CEDAR COUNTY, NEBRASKA - CEDAR COUNTY SOLDIERS & SAILORS ==================================================================== NEGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the NEGenWeb Archives by Carol Tramp. Permission granted by: Rob Dump, Editor, Cedar County News ====================================================================== (NOTE: TWELVE ARTICLES FOLLOW BELOW.) VIEWING THE WAR WITH... CEDAR COUNTY SOLDIERS AND SAILORS EDITOR'S NOTE--The News will be glad to print letters of general interest from Cedar county men in the armed services. WILLARD GREGG WRITES FRIENDS ABOUT DUTIES AS MILITARY POLICEMAN EDITOR'S NOTE--The following letter was written by Willard Gregg, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jesss Gregg and grandson of Mr. and Mrs. G.A. Snowe of Wynot, to the teacher and pupils of School District No. 27, better known as the Monument school, which is Willard's home district. Military Police, Unit 1919 You were asking me to write you a letter telling you and the children about the country and my work out here. Well I will do the best I can and that is not so good. I will send you some postcards that will help some. We just got our first frost last Monday night and I notice that it does not get so cold here as it does back home but you notice it so much worse here than you do back there. It rains about every day here at this time of year but in the summer time it is sure a nice place to be. It does not get very warm and there are no flies here to speak of. Well that is about all I can tell you about the climate here. The people right around here do not do much farming, they mostly all work in the shipyards about a mile and a half from the post and they employ an awful lot of people. I would say there is about 75,000 people working there. You have likely heard of the company, it is the Kaiser and Company shipyards and they really put out the ships. I have been down and watched them launch a couple of the big ships--that is really worth seeing. Besides the shipyards there is a lot of other industries here such as canneries and big fruit orchards and also a lot of the people work at the docks. You see the Columbia river comes right between Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash. It also is the state line. People from all over the country come out here to work in the defense projects. They also have quite a lumber industry such as paper mills, they have the largest paper mill in the workd down here at Camas, Wash. Well, that is about all I know about the country except that it is a great summer resort here. I will tell you about my work now and the life of a soldier. It is a good life to lead and I really like it. The outfit I am with is the Military Police. We take care of Portland, and other towns around here and besides that we poll the interior guard here at the post and have the prisoners and guard house to take care of. The last three weeks I have been working at the main gate. If you have ever been on an army post you will notice that there is a sentry or an M.P. at each entraance gate. My duty is to check all people and vehicles going in and out to see that they have passes and each civilian person working on the post has a picture pass which he has to show before he or she can enter. The same way with army cars and trucks and dispatches have all got to be checked going out. I also polled the guard here with the rest of the boys. That is a sort of tiresome job. You poll guard at night and take prisoners out to work in the day time. You get 24 hours on and 24 hours off. I also worked in Portland for eight weeks. My work there was to keep the soldiers out of trouble and to see that they conducted themselves properly. I was doing the same work as a civilian policeman. We had good cooperation with the Portland police while we were there. We also picked up a lot of deserters and A.W.O.L.'s too. We also take the soldiers back to their organization that are A.W.O.L. or have deserted the army and when they get back they get their punishment which is not as bad here as it is in combat. If you desert your company while at combat it is a death penalty or life in a federal penitentiary such as the pen at Leavenworth, Kan. It is getting late and lights should be out. As ever, Willard. GETS V-MAIL LETTER WYNOT - Mrs. Ludwig Heine received a V-mail letter from her husband in Hawaii. Cpl. Don Arndt, who has been spending his furlough at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. E.T. Arndt, left Saturday for Camp Beauregard, La. Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Jones have received letters and a Christmas box from their son, Ernest, who is somewhere in the Solomon Islands. MEMBER OF BOISE CREW IS HOME FOR HOLIDAYS LAUREL - Francis Paulsen, one of the members of the crew of the U.S. Boise which has been credited with sinking six Janasese war ships, is spending the holidays here with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. G.A. Paulsen. His ship is undergoing repairs at a Philadelphia navy yard. Francis, 22, enlisted in the navy following his graduation from Laurel high school in 1939. RETURNS TO DUTY Pvt. Eugene G. Schulte left Saturday for Los Angelese, Calif., after a week's furlough with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Schulte. He was recently transferred from military police duty at Santa MOnica, Calif., to a medical detachment at Los Angeles. The Scultes received word that their son, Pvt. Arthur F. Schulte, had been transferred from Sheppard Field, Tex., to Madison, Wis., where he is studying to be a radio technician. The Schultes have four sons in the service. VISITS PARENTS COLERIDGE - Oliver Wolfe arrived home Saturday night from Fort Knox, Ky., for a visit with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Wolfe. He returned Sunday night. BRIEF FURLOUGH COLERIDGE - Geroge Sandrock, who is stationed at Fort Knox, Ky., spent Saturday at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Konrad Sandrock. BEING SENT ABROAD COLERDIGE - Mr. and Mr. Lou J. Dendinger received a telegram from their son, James, that he was being sent abroad. James enlisted in the navy September 14 and received his basic training at Great Lakes and since has been stationed at Norfolk, Va. HAS LEG INJURY WYNOT - Pvt. Adrian M. Sudbeck, who is in the medical corps of the army at Camp Butner, N.C., writes his folks here that with the exception of a slight injury to his leg he is O.K. SOLDIER ILL WYNOT - Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Rieken received a letter from their son, Gerhard, saying that he is ill and is in a hopsital. Gerhard was recently sent from New Guinea back to Australia. HOME ON FURLOUGH MAGNET - Cpl. Gerald A. Henrickson arrived home Friday to spend a ten-day furlough with his wife and baby daughter at the home of his parents, Mr. and ... [NOTE: REMAINDER OF ARTICLE CUT OFF.] PVT. JEROME MARX DESCRIBES TRAINING AS A MARINE ROOKIE EDITOR'S NOTE - The following letter to The News contains first impressions of Pvt. Jerome J. Marx, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Marx of Hartington, at the U.S. Marine training center at San Diego, Calif. He enlisted recently and has been at the camp only a few days when this letter was written. "I hope you received my card of last Sunday. We have a little spare time each night for writing letters. At present and for seven weeks in the future we stay in boot camp. This camp is mainly to make it clear that you have to learn to take orders. Mind you, we do or else. "Everyone has had his hair cut except four of us--I'm one of the four. We were on special duty for the sergeant at the time so we have a day to catch up with the rest of the group. We printed all the names on the boys' blankets, sweaters and other articles. "One nice thing so far is that the entire group that started out from Omaha is still in the same platoon for at least the time we remain in boot camp. "The first night we arrived there was plenty of excitement for everybody. We were all lined up and given orders to start marching to the bus. Two buses took us out to the base. We didn't get to bed until one o'clock. Remember the time last summer Cal Stewart said you have to learn to cuss if you want to become a sergeant or corporal or even a buck private. You don't have to doubt his word. "We slept in a room the first night, a tent the next two nights and have a room again for tonight--that is if we don't move again. Hard telling when they tell us to fall out. Sometime you may be sleeping, taking a shower or writing a letter your sweetest girl friend and they'll tell you to fall out for duty. We do our own washing and we wash every day. The Marines are spotless. The girls are as scarce as the hair on our heads. We don't get to go to town at all while we're in boot camp. "Our meals are very good and you eat all you want. This is one place you don't starve. You wash your own dishes. Some day we'll make a good husband for one of these girls that needs somebody to look after her. "The weather down here isn't as bright as I expected. In fact it gets pretty chilly at nights. I saw Pvt. Jim Reifert twice although he didn't see me. However, in time we should both see each other. Rodney Kent of Coleridge is down here with me so that's one fellow I know for sure. GEORGE REED WRITES THAT AFRICANS ARE FRIENDLY TO AMERICAN SOLDIERS (EDITOR'S NOTE - The following letter was written by Sgt. George Reed to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Reed of Laurel shortly after his arrival in Africa recently as a member of the Allied forces. He had been in England since late summer.) Dear Folks: "We have been in Africa for two weeks and what a place this is. Three races of people here--Spanish, French and Arabs. We have a hard time understanding them. Also their customs are so different from ours. But they are friendly. There was a battle with the French earlier but we missed that. "After we left our boats we carried our 60-pound packs for eight miles to camp under the date palm trees which are still green and have a few dates left. The weather here is much like our fall at home--cool of mornings but growing warmer during the day and with little rain. They say it really gets hot here in summer but hope we get back home before summer time. "I won't know how to act to sit down to a table and eat a regular meal, then go to a show or dance afterward. "Tell everyone hello for me at home." George DECEMBER 10, 1942 CEDAR COUNTY NEWS