I’m getting behind on dirty clothes and tomorrow I think I’ll be forced to do some laundry. I wished you could see us whip up our supper. We have a small stove and we’re sure to make some man a good wife. The rations get a little tiresome but soon we’ll have a kitchen and back to good rations.

Well Mom and Dad I’m still very well. Dengue fever has hit some but I’ve been okeh so far. Of course the only really bad element to it all is the distance from home. I haven’t seen Dick for a week or two and probably won’t get to see him for some time although you can never tell. Probably I may not see Jack again either. Dusk is pulling the shades down so I better grab my mosquito drop and flashlight and get along to the show. Last night we sat in the rain and saw a show that was bad for the dogfaces titled ‘Love Can’t Be Rationed’. About the scarcity of men in the states and the feminine wolves. What a situation. Well adios this time.

Love,

18 July 1944

[Harold types]

Dear Folks:

Dick came down to see me today and I thought while we were laying around we just as well write you a letter – or try to. Right after we had dinner we walked along the beach road from Charan Kanoa to the end of the island looking for an army cemetery but couldn’t find it. While we were looking for the place, Dick showed me the places where his outfit landed and even where he dug his first foxhole. And we found a lot of Jap caves that were well concealed and topped over with a lot of dirt and leaves. They dig in like [illegible] caves are transforming the face of the [illegible] saw several thick walled concrete [illegible] from the point we had a good view of Tinian [illegible] over there must be thinking – if they can see what is going on [illegible] there is (a) sugar factory that stands out on the landscape. It took quite a beating from navy shells and girders and machinery are flung everywhere. From the factory runs a number of narrow gauge railroad lines. The army captured a few locomotives and now you can hear their high pitched whistle as the guys chug along using the cars to haul supplies, etc. The trains are small and look more like oversized toys. We haven’t had a look at Carapan yet and I have been itching to get up there and see what goes. The town is about ten thousand so there must be quite a lot to see. I haven’t seen a newspaper or magazine since I left Oahu and today Dick walked in with a Time magazine. I’m anxious to review it from cover to cover. I was asking Dick what I should write about and he said to mention that we will be sending home some souvenirs soon when the situation permits. I told you about the bayonet and the flag. In addition to those Dick got a wallet with quite a sum of Jap money in it, and many pictures of the officer’s family and what must be his wife. Also he got his insignia of a 2^nd lieutenant. He’ll probably have some more before it is all over. The weather here is about the same as on Oahu but right now is the season when the monsoons begin and the past few nights there have been heavy rainstorms. They say hurricanes strike near the island about once every two years and I hope this isn’t one of them. Today is pretty hot and sultry and the sand all around is hard on the eyes.

We were both wondering about Phil and whether he has come into the army yet. Every once in a while you see a crude handwritten sign over a foxhole saying Frisco 7752 miles, Tokyo 1521, and then we realize just how far away we are. Guam lies about 103 miles to the south and just to the north are the Bonims(?). It’s going to be a long boat ride home someday but we’re ready to accept it any time. And remind us never to take another ocean voyage when we get home. The food was pretty good on the boats but the chow lines are hard to buck, and the accommodations are hardly first class. Well I’m going to turn this over to Dick and let him add a few lines.

[Dick handwrites]

Today being Sunday I went to communion and then to see Harold. We’re taking it easy now after a little uneasiness. I’ll write some time later.

Love,

Dick

17 July 1944

Dear Folks:

I’m a long way from home but today seemed like old home week. We were taking a few minutes off with a pinochle game when somebody came striding in and said ‘Is there anyone from Nebraska in here?’ I was about ready to say your damn right when I recognized Jack Conklin. Ol’ big burly hairy-chested Jack stripped to the waist with a helmet and dark glasses on – I had to look close. He has been looking practically all over the island for me and when he did it was time for him to leave. We pumped each other’s arm for a minute then got the low down on each other. He couldn’t stay very long but we’ll be seeing each other again before long. Dick, myself, and Jack aren’t too far away from one another and probably in the next day or two we’ll celebrate by eating a can of Japanese crabmeat. It certainly is a treat to see someone like that. Jack looked good as hell and of course everyone over here is brown as a dirty penny. He said he hadn’t sent the pictures – hadn’t been able to develop them yet.

Tonight is a special night as it goes over here – its movie night – an old picture that I have seen before but I can always sit through it again. The mosquitoes will beat out those of Minatare any old day, but the GI lotion keeps them off pretty good. But then I suppose it will rain. Along with the nighttime pests is the land crab. Some of them are 7 or 8 inches across and when they get on the tin that we line our foxholes with or around boxes they scratch like hell and sometimes scare the wits out of you. They’re mean looking things. Little red ants run around too that leave a nasty sting that doesn’t go away right away. A few snipers are still afloat and only a night or two ago, a couple were killed around Charan Kanoa, and sometimes in the night you get to seeing things.

When Dick and I were out yesterday we noticed a bunch of Jap workers and thought how far behind the times they were. They don’t seem to have much labor-saving equipment and do about everything by hand. We saw a dozen of them pulling a tree stump when four of them could have picked it up and carried it off in a few minutes. On Maui the sugar cane production used a lot of cranes etc. but over here I guess it’s all by hand. They say that most of the working class are Japanese of the lower classes brought in from Southern Japan. Many of the Imperial Marines taken on the island were said to be pretty good sized but all I’ve seen are little short runts, bow-legged, and squint eyed. Several loads of Jap civilians go by every morning where they are put to work handling supplies or just cleaning up.

You should have a pretty good idea of the place from all I have written you – it has all been interesting and new to me and I thought perhaps you would be as interested as I was. I guess I better line up for chow – suppers are usually pretty good, but my appetite still could stand improvement. It is easy to get diarrhea or dysentery here and with so many flies you must be pretty careful. Well I’ll wind up for this time and hope I get some mail from you tomorrow.

Love,

10 March 1944

Dear Folks:

This is Saturday night, inspections are over, everything cleaned up and now we are spending a quiet evening. A few minutes ago finished a hotly contested bridge game but our side finally came out 30 better and fifty cents richer. Saturday nights usually mean a bridge game while the Hit Parade is going on. We hold the sessions in my room in the back of the billet and just made for such things. News is again slipping off to the leaner side at least as to what I feel I could write about. The office seems to keep up a pretty fast pace. Last week we undertook to do a GI remodeling job and now it looks pretty professional. Keeping account of the records of so many dogfaces runs into quite a lengthy job.

Dick called up last night and we had a drawn out conversation. We made arrangements to spend a weekend together and you can never tell when this may be the last one for along time so better take advantage of it. He seems always in good spirits and looks fine. But regardless of what he thought before, he misses home just as much as I do.

The mosquitoes are about as bad here as they are in Minatare. The billets are screened and we use nets at night but quite a few still bite while sitting around. You know that the day mosquito caused an epidemic of dengue fever for a while and parts of Honolulu were quarantined, and it may break out again if some precautions aren’t used. They say infected mosquitoes probably camp up on airplanes from the South Pacific and brought it here.

Received two pairs of GI glasses so have three now and fitted to the latest eye vision. These GI’s don’t look too good but they are certainly durable and can take a beating. I think my vision has gotten a little worse since I’ve been in but only a very little.

Had a letter from B. Emick a few days ago. I think he’s in another romantic tangle with that WREN in London. Wherever he goes I guess he always makes out with the womenfolk. Competition is terrific over here and I never get close enough to smell the powder on one. Well this isn’t what you could call a good letter but at least it will keep you informed and (a) little less anxious and I guess that’s a big part of it so goodnight for a little while.

Love,