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: