Ranger course Archives - Moss Letters

29 October 1943

Dearest Folks:

This isn’t the best time to write a letter during the noon hour, but after reading the letter that I just got from you the urge possessed me so here goes. A good letter by the way, and a good (one) to use in answering. If you hadn’t reminded me probably I might have forgotten that you are having Indian summer – been a long time since I’ve been in a climate where the seasons change very much – at least it seems like a long time. And then regarding the item about hunting, pheasants are plentiful here too, but I haven’t seen anyone shooting them. It would be pretty dangerous I guess and maybe someone might think there was something the matter. But oddly it seems to me there aren’t many birds. Rat control is a considerable problem on the islands and perhaps they keep the bird population down.

And about the glasses – yes I still wear them most of the time. You know I busted my civilian pair on the boat coming over and of course all I have now is the GI’s that are a good pair and plenty serviceable. Reading quite a bit puts a strain on them sometimes and about a week ago a cyst started in the right eye but it healed off itself. I hope to have my eyes re-examined soon but the GI red tape always has to be cut first.

So Dick wrote about a Chinese girl too? There are white girls on the island but they are pretty scarce most of them having been evacuated after the blitz. A white girl at a dance is practically mobbed. And speaking about the blitz, it’s interesting to talk to some of the people especially the white ones, about the first days after the Japs hit Pearl Harbor. Suspicion and fears were everywhere and they had the life scared out of them. I wonder how all the Japs here would have reacted if Japan had taken over?

And next to the commando course. You should have seen me yesterday if you can’t imagine me as one. Yesterday we went through an Infiltration Course that involves crawling, and I really mean crawling, a hundred yards under machine gun fire and through holes with a little dynamite in them, besides crawling under barbed wire. The idea of bullets overhead didn’t worry me so much as the physical exertion to crawling. That doesn’t seem very far but oh boy it sure runs into work. A guy looks about like a rattlesnake worming along and we were so dirty when we finished it was hard to tell who was who. I felt a little funny once or twice when I saw a tracer bullet streak over but otherwise it was okeh. After this experience we went to the beach and bounced around the waves so that was some compensation for the dirt.

Well Mom and Dad since I’ve started this, evening has rolled around and now I’m about to take off for the show so better wind this up. The pictures enclosed are ones that I have taken over the past two months and maybe they will be interesting.

Love,

19 October 1943

Dear Dad:

I’ll aim this letter at you this time having received a good full page one today. And what a day this one was. I feel like a kid after a day at the carnival. This morning I went over a Ranger Course that took all my strength to finish. I was never so (tired) since the days (when) we used to climb in the mountains. To describe it most effectively I guess it’s about like some of the training pictures you so often see in newsreels. After I finished I swore I was going to hug my bunk for the rest of the day, but a swimming party was arranged and the first thing I knew I went along. The waves at the beach were big and powerful. Its good fun to get in front of one and let it bowl you in to shore and that was okeh till I came down on my shoulder into a rock. The rock took a couple of big hunks of skin off and bruised my arm a little but it feels fine now. I wish you could have been with me today and seen the beautiful ocean and the beach. Although to most of the guys the ‘Paradise of the Pacific’ has become a prison rock to them. It hasn’t for me. The more I see of this place the more I feel I want to see more of the world. As a matter of fact I guess I daydream of many things after the war, maybe pipe dreams and impossibilities but nevertheless I think of them a lot and hope a few of them come into reality after the end. I never become disgusted at Army routines or other things that are different to civilian life, but I do get impatient over the fact that so much of my time is being wasted when probably at no other time should it be so productive. I guess that shouldn’t be a complaint – so many others are faced with the same thing. Knowing that this is the case I am trying to do the next best thing and even the small advantages compensate for some of the loss.

Reading in your letter about K Lackey I can’t but help to remark. I can’t figure that guy out, especially sitting himself in a liquor store and probably thinking up more things than ever to elucidate on. I guess it takes all kinds.

Well Dad this is a good night to pull down the book and study till bedtime. By this time I have read the two volumes you sent and of course I intend to (read) over them again. Those books have become more less inanimate objects and more like friends every day, and the object of my complaint is that I can’t study them all the time. So I guess this is all for this time. Thanks for the long letter today.

Love,

13 October 1943

Dearest Folks:

I’ve been going pretty strong all day so I guess I can keep going long enough to write you some sort of letter. Then after I finish this I’m in for a quiet evening with some bunk fatigue. A few days ago had a letter from Dick but it was the usual dozen lines or so. I had hoped that I would be able to be near him by getting a crack at the school there but the application didn’t get through. I know he doesn’t sound too happy but I don’t think it is anything to worry about. He must still have the farm in his blood. Said he wanted to be with Gramp on their place.

Tom does have big things on his mind if he attempts to go through what he wants to do. But it would be a great thing and the ends would be worth about any sacrifice they would make. I wish I was in the position he is to do something effective about it.

Last Sunday at the GI club there was a jitterbug contest. The local wahines (wah-heen-ees), or most of them, feel pretty important dancing with the smoother of the GI wolves. What they do on the dance floor is more like organized mayhem, so I don’t venture out very often.

Of course I look forward to every issue of the Free Press and especially to what the guys in the service column are doing. I was thinking last night how far apart the ‘four’ of us are from each other. And I also spent quite a little time dwelling upon the ideas we had and all the rest of the things that came from our years of running around together.

I’ve sat here for at least fifteen minutes trying to start another paragraph but nothing seems to be forthcoming so guess I’ll have to quit. I’m fine personally but can’t get anymore meat on my ribs. Getting more workouts in the field and more of this training that fills up so many newsreels, but the office still requires quite a bit of time. The evenings are perfect and now with the restrictions lessened on lights, they are even more enjoyable. Well I guess this is ‘pau’.

Love,

4 October 1943

Dear Folks:

I guess I better write when I have a little more than the ordinary stuff that goes in my letters. In the first place, last night I saw a stage production of ‘MacBeth’ that was very good and superbly acted. Although it was a GI show and put on by the Special Service office, from what I’ve heard it would match about the best performance anywhere. As far as I can remember this was the first I’ve seen of the legitimate stage and from what I saw I would like to see more. I bought an autographed copy that I will send later and will give you a better idea of what I (am) talking about. You must think my life over here is about all filled up with good times and more like a vacation, but that isn’t the case. As a matter of fact this morning I saw a Ranger course demonstration that I will go through later. But the difficulty of the course and the hard work that will come didn’t interest me as much as the talk that the office gave before the demonstration. He is a veteran of Guadalcanal and other places in the South Pacific and what he stressed constantly was the necessary mental self-confidence and attitude. But all the atrocities and tricks that he said about the Japs didn’t affect me as much as all the mental conditioning that was necessary. Although I guess he’s right it all rubbed me the wrong way. I would hate to see myself with everything he says we should have. Well anyway if I get through the obstacles all right I should be in pretty rugged physical condition, although I can’t imagine myself being much of a commando.

On the lighter side of life I picked up the fiddle a while tonight and scraped through a few of the numbers I used to hack at a few years back. It had a good effect and made me feel like I wasn’t so far from home.

I’ve been hanging on for the news of Katie and I suppose that by now everything is well along. It sure seems like a long time since you first went to Denver.

Well I better get to bed early tonight. I’ve a big day ahead, as a matter of fact I’ll probably be dragging in like a wet rat. I never know exactly what to say or add as a last line but I guess I can best sum it up by saying I miss all of you so much that every night a lot of memories and things pop up in my mind that I didn’t give thought to before.

Love,