- my history
About Metamorphosis
A collection of poetry
Life Forms on Mars
A short story
The War Years
Letters from Home
A recreation of life in Guadalupe, California in 1944 from
comments in letters by my mom to my dad and from personal memories.
To be added later.
The 165 days in the combat zone, Luzon, The Philippines, 1945. A limited recreation of what my dad faced and experienced from whatever comments I can find in letters from him to my mom and from a few memories of comments he made about his war experiences.
When my dad was reassigned to overseas he was in the 274 Rep. Co., 14th Rep. Bu. As of March 26, 1945 his unit became Co. F, 161st Infantry. He saw 91 continuous days of combat in Luzon, the Philippines, from early March into early June 1945. He was rotated to a resting area and was part of the occupation forces in Japan at which time he was assigned to Co. 4, 4th Infantry.
Letters from home
Letters to home
The Souvenirs of War
This small rural community sitting just 4 miles east of the Pacific Ocean offerred little in the way of work for the newly arrived families. The principal employers of the town were all agriculturally related businesses that were all highly labor-intensive. The newly declared state of war had opened up new avenues of employment as men signed on for the war effort. One such employer, The California Pine Box Company, was perhaps the largest employer in the town. This is where my dad found a job.
Being a small town affordable housing was a premium and almost non-existant. Fortunately my parents had discovered the Walker's Motor Court that sat just west across Guadalupe Street from "Pine Box." While little more than a two room apartment with an indoor toilet the monthly $6 a month rent was within the means of their modest income (probably less than $200 a month). With the rationing of foodstuffs and gasoline the availability of desired commodities was more hapstance than of simple underordering. Some food items, such as meats, were often not even available or beyond one's income.
At the end of 1942 I was borned at Sister's Hospital over in Santa Maria, some ten miles east. Being borned with a bilateral cleft palate and hair lip prevented me from going home after being borned. I was transferred to Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, California, where I spent the first six months of my infancy undergoing corrective surgery for my severe condition.
In March of 1944 my younger brother, Michael Ray, was borned at Sister's Hospital in Santa Maria. He was a vibrant and healthy infant. However, my dad was soon inducted into the Army and left home in early August 1944 for military training at Camp Hood in Texas. He was assigned to the 25th Battlion.
Before leaving my dad had been able to save some of his earnings for the support of my mom and her two young ones. The usual allocation of my dad's military pay to help support his wife and children was delayed by unknown miscommunications, though eventually my mom was soon receiving a regular monthly stipend in late 1944. Her almost daily ritual of writing my dad revealed a period of loneliness for her and the role that Hollywood played in helping allay the boredom and the absence of her dearly beloved husband.
Soon enough, though, my dad received his furlough in December 1944 and was home to see wife and kids. Some memorable photographs were made at that time.
1945 started with my dad's transfer to Fort Ord and around January 15, 1945, was shipped out to join the convoy to the Philippines where the 25th Battalion had landed on January 11th on a beach on Luzon in the Lingayen Gulf. The 25th Battalion spent 165 days before the fighting was over. My dad experienced 91 days of direct combat and suffered the loss of one of his closest army buddies (a serviceman named Victor E. Cook) who was killed by his side as they fought from a foxhole.
At the end of June, 1945, the enemy had been subdued and the 25th Battalion was retired to the Tarlac area. With the surrendar of Japan, it was reassigned to the occupation forces and landed at Nagoya in early October, 1945. My dad soon found himself in Koromo, Japan. In a letter of December 17, he mentioned that he was expected to ship out sometime in a week.
July 2, 2007
© Jerry Copeland