The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1945-11-01
County Girl Makes Record In
Army: Writes OF Activities

which was one echelon lower
than Gen. MacArthur's head
quarters. We were there to re-
place hundreds of Australian CT
villains and many G. is. The
Australian government would not
allow their civilian girls to 60 to
New Guinea with our army, so in
order to render our headquarters
mobile, they had. to have neces-
sary requirements.
We arrived in Hollandia, Dutch
New Guinea, the last of October
and found the steaming jungles
to be just as we had expected
them. We had been thoroughly
prepared for the worst by C. is
who had returned to Australia.
It had been said that New Guinea
was the only place on earth where
you have mud knee deep and a
cloud of dust at the same time,
and all of us can now say, the
man was telling the truth.
Upon arrival, we donned mems
khaki trousers, shirts and heavy
shoes. We said, Come what may,
we're ready for the jungles
There were approximately 800
girls in my detachment. 400 Of
which lived in tents and the other
400 in a huge warehouse, where
we slept on canvas cots under
mosquito nets. We washed our
clothes, took showers and sham
pOCed our hair in cold water. I
was also introduced to a new
way of pressing pants. All you
had to do was fold them at the
proper crease, put them under
the blanket on your cot, sleep on
them for a night, and then you
had your pants pressed. Shoes.
after two days, were covered with
a thick cover of rich green moss
which was caused from the damp
ness. Great care was taken in
order that no soil could come in
contact with skin. The soil was
contaminated and many tropical
skin diseases could be easily de-
Veloped.
The food seemed to be bad ev-
erywhere. We arrived in Taclo-
bon, Leyte, in February, 1945. At
both places, we were served vari-
GUS dehydrated vegetables with
beef, SPAN, balony or salmon. US
ing canned apricots always for
dessert. Breakfast was some
thing you went to merely because
us tried to be as understanding as
1t was routine. Powdered eggs
and milk were two things l just
could not eat. However. most of
possible, because we realized the
army could not transport fresh
food to us, so most of us just kept
on writing home for vitamins and
calcium tablets.
In Leyte, we had to get used to
foxholes. Some nights we had
as many as four or five alerts. We
had three actual raids while we
were there when the enemy
bombed an air strip across the
bay from our quarters and hit
couple of our planes. None of
us were hurt; we were just bit
scared.
Since we left Australia, we
were all looking forward to Mani
la. The first echelon of our head
quarters to enter, of which was
a part, docked on April 6. 1t was
astounding to see the ruins and
mass Of rubbish in the streets.
Manila, before the war, must have
been beautiful city. The bigger
part of Wall city, which is a part
of Manila proper, was completely
demolished. Other business dis
tricts, government buildings and
residential sections; were in the
stage of complete ruin. The FL.
lipinoes were glad to see, the
American forces, and many told
the horrors of the Jap occupation
with tears. We noticed, too, that
Manila was much more Ameri-
canized than Australia. They
had had, before the war, many
universities and colleges of high
standards including many pro-
fessional schools. Even the small
est child could speak English
quite fluently, as they are taught