Question 65: Free Response

I have been in the jungles 26 months. I was just wondering if they will take us back to the States before the war is over.

This jungle life will wreck your nerves without seeing action. The Army just as well get a little bit of credit for fighting in the South Pacific but it seems the Marines are getting all the glory. If the people back home don't think the jungle is hell just let them come over and stay for a few years with out seeing civilization.

I feel like a man who stays here 2 years deserves to go home.

In regard to the Casual coming from the states. I think they should all be sent out as privates, because it is only fair for a person who has served with an outfit for many months be set for the promotion in his organization and I think he is better qualified for the rating because he has had the experience.

As for breaks I think we should be allowed to have a longer break. As in my case I spent 1 year in the Solomon field and got a break for only three months in Civilization and over the most of our time was spent building up the Company area instead of being free to go on pass. In fact we were only allow out 1 day a week on pass and in that time I was only allow 1 town day pass.

For the time we spent in the island I think that the time we were allowed out was insufficient. I also think there is too much placed on appearance on what a soldier can wear here where there is nothing but jungle. I also feel that the army , Navy and Marines should all be treated the same in respect to quota and food etc. We found that after combat outfits which came in later were better fed than we boys who I feel should deserve the better food and quota. Also some are given beer and candy etc. While others can't get these. I feel that there should be something done about this and all should be treat the same.

All the old men that have been over so long that there just isn't any morale left.

All they can talk about is trying some way to get out of action and trying to get home for a while.

Morale I understand is the greatest importance to men and not since I have been in this Div. have the officers done anything for morale.

Most of the higher officers I think want to go higher and don't give us a thought.

Morale is the lowest in my outfit I have every saw it and if they don't give us some relief it going to be worse and theres no way to stop it, and there going to be more A.W.O.L. to my opinion. To tell the truth I am about ready to quit.

I think that troops fight much better if they have some idea of how long they have to stay in combat. In my division we thought that we were to stay in combat only till we got rid of all the Japs in the area. The men fought better in this first combat thinking this than they did in their second combat where they had decided that we were never going to get to go home until after the war. Also it is almost as bad living in the jungle when not in combat as it is during combat. A lot worse on you mentally. Combats are worse mentally for men than it is physically. I and most of the men I have talked to say that they could probably take another combat but they don't think they would be worth a damn.

I recall one time we were fighting and we heard John Lewis was having another coal strike well everyone's morale dropped 99%. If the people are going to do that back on the home front, what in hell do you think us guys are thinking about over here, lot of them say lets give it back to the Japs and go home.

Here is something that should be done after a man has been in one combat where there is malaria, he should be taken out and put where there is no malaria and I believe he will last a lot longer as a fighting man. After all we are trying to save men as much as we can. Malaria gets about 7 men and the Japs one. as far as I am concerned I would like to come home for awhile . I have been overseas for four years, it will be in May.

I think you stay to long combat or these damn Jungles, you forget what you are fighting for. You forget what you were back home. When you lose confidence in your self and every one else. If you could talk to some of your own people and maybe see your girl it would help a lot.

If you keep going into combat one after another you get to thinking always of doing all the fighting in this Army how long is this going to last. If I live thru it, I'll never be any good. That's what gets you down when you start thinking that way. You can't help it. Then if you stay days in some forgotten place without seeing one girl. I know it has gotten one down and plenty of the fellows in my outfit. If you could see the States again it would be different, why can't you after 2 years.

Use smokeless powder for jungle fighting. Give troops K ration in jungle, and not "C" ration, when they carry them in their packs.

Give troops a chance to go see their family after two years away, so they will have something to look forward to while they are out here fighting. Lots of soldiers have give up hopes to go home. They feel as if they will be killed in the next battle, and their moral is very low when they first get in it.

I myself believe that men over seas should get relieved. Being in the Jungle for a length of time really hurt the moral of the troops. They soon get the feeling that they are fighting the war by themselves and the men back in the states just sit back and watch.

I realize that the war must be won that the guardian of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Jersey Coast are very important but why of all people can't the 25th division do its share of guarding. We realize the men near there want to come over here so why the hell don't you send them. How about give a guy a break.

Why do officers have dogrobbers to dig their fox holes on the front lines, can't they dig their own. Why do enlisted men get busted for being yellow and officers get sent back to a office job. Why do they stop fruit juices and can fruit and the C.R. and we get very little and also how do they rank 4 doughnuts to our one.

Why do they send officers back to the states for being sick and leave us here.

We have been in several combats & I must say that we did very satisfactory, but the most of the men are in bad health & need a break out of the jungles & then they would be ready to kill the rest of the little yellow japs. & I also must say that when the men are not in a fight especially in the infantry the officers don't let the men have any rest they march them over mountains & roads & keep them on the run all the time just seems like they cant stand to see them get any rest. I also cant see any use in reville why not let the men have an extra hours sleep for they have to work hard enough any way. If the 2 year bill dont let the men go home how abought a 60 day furlow. I have heard many a man say that if he could have a furlow & see his people he would be willing to fight till the japs & germans were all corralled. I hope to hear good news of some kind.

There should be some definite decision made as to when a man will be relieved from overseas duty. He should be allowed more freedom when in Civilization if his outfit is there to give the men that. This is from personal experience and applies only as far as my particular outfit is concerned. Hopes have been raised only to find them doomed to disappointment. This has had a bad reaction.

A fighting outfit - any and all of them - should be used for combat as exclusively as possible. To make a labor outfit from Combat troops unless the reason be excellent, doesn't tend to bring up the morale, especially directly after combat. Any outfit being replaced on the front should be replaced in its entirety until they are reorganized. No branch of the service should have more publicity than any other or should they be returned to the states sooner.

I believe that the organization I am in has been pushed around too much. The men's moral gets so low that they don't give a dam if they ever get back. I feel that when we had a rest in N.Z. [New Zealand] we were granted 2 day leaves which for 1 year in the Jungle was hardly enough. We feel like long lost men - forgotten men and why - because we are not being care for as I hoped we would be. I no [know] my nerves are not made of steel and one more campaign will mean certain death for me. Why cant we go home and have a chance on defence work so we may have a little instore for the future. The replacements we are getting are too young. These men are good fighting but do not last long because of over confidence. Send men about the ages of 20 - 30 there the ones who sit back and tell us how they winning the war. We done a good part of winning the war let those other 5 million take a crack at it.

Why Should Officers be treated as Lords & Master to look down on thier Men not look out for them to fly off the handle like a child?

Why can't I receive clothes that fit me?

We don't we get proper dental & Medical attention?

Why don't the Army issue ponchoes for rain & Jungle boots that don't leak?

What are those 4 million troops back home doing to Win the War as far as Combat is concerned?

Why are they waiting so long for a Second Front the longer they wait the Better the Enemy will be prepared we know from experience.

The War is too slow & they must loose men the longer they wait the more we will loose.

We had 3 combats in six moves over a period of 3 yrs.

I am now in worst condition than I ever was

I have been overseas now for two years and in this time have spent almost a year in a theater of war, which was jungles and infected areas. It is hard for a person to keep going at times knowing he is just existing and not what you would call living. I can readily understand that during war one has to sacrifice a lot but it is my belief that after being overseas as long a person should have a chance at to return home so he could at least see what he is fighting for. Morale plays one of the biggest parts in a war than anything I know of and when this is gone there isn't much left of a person to keep him going.

Officers usually get the best of everything.

Feel as though I should get to go home after being in the jungles for 11 months, and send fresh troops from the states to replace men who have been in combat and deserve a break and not a lot of promises.

In my past combat experience I have take notice of one thing and that is the old men who I have been with all the time. In our first campaign everyone took it fine and not to bad in the second. But now after about 16 months in the jungle and from two to three years over seas with one brake or rest out of the jungles which was cut to about one third of what we had been promised and sent back to awaite another campaign the moral is gone. All the initiative is gone as it seems there is no future in going on because if we don't get killed or wounded our health will be so poor before we get out of here that we will never be any good if we do come through the war an get home.

When we were in combat we was treated as men and left mostly on our own to do our jobs and never was bothered by our leaders, but soon as a battle was over the same officials issued out orders and made us go through the same thing when you first enter the army in the States and as far as making the men take atabrine that never had malaria I think it will ruin a mans health and the government wont give a damn when this war is over and we are mustered out

Having served almost eleven years in the Army I feel like I can speak with a little authority in regards to the troops moral. Most of the men in the div. are old timers and the majority of them would like to go home for a rest and try to forget about the war far awhile. Although not being in actual combat since the war began we have worked hard since Dec. 7, 1941 and have lived a pretty rugged life with the exception of our recent rest period in N.Z. [New Zealand]. We read in the papers where men back in the States are yelling their head off for a chance to get in some of the fighting. I know we are just as anxious to get back as they are to come over, well why not give them their chance. It is my opinion fresh troops make better fighting men as they are roaring to go. I know for a fact that when our div. first landed on Guadalcanal we were ready and able come what may but to-day things aren't the same. Men get tired looking at the same faces day in day out and after so long just don't give a damn. I think it would be better for the Army as a whole to swap men around in different divisions and they would have a brighter outlook on things.

All I have had against being in combat is that I was never given a chance to see my folks before coming overseas. I have been overseas one year and in this jungles I believe a man loses a lot of his life here. and the longer I stay here the more action I will see, and of course we can't be lucky all the time. And that little thing is always on our minds - will be get to see our folks again.

Combat teams shouldn't have to unload supplies after a campaign is won. Cut brush and clean up tropical islands as on Guadalcanal it lowers the morale. Soldiers and marines have nothing in common because the marines get all the credit out this way. Lets leave the news reporters in the states, will tell them when its over and that's all they have to know and that's all that counts.

Enlisted men as well as officers should be able to go for rests shortly after a campaign is over,

The Sec. of Navy Col. Knox and our General have lied to to their men about "seeing bright lights for last Easter if we got the Canal." We got it and waited 10 months for a decent break. The men didn't like that worth a damn.

We need more combat men out here and not just a sideshow affair for the newspapers.