Okinawa, Japan

Dad arrived in Okinawa on April 1, 1945

Dear Mother and Dad:

Sorry that it has been so long since I have written but while we were aboard ship the daily routine was so much the same that there just wasn't anything to talk about. The last few nites it got very hot and many of us took to sleeping out on the deck. One nite were very comfortably situated when about two oclock up came one of those frequent rainstorms and before we could move, we were all quite thoroughly soaked. But all in all, it was a very enjoyable trip and I think most of the fellows enjoyed it fairly well. But you can mark my words that it is sure a relief to be on land again. We got in the other day (April 1st; Battle of Okinawa began that day.) and haven't done much yet except get things squared away. I ran into a number of fellows that I went to school with back at Quantico and New River and it was very good to see them. My bunk mate at Quantico is down in a hospital here, having just come back from the last operation. I don't know how bad he's hurt but I am going to try and get down there in the nere future. We are living in tents now and aside from the fact that it is a considerable distance from the states, the place is not much worse than any tent camp in the states. As yet there is no water except what we carry in our helmets or pails that we have expropriated, but it is surprising how nice a shower you can take with your helmet, as well as wash your clothes, shave, etc. We have electric lights in our tent but some of them don't as yet. I spent the first day building a little furniture for the tent and you would be surprised how livable it looks. Built e a wash stand for my helmet and expropriated a five gallon bucket. Also have a writing table and a cabnet. The only thing about making a place too nice is that as soon as you get all the improvements completed, off you go to some other place. They have an outdoor movie that is showing some pretty fair pictures. The movie is proceeded by a very good news commentary, and of late, it sounds very encouraging. Certainly appears as if the European affair could very easily finish up shortly. Hope so. Haven't got a line on Mike, but I believe that he is in on the latest movement.

Right now I am writing this by Coleman Lantern light and the darn thing is just about shot. Needs another mantle. I got a new job today. Am now Exec. Officer of H & S Do, since we added a few new infantry officers to the company to take care of the training program. Sure hope that we get split up soon and get in a regular outfit. The uncertainty of a draft soon begins to get on ones nerves. Haven't got any mail yet but hope to have some in the next day or two. There was a mixup in our mail somewhere along the line. Don't worry, please. I'm feeling fine and in very good health. Say hello to everybody, Love.

April 8, 1945

Got your no. 5 letter today and have likewise received all the others. Our mail service is getting very good now and it is taking about 5 or six days to get letters from the West Coast.

Today a bunch of us went down to the beach swimming. I'm not kidding you, but  the place looked like Coney Island on the fourth of July. It is a very nice beach with the exception of coral rocks scattered all over the place. there is sure a lot of difference between the water here and that which we sued to swim in in Puget Sound or even down in Southern Cal. It is really nice. There were a lot of army and navy nurses swimming today too but most of them are pretty sad apples. (But they all had a man, you can bet your neck on that). I had a surprising thing happen while I was down there. I was walking along the beach and some guy came up behind me and gave me a swat on the back, but you would never guess who it was. Bill Blecken. I was just as surprised to see him as he was to see me. He's been out here with a ea Bees outfit since October and says that he has a pretty soft job. I'm going to try to get off one of these nights soon and go down and have dinner with him. His outfit is located about ten miles down the road from us so it won't be too hard to get down there. When I left Cal Lillian told me that she thought that he might be out around here but since I got here I didn't know where to inquire as to whether he was here. But you can tell his folks that he looks fine and seems to be having a pretty good time. At least, if he spends as much time at the beach as I would I'm sure he would be having a very good time. But it's certainly a small world.

I'm sorry to hear that Mable didn't fair so well with the SeaBee. Incidentally, when you write her next, you might remind her that she owes me a letter that I would more than enjoy receiving. also tell her that I was sorry that I didn't get down and visit with her friends in Carlsbad but I just didn't seem to get the time. (I just rewound and turned over this ribbon to see if it would make it any better and it did, now maybe you'll be able to read it without too much difficulty.)

Just got back from hearing the news and it certainly sounded good. they've just about got all the Jap navy sunk now so from now on there ought not to be too much opposition. The war in Europe is going very favorable too, and it won't be long before the country is completely cut up. The Okinawa campaign seems to be going very favorably too with casualties not too high.

[here he makes reference to his poor handwriting and need for a typewriter. BUT he thinks his is better than brother David's, and would appreciate it if David would type his correspondence. He also talks about Caroline, David's future wife.]

Letters from Camp Pendleton, California

We haven't found letters between November, 1944 and January, 1945.  He gives no hints to the reason, nor does he mention when he actually transferred to California.

January 30, 1945

February 13, 1945

 This is hardly legible, so I'll transcribe below......

2- In regard to this draft, it is composed of all types of men. There is in the Marine Corps a system of classification in which men are segregated acording to their specialty, ie--riflemen, carpenters,cooks, engineer personnel, ordinance, quartermaster, etc. When a draft goes out, it is composed of all types and these men stay together until they reach a distribution center somewhere out in the Pacific, at which time they are all divided up and assigned to various units in accordance with the present demand. At present, the officers in the draft are just acting as overseers, so to speak, that is, there is no organized units such as go into the field for combat. That all comes later. So the men that I have now are not engineers,necessarily. In fact, I don't think any of the[m] are. In one way it is kind of bad, since I am not gaining any practical experience at the job. I've got a company of 80 men that are more or less service troops. I take care of supplying the guard for the entire camp and the men that are off guard one day are used for working parties. So much for that, I hope it is a little clearer now. If it isn't, just ask the questions and I'll try to answer them. Still don't know when we are going to shove off. Guess nobody does, leastwise, any 2nd Lt's.

I don't know if you ever remember Tom Newsom over at the house [ΣΑΕ at Washington State University]. He was yell leader for a year. A big tall fellow. He was a good friend of Ostarello's and mine. Anyway, his mother lives just a few blocks from the Casseday's, so Sat we went over to see her. She had come up to Pullman on the mothers day when we pledged him and I had met her then,so I thought it would be nice if I went over and saw her. Tom is flying B-24's in India.

Got a letter from Bill Taylor today and he still seems to be in as cheerful a mood as ever. But he doesn't say a darn thing, all he can do is ridicule the Marine Corps which leaves me no alternative than to do the same to his organization.

Last nite our hut looked like the sleeping porch of the SAE house on some nite during pledge week. Somebody had gone out into the hills and picked up a bunch of cow bones and rocks and sagebrush and very cleverly filled everybody's bed with the stuff. It was hardly safe to leave the place for fear that when you came back you would find a dead rabbit in your bed. But anything to break up the monotony. Everybody is getting so firmly entrenched down

February 28, 1945

Dear Mother and Dad:

Just a short note before going to bed. Haven't written this week because I was kind of sick the first two days. Don't know what it was but my stomach was somewhat upset and kind of got me down for a while, but I'm okay now. It's just about the first time since I got in the Corps that I've been sick.

I did quit[e] a lot of running back and forth to L.A. this weekend as somewhat of a dirty deal was pulled on me, at least I thought that it was a dirty deal. I had previously been told that I could have the weekend off and sincer it was one of Mary's first sundays that she hasn't had to work, we had planned to go up in the mountains. But five minutes before I left camp, I was told that I had to work sunday and it was done in such a manner that it really burned me up. But you know that you can't buck it in this outfit so there is no use brooding over it. So I had to get back here sunday morning in order to go to work at nine. It was supposed to last all day but when I got here I was fortunate to find another lt. who was willing to take the co. out in the afternoon so I was able to leave at one. I was planning on coming back on the bus Sat. nite but the Cassedays thought it would be fun to drive me back early sunday morning so we got up at five, had breakfast and then started at six. It is about a two hour drive, but one of the water hoses broke on the car,and it heated up so bad that we couldn't go all the way. So I got out on the road and was lucky enough to catch a ride that was going right by camp, so I wasn't late. But it was too bad, because they had gone to so much trouble to try to get me down in time. But everything worked out fine in the end, as it always does. I would have like to have had them comedown and see the camp but maybe they can get down before they leave. Incidentally, do you think that you could scare up a couple of more gas stamps?

Mother, I'm at a loss to think of something to get Mrs. Casseday. They've been so nice to me that I'd like to get them something but at buying presents, I am completely at a loss. Maybe you could give me a few suggestions. And then I'll worry about trying to find it. I've looked in the gift shop here at camp and there just isn't a darn thing.

Will rite soon, but right now I've got to go to bed.

Love Bob

Introduction and Letters from Quantico, VA

I am creating this blog so I can share my father's letters from World War II with family and friends who might be interested in reading them.  I will edit the images and my comments and annotations as I learn how to operate a blog, so bear with me.  I am going to plunge right in with the first letter we have, from February 13, 1944. (He was 21 years old!) He is in the USMC Officer's Candidate School in Quantico, VA (tbc) It, and a few to follow, is in longhand, so I will translate. (I will try to resist the temptation to correct his spelling, hard as that might be.) Dad was resourceful, and he knew the limits of his penmanship, so he usually bought, found, or "acquired" a typewriter for his frequent and descriptive letters to his parents.

Here we go:

Feb 13, 1944
Dear Mother and Dad,
Happy birthday, Mother. If my memory is right, today is your birthday but I haven't had any chance to get a card or anything.

This last week has really been a bad one and I will try to give it to you in cronological order.

We left Monday for our bivouac which was about 12 miles out in the woods. We carried about 30 lbs of pack, so it wasn't bad going out. When we got there each platoon was given a section of the camp to defend so we all began digging our foxholes. If you have ever tried to dig a hole in the ground 6 ft long, 30 inches wide and 20 inches deep with only your hands and a bayonet, you can

realize what it was like. We spent all afternoon getting them dug and camouflaged and after they were all done, we got shovels issued to us. That nite our platoon drew the security watch. It was four hours at a stretch and I got an 8-12 watch. I had to lie out at a road junction and watch for enemy movement and patrols. I can never remember being so cold for four hours in my life. I just lay out there and shook til I thought all my bones were going to fall apart. Went to bed about 12:30 and continued to freeze the rest of the nite. The next day we didn't do anything except improve the defensive position of the camp. That nite we went on a raid. That was highly successfull in that we captured their captain. Just as we got back to camp it started to rain. During the day another

fellow and I had built ourselves a lean-to. We had made a good mattress out of leaves and pine needles and then covered it with our waterproof ponchos. This was a bad move since the water collected on the poncho and wouldn't soak into the ground. About four o'clock the company we raided came back and knocked hell out of one of our platoons. Since it was raining so bad, all the outfit(?) had come in (which in itself is a very grave offense). Our platoon never got the word as we all stayed in our beds (wet as we were). All nite long my hips and my feet were in a pool of water and when we finally got up we were wet to the skin. Our officers were really sore because we hadn't gotten up to fight, but they hadn't gotten

up either. The other platoon had a lot of equipment swiped including rifles and that made things worse. It rained so hard that morning that at noon (Wed) we got the word to pack up and leave. We really came back in a hurry, didn't stop once.

When we got back they told us that we were restricted to the barracks till Monday. That wasn't too bad but yesterday afternoon, when we were supposed to be off for the weekend, we went out in the woods and had physical drill for three hours, then we ran the obstacle course. Last nite after chow we had a hour of close order drill and after lunch today I'm afraid we're going to have more. The purpose of all this, I believe, is to break our spirit and make us submit like a bunch of cattle but that is impossible. It might go with regular recruits but not with college graduates.

Monday nite - A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since Sunday noon. It seems to me that they would reward goodness with goodness. But no. Sunday afternoon we drilled and had physical exercise for 3 and a half hours and at 6 o'clock fell out again. This time we went about 4 miles out in the swamp and when we got out there the sgt. told us that we were going on a nite compass hike without compasses. It was dark by now and the swamp was blacker than pitch.

We were split in 10 patrols and followed the stars back through water, mud, brambles etc. etc. Worse stuff I ever went through. We all got back except one patrol and they spent the nite out there. Got in this morning about 9.

They're sure trying to break us down. Instead of that, they're just souring us all on the whole setup. But we are still alive and that's the important thing.

Write often,

Love

Bob

June 25, 2 AM
Dear Mother and Dad,

The reason for the early hour of this letter is the fact that I am cpl. of the guard, situated in a small tent, high up in the Virginia mtns,with only the wind and a kerosene lamp as companions. Twenty of us are out here as a security detail till Monday, when the remainder of the co. comes out for our last week.

This past week has certainly been a very trying one. This was the week of "The Big Cut". We were told the first of the week that 20 men out of our platoon of 43 would never get commissions. Seven of them already were dropped

but that still left 13 to go, so you can see that everybody was pretty uneasy. Wednesday the Lt. called in four men and told them they were through. Thursday nite the list came out with 10 men to go see the Lt. - and I was on that list - maybe you can imagine how I felt but I can tell you, I don't care for a repetition of the feeling. He saw four of them before supper and told the rest of us to stand by after chow to see him. The five guys I was standing by with had all been deficient and were likely candidates for dismissal, so naturally I thought that "This was it", so we all sat down outside the office and began to wait. Each guy that went in stayed about a half an hour and when he came out, all he could do was shake his head. It seems that if a man is low in military characteristics, good grades don't give you a snowball's chance in hell to remain. They grade you on [the]

following- Physical fittness, Intelligence, mechanical ability, deportment, Command presence, neatness and cleanliness, leadership ability, efficiency and a couple of other traits and if you rate below 3.75 out of 5.0, you are through. So I sat out in the hall for 2 and a half hours, smoking cigarette after cigarette, and getting more nervous all the time. Each of the five came out with the same story. Finally I went in and the Lt. told me to sit down. He was writing all the time and I really figured this was it. Then he looked up and said - "You're all right, Strausz, how do you feel?" To which I replied - "Sir, you really gave be a bad time."

He then went on to tell me that I had made a fine record in Candidates Class and had I ever thought about a regular commission in the Marine Corps. I can tell you now that that is the last thing I ever expected to hear. He then told me how I stood in the platoon, both the platoon leader's rating and the student rating. I was 5th in the student rating and 3rd in the platoon leader's rating. An ex-NCO sgt. was no. 1 and a Dutch Marine was no. 2. (We have 3 Dutchmen in the platoon.) We then talked about the commission and he told me that since I wasn't from the ranks, I couldn't receive a regular commission out of OCS, but that if I stayed on the ball at ROS, the chances were good that I could get one then. He said they would help me all they could and my records would likewise help.

He wanted to know what I thought about a regular commission so I'll tell you just what I told him. This war is going to

last for a few more years and following the armistice, the Marines will probably retain a large force for police work in the Orient. Since coming from college into the military life, it would be practically all I know, and I could probably benefit greatly during wartime by having one. Besides, your assignments are much better out of ROC, and [Sea or Gen] Duty is generally available to regulars only, which is very good duty to get if you can. But if I am fortunate enough to get the appointment, there will be the whole war in which to decide. I do believe that I could enjoy this life, and by trying

 to do my job as best I can, as I have done here, I believe the reward would be ample.

The V-12's in the platoon kind of took the blunt of the business. Out of the 23 that were left, 9 are ex-NCO's and 3 are Dutchmen. I really hated to see some of the boys go. I buddied around with one of them and he was really a swell guy but his mechanical ability was poor. Mike [Mesenga,tbc] is still here and I'm sure he'll make it. We've already made plans to go over to Annapolis [Naval Academy] and see Dave [David Strausz, Dad's younger brother] some Sunday. Bob and Roseanne Masenga want to go so we will drive over. Incidently, if your #11's are about ready to expire, do some heavy scouting and round up all you can because they don't go into effect here till 1st of Aug. What do you think about getting a car?
Love,
Bob
Don't pass this information around too much as it is only tentative and lots of things can happen. The officers in ROC might not think the same.


There is a gap of four months in the letters. The next one is his last from the East Coast: