McCormick Was On First
Sat. 5 Jan. ‘46
Manila
Dear folks,
I’m a little behind in my correspondence but here I am again. Last night I had a chance to go to a ball game and when I got back it was too late to write. Not much happening the last couple days although a lot is pending. Thurs. night we had a “new” movie – “San Francisco” with Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy & Jeanette MacDonald. Remember when we saw that a long time ago – it must have been at least 8 years? We had quite a rumor Thurs. The Pacifican slipped up and said that 3 year men were to go to Repl. Depots and home but it was retracted yesterday as an error. It put quite a dampner on our spirits as I just finished my 3 years. Last night I went to a baseball game at Rizal Stadium. They have lights installed and it seats about 35,000. The Manila Dodgers – a team made up of service men played a team of All-Stars from the National League who are touring the Pacific. It was the 3rd game in a series. It was a good game for 9 innings. The Dodgers got 3 in the 1st and the All-Stars 1 in the 3rd, 1 in the 8th and 1 to tie it in the 9th. Then in the 10th things cut loose. They had put in a new pitcher and he made the mistake of pitching to Frank McCormick instead of walking him with 2 on. When the smoke cleared away the score was 7-3 and it ended that way. The Dodgers are managed by Kirby Higbe and have several men who played big league ball. I wanted to see him pitch but I guess he is up for Sunday. The All-Stars were mostly unfamiliar names as I’ve lost touch with baseball but Dad may recognize them – Frank McCormick was on first, Kurowski of the Cards at third, Branca of the Giants pitched, Red Barrett of the Cards in left and a kid named Brown from Brooklyn was at short. I got more kick out of watching Barrett than the rest of the game. He was talking to the crowd while the ball was being pitched but he never missed a ball and got 4 hits in 5 tries. All in all I enjoyed it a lot and I’m glad I went. It’s the closest thing to a big league game I’ve seen. We didn’t have too good seats but they were fair – up behind third base. I still say we’d won if they’d walked McCormick. Of course Kurowski was next and he hit 23 homers last season but he wasn’t hitting last night.
Today not much is happening. The mail broke loose and I got 3 letters from Gram mailed Dec. 22, 24, & 26. All of us are pretty disgusted today and you’ll see the reason when you read the clipping I’m sending. Only men with 50 points or 3 ½ years service are eligible for discharge. They are all gone from here but the War Dept. has said nothing about who will be eligible next. So here we sit with a harbor full of boats and they won’t let us go because we aren’t eligible. We ought to be “eligible” by Feb. 1 and if they would say so we would be on our way in a hurry and be back by mid-February. As it stands we may not move for a month and all this shipping goes to waste. It’s just about time people got up on their hind legs about all this and got something done. We weren’t complaining when there were thousands of high point men ahead of us and no shipping but now no one is ahead of us and there is plenty of shipping. The harbor is filled and nobody to put on the ships they say. I have a hunch there are going to be plenty of repercussions if something isn’t done and fast. They love to kick this word eligible around. A man in the states can be out 5 days after he is eligible. So it takes us maybe 3 weeks out here, 2 to 4 weeks going back and a couple more in the states or 2 months longer. The mean overseas is really taking a beating. There’s no reason we can’t go back eligibility or no eligibility. As long as the ships are here use them. None of us will kick about staying in the army over there until we are “eligible” for discharge. If they throw out points & go on length of service the overseas man gets it on the chin again. A person who has sat on his ___ in the states gets as much credit as a combat soldier overseas. Somebody back there has lost his perspective but one day all of these boys will be back and they won’t forget. From all this I gather you’ll see that I’m pretty disgusted with the whole set up and there are 110 other boys with 45 points or more who feel just like I do. There’ll be plenty said and I hope it does some good. If they would let it go through we could be on our way in 10 days but here we sit for not one single good reason.
Well I guess I’ve said enough about it so you’ll know my sentiments. I don’t know yet what the movie is for tonight. We are expecting to deactivate any day but I’ll be here for a couple weeks afterwards helping finish up. The U.S.O. moves into our area the 15th and some of our boys are staying to staff the place – such as cooks, electricians, etc. It’s a good deal for them but all I want is to get home and the faster the better. I still don’t know exactly what I’ll do when I get there. I probably won’t go to school until fall so I ought to get some sort of job but I have no idea what or where. I’d like to save as much as possible because once I start school I expect to go straight on through and with $65 a month plus tuition & books paid for I think I can make a go of it easily. I’m pretty “rusty” mentally but I think I can get a start again. I’m older but whether I’m wiser is another question. By the time I get out of school I’ll be getting a pretty late start but that’s life I guess.
Well I guess that’s about all there is to say and I’d better quit before I get any gloomier sounding. I guess I’m a little “low” today. Anyway so long for now.
Be seein’ you
Arlington
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