The Old 1268th
Manila
Mon. Jan. 14, ‘46
Dear folks,
This is the first letter I’ve written since Friday night. All we’ve been doing for about 3 days is eat, sleep, and work. Friday we got orders on about 250 men and had to get the records ready by this morning. Then to top that off we got short notice orders to rush our 48 & 49 point men to Replacement depots for shipment home. They had boats waiting for them in the harbor. There weren’t too many of them but one was C Co’s clerk so I had to take over where he left off. We worked until about midnight Fri. & Sat. and until about 10:00 last night. Am I sleepy? I crawl out about 15 minutes before it’s time to go to work in the morning. Thank goodness we have things fairly well in order again but we still have plenty to do. There are still about 150 men left who’ll be transferred before next Sunday when the outfit deactivates and becomes just so much history. That’s not too bad but B Co’s clerk made 1st/sgt today so naturally he can’t work here all the time and then to top it off A Co’s clerk went to the hospital tonight with a possible case of malaria. So here I sit with 2 companies in my lap plus my regular job which right now is enough to keep me busy. Oh well, it can’t last long and after this week things should be pretty easy.
There’s not much new. Rumors have points dropping again this week to 46 or 45. If it goes to 46 I’m on my way and if its 45 Bugs goes too so they’ll be left with 2 clerks, one inexperienced but once I’m gone I don’t care what happens. All I want is that order to the Repl. Depot and it can’t come too soon. I hadn’t expected another point drop for about 2 weeks but a lot of shipping is due so maybe it will come. As it stands we’ll be here finished [finishing] up until mid-Feb. and I’m pretty confident I’ll be on my way be [by] then so although I’ll be transferred to another outfit in a couple days I never expect to report to it. I hope not as I’m pretty much attached to the old 1268th and when I leave it I want to be going home. I’ve been in it now for 21 months and that’s quite awhile.
Tonight our movie was “Jesse James” with Tyrone Power and it wasn’t bad. The U.S.O. is moving in pretty soon so we probably won’t be having so many pictures then. You can see how thick the bugs are around here by the number that seem to have been squashed under this while I was writing on the other side. But don’t get me wrong. I love the Philippines where it’s only 110 degrees in Jan. and the lizards run around on the roof and rats run through your tents. It’s a wonderful place.
As soon as the boys moved out they made a lot of promotions and in case you hadn’t noticed on the envelope they tossed me another stripe or I should say a rocker this time. They made me a Staff/Sgt. as a Foreman Construction in the S-2 section but naturally I’ll stay in my same job. The S-2 & S-3 sections were broken up so they split up there [their] ratings among us that are left. It really made me feel good to get it not only from the pay standpoint ($120 overseas, $100.80 in the States) but just from the egotistical angle. A set of Staff stripes look a lot better than T-4’s to the public or am I wrong? I have 3 up and 1 down [sketch of bars] like that set I had in my pocket the last time I was home. Now all they need do is send me home. If we could get moving in the next 2 weeks I might be back in the U.S. by Mar. 1.
Well that’s about all there is to say except I got Gram’s Jan. 3 letter yesterday. It’s after 11:00 and I’m pretty sleepy so I’m going to call this enough until next time.
Be seein’ you,
Arlington
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