Salem State Archives WWII Letters

Mon 14 May 1945

Dear Miss McGlynn,

Since my last letter to you I have not only travelled, I have had many varied experiences. As to your queries on the top of your newsletter to me the answer to both questions is a very strong yes. First let me say how grateful I was to hear from you again. I received your letter dated April 10 yesterday. Prior to that I had not had any mail for 3 weeks or more. One reason for mail delay is that they are not flying mail into this combat zone as yet, it has to come by ship and ships follow zig-zag routes.

I noticed the part of the newsletter where your brother Walter is on an AKA with New York FPO. He is very lucky. An AKA is a huge ship with movies, luxurious surroundings, even in wartime & while in combat zone. When men on LCI's and other small amphibious vessels have served a long while in combat, they are then transferred to AKA's and APA's so

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they may relax a bit so you can see that your brother has good duty. Also since he has a New York FPO he is on the East Coast of the US either at Norfolk, New York or some fairly nice place so you need not worry about him as I know that relations always worry but in most cases needlessly.

I wish you would give my regards to Andy Rowsemitt & enclose my address to him (I knew him before STC days) He is a swell fellow, and I would like to renew acquaintances.

I too was at Eniwetoc when I left Pearl Harbor, we stopped for water only but could not get much as they import theirs from Guam (Gosh Eniwetoc is a barren place (rock)) From Eniwetoc I went to Guam and from Guam to this combat zone. I am getting used to cold weather all over again. Oh yes, my adventures--hmph.

Well, on my way to this place we were followed by Jap subs, we swerved out of path of floating mines and one spent torpedo which we blew up with machine gun fire.

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I actually thought that was an exciting adventure but wait; we came into here at night, I could see the shells whistling all around & machine gun tracers streaking across the ground (what a sight for a green officer conning his ship) I felt like giving the order all back full and head for home, but my pride & common sense kept tugging at my sleeve so I didn't (besides, I didn't know which way home was in the stygian night air)

Come the dawn, we found ourselves 2 miles from our supposed destination; suddenly I got a message over the intercomm unit "Flash Red, Control Green" It was my first Air Raid & I wondered how I would behave. I didn't have long to wait, because a Jap Betty (bomber) dove out of nowhere & started straffing my ship (Imagine the nerve) We were

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of the TNT. The Jap hit a boom on the ARD & crashed just over it. If it hadn't been for the boom he would have demolished the ARD. As it was one man on the ARD was injured, but no one else was hurt unless they developed heart trouble.

Well, you would think that after this was over they would let us in but no, they kept us cruising back and forth in open waters all night. Finally they told us to anchor 1000 yards from a beach where the f by some strange coincidence the front lines happened to be. All night long I sat in the comm with a machine gun in my lap & men armed to the teeth on my ship looking for Jap swimmers, Jap craft, Jap mines etc.

The shells from our battleships "sure made a pretty sight" as they whistled over our heads into the beach

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I kept hoping that their aim was good not short for obvious reasons.

We had 6 air attacks that night so I probably wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway. After a while tho, we got used to these things & now I don't sound general quarters unless the ship next to us starts shooting, because if I sounded GQ every time we were raided, no one would get any sleep. My At first, I kept count of Air Raids but after one night of about 20 Air Raids I lost track. We try to sleep by day but they come then too. It is very interesting to watch listen to Radio Tokyo and hear an account of damage done to us, such obvious lies to us anyone who has witnessed the action.

Incidentally, the gunboats (LCS) in our group have shot down more Jap planes than the destroyers here or any other ships have and are due for the Presidential citation (that does not include me as I am not on a gunboat but in charge of them (my ship is in charge) flagship

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Well, Miss McGlynn, I cannot talk too much but if you read the Time April issue you will know what Admiral Nimitz announced (he revealed a secret)

This is very common & I have seen many ships around me "get in the way of them" At night they sneak out in small motor boats & try the same tactics. Yesterday while I was on watch 12 PM to 4 AM I heard on radio that several were headed my way, but some of our gunboats met them & took care of them.

There is no doubt as to the outcome here; it is just a matter of time but resistance is fanatical tho our warships have no opposition from the sea or land to stop their constant shelling of the island.

Well I will have to terminate this somewhat long [?] "discourse" as I see an opportunity to get a crate of chicken from the ship next to us and by some strange coincidence, everyone on board here likes chicken with cranberry sauce & cherry pie and carrots & tea--now I am being mean & teasing. Write soon

Sincerely, Morris

a/c Richard X. Sheehan

Cadet Detachment

A.A.G.B.F.S.

Independence, Kansas

May 8, 1943

Dear Miss McGlynn,

In your last letter you said the weather must be wonderful where you are. Well the only reason I've got a chance to write letters is on account of the weather. Information about the same is supposed to be a military secret, but what I'll tell you I don't think will do any harm. The weather in Missouri wasn't bad when we left. It was warm with slight winds. But even a slight wind blew all the dust in Missouri to the Parks airport I guess. But this place would be hard to beat. The wind is always strong, at least 25 mph by 10 every morning. This isn't bad for flying, since no dust blows on the field -- we have concrete runways -- but it is terrible around the barracks. The dust never stops flying. Thursday evening it started to rain and has been con-

stant ever since. It stops for 15 minutes at a time. They said that in 23 hours we had 6.4 inches of rain which is a record of some kind. It seems hard to believe, but if you saw the drops, I'd swear they were as big as dimes at times, you'd believe it too. Since we came here we changed into our summer uniforms and even that didn't keep us cool. The sun would melt the rocks here. If it wasn't for the wind, I don't know how we'd stand it. Ah yes, the weather is wonderful.

Well I finished primary O.K. and had more fun than a little bit. Acrobatics I got the biggest kick out of, loops, snap or slowrolls, flying inverted, immelmans, (a loop with a half roll on top), and Cuban 8's (two loops reversing direction on the way down on one loop. That's a fair idea of one. In a PT. you move along at only 100 mph.

Cuban 8.

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Immelman.

snap or slow roll. snap is 4 times as fast as a slow roll.

Hold it here 'til it stalls

Spin.

loop.

Don't know it it's of much interest but that's some of the fun I had. Can you make them out. We'll do the same things here with more speed.

The set up here isn't bad, but it isn't as nice as we have been used to. We live in since story, tarpaper covered barracks with the showers, etc. outside in

another building, most inconvenient, but I guess we can't kick if we think of the men overseas. When we first came here we had to get our water from lister bags (canvas bags lined with rubber) because the water was polluted. It was O.K. for a while, but we are back to the lister bags as of yesterday.

The ships we use here are North American B.T.-14's (Basic Trainers). I guess you've seen a picture of them. They are honeys. Lots of speed & power. The instructors and planes all came from Randolph field -- which is no longer a training field for pilots, but instructors -- so this is Randolph now the best Basic School in the country. Aren't I lucky?

I've solved this ship so now if I keep on the ball I'll be able to pick up 90 or 100 hours. 70 is all that is required -- 62 at Primary. Here we learn instrument, night and formation flying. We also have 4 cross countries -- 3 during the day and one at night.