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Naval Experiences of Wallace F. Gray: Part II. Continued from Naval Experiences which contain letters 1-23 (August 23, 1945-October 6, 1945). More letters are on this continuation page and other pages. NOTE: These are letters sent by Wallace F. Gray while he was in the U.S. Navy to his parents, Firman and Helen Gray. The letters run from August 23, 1945 until April 1, 1946. The letters were preserved by Firman and Helen Gray in a three-ring loose leaf binder. Wallace entered the service on August 9, 1943, and was honorably discharged on April 20, 1946. These letters start just before getting underway aboard the U.S.S. Greenwich Bay. (Some navy experiences found in Upon These Plates, by Wallace F. Gray, Family History Library Microfilm #1033698) For the complete naval itinerary of Wallace F. Gray go here. Letter 24 October 10, 1945 Dear Mom and Dad, I don't know when this letter will go out, nor when any will come in, but I'll write it anyway. We have received no mail since we got up here. The last mail call was just as we were leaving Okinawa. We are still located in the Gulf of Pohai, near Taku and Teintsin, China. Liberty is now being dished out to 10-12 men and two officers daily--meaning about one or two from each division daily. In our division, they (by vote) all decided upon giving the high point men liberty first, which places me number 14 on a list of 16. We will only be here a little while longer and then we go to Tsingtao. I certainly hope I can go ashore there. Still haven't seen land. Some guys got back from liberty this morning (a ship picks up and delivers the liberty parties and takes them to the beach, daily} and they told us something of the town. China is in inflation and as a result, $2,000 to them is $1.00 of American money. If you buy something for a nickel, for example, you pay them $100.00 in Chinese money. I will try to buy some things to take home when I get to go on liberty. Chinese junks go by our ship occasionally and they really are a wreck. Old huge sails, that are patched several times, are supposed to propel the boat. But when wind is lacking, two or three men pump a crude lever which moves a paddle which barely pushes the square boat forward. Some guys took one of our whale boats out to a junk yesterday and the Chinks gave them apples. In lieu of our present location--spanish rice seems to be quite a common meal [on] board now. At least they had it twice in a row. Today is a very nice warm day and you can see Chinese junk sails in the distance. All the ships today are flying two American flags instead of one. The reason is that it is China's "fourth of July." It gets cold at nights. Officers have been issued long Parkas that have hoods. They are overcoats and look quite well. The [enlisted] men were issued regular jackets that are warm. We also got mittens, long underwear and long socks (one pair each), so I'll keep warm, all right. Last night I wore my winter undershirt to bed It is quite warm and similar to a sweat shirt. A plane lands here occasionally and we refuel it. One has just landed. We are still the fleet post office and there are always boats from other ships around us. This morning we sailed over to a fuel ship to take on some more aviation gas. Peter came alongside the other ship O.K. today with no damages. We pick up a lot of radio programs. I'm in the radio shop where Wayne Lambert is now. [Wayne is the other LDS on board except for a very inactive one.] We can get San Francisco shortwave. They broadcast such events as American League games, etc. over the Armed Forces Programs. Have heard from India, China, England, etc. England broadcasts news at dictation speed. You ought to hear some of that Indian and Chinese music! I'll close for now. I'll write again when the mail goes out. The ship that fueled us this morning has had no mail for three months so we're not so bad off. All my Love, XXX Letter 25 October 11, 1945 [Somewhere near Taku] Dear Mom and Dad, Another day. This is quite the isolated place! Same old Gulf. It is quite a feeling. No mail—no liberty (oh yes, once every so often—20 men a day from AVP41.) No news. We get a mimeographed “New Press” every day which contains nothing but foolishness. About some general in Arabia or admiral in Siberia, but no local (American) news whatsoever. We’re entirely ignorant of how the discharging of men is getting along. Still 44 points as far as we know. They evidently are holding back. Some one last night said he couldn’t see how I would possibly be out in less than 14 months. But I’m optimistic. I hope to be a civilian by next August, my birthday. The mail situation is pretty depressing, but I learned to ignore the word “mail,” and just hope this gets out of here. Planes come in from Shanghai, but our mail is not there. It must either be in Okinawa or Tsingtao. In your next letter, please send a few clippings from the Outlook and maybe a “Dick Tracy” and “Terry and the Pirates” [cartoons] from the Sunday times. Do not send the paper separate or it will never arrive, but enclose it in a 1st class envelope. This is all very humorous in a way—so near to China—yet so far. Each day men come back from the liberty party. Most of them just go to drink and hardly notice the town. I’m due to go a week from today. I’m actually going to get some souvenirs to take home. I’ll get some Chinese money too. I enclose a Chinese $100 dollar bill that is worth 5 cents in American money. Exchange is usually $2000 to $1. It’ll be a lot of fun handling all those bills even if they’re worthless. Somebody who went over yesterday gave me the bill. A Chinese junk tied astern of us this noon, selling stuff until the captain appeared on the scene. Everything is all right with me—I’m feeling OK. The weather is nice and food is good. Nothing to kick about. I expect we’ll get some mail soon. We should. (On yesterday’s letter I said a ship here hadn’t had mail for 3 mos. Correction: It was 7 weeks.) I guess the G.B. isn’t too good of a F.P.O. We don’t even get mail for the other ships. Lately, I have had no work to do, so I read and so some studying. When in Okinawa I got an answer from an air conditioning co. I wrote. They told me to pursue a mechanical engineering course. I will have a lot of subjects to make up before I can do that. Sorry this is all the news I can think of now. But nothing else happens. I understand seaplane tenders may be going home soon, but that is strictly scuttlebutt. Anyway I’m very lucky here. I hope everyone is O.K. at home. Love, Wally. XXX Letter 26 October 14, 1945 Dear Mom and Dad, We are still here at the Golf of Pahai and are due to pull out for Tsingtao tonight at midnight. I never did get liberty here. Guys brought quite a lot of souvenirs here, but I guess I can get ashore in Tsingtao. I hope so. The Marines have just landed there I heard. But three days after they landed here, liberty was granted., Still no mail has arrived. I hope we get some in Tsingtao. I see where a typhoon hit Okinawa on the 12th. I'm glad we're way up here.Remember the ingrown toe nail I always had trouble with? Well, two nights ago, the doctor cut a quarter of the nail out, clear to the root, and extracted quite a bit that was ingrown. He shot some novicane in, so there was no pain. We have a new doctor now and he is a very good one. I'm glad I had this done, because it would be an expensive operation on the outside. Probably $25 at least. [!] And it's free here. Could you tell me how the discharging of men is getting along? We get no news on it here at all. I have 23 points. It's a nice warm day today. routine Holiday also. [I] see in our "newspaper" where Lockheed is planning to sell a lot of "Constellations." Even had Gross's name in it. I think that's the first news I had from the states for quite a while. [Later note: my father worked for Lockheed and Gross was Robert Gross., owner.] I'll close now. Everything is going all right. Hope to hear from you soon. Love, Wally XXX Letter 27. Gulf of Pahai Dear Mom and Dad, Yesterday a plane came and took our mail out, so I'll get this letter written, ready for the next plane. We still have received no mail and also we've received word that the recent typhoon at Okinawa wiped out the fleet post office there--and previous to that, the one at Guam was wrecked. So whether or not that effected our mail from Oct. 1 on, we don't know. We hope not. Perhaps we'll get some shortly., The last I heard from you, was when you acknowledged I was in Pearl Harbor and had left for Midway, I believe. Please acknowledge all money orders (2, I think) if you already haven't. The storm may of effected outgoing mail, too. I'm not worryed though. I hope you get my letters regularly. We were going to leave here, but didn't after all, so perhaps I'll get liberty yet. There are eight ahead of me, meaning about eight days till liberty. They've started the "dehydrated potatoes" how, and the only time we have real ones is on Sunday. They fry them or mash them, etc. Every Sunday we have chicken and ice cream. We seem to be getting fruit juices in the mornings now. Yesterday it was grapefruit[ juice and this morning, tomato juice. Meals are pretty good. The ice cream is really good and it's amazing how it can be made from powdered water. A crow came on board yesterday and finally lit on the mast. I had the laundry wash and press a suit of blues (all set for liberty) and yesterday they washed my blankets. Of course, it's done on their own time and it costs a little. Almost time to muster (at 0800) so I'll close this now. It's going to be a nice warm day. Every thing is fine. Keep writing. All my love, Wally XXX.
Wednesday, October 17, 1945 Gulf of Pohai Dear Mom and Dad, Yesterday a plane landed here. No mail or passengers. All it had was a letter for the captain from a captain in Tsingtao. The pilot had orders to take no mail or passengers back, but to return to base immediately, but Peter had different ideas. When he discovered they wouldn't accept the mail, he had it loaded in a boat, and he went to the plan (PBM) with it. He climbed on board and said he was going on a "routine search hop," thus putting in his flight time for this month. I think he took off and landed it and also flew it. Of course, there was nothing the pilot could do because Peter is the senior aviator up here and we are the air terminal for this area. The plane finally returned to its base, (first returning Peter). Still no mail since Oct. 1 at Okinawa. The planes that came in (once every other day, or so) never have mail, but usually (always with Peter around) take outgoing mail, so our letters always go out. I 'm glad of that. We're still the fleet post office. In fact that's our only assignment now. We tend the "mail" plane and that's all. They say Peter sadly remarked that we may remain up here for all of November. He asked for it. I'd rather spend the remainder of my Navy time out here anyway. I just hope I get to go on liberty in China soon. (8 more days, I think.) I am enclosing today's plan of the day. Liberty parties go out at 6:30 one day and are placed on a small craft with other ships parties. They steam out and arrive at Tsienten (?) around 3:30 in the afternoon. They return on board the craft at 10:00 at night. At 5:00 the next morning, they shove off and are returned to their own ship about noon. So it is about 36 hours in all. (8 actual hours on the beach.) They have two small craft that do nothing but this. These flies are just like the ones at home--big pests. You will note we just dump all trash overboard. There are no garbage barges up here. (G.B. means Greenwich Bay, not gar. barge) They show double features no at night for the movies. This is all I can think of now. All my love, Wally XXX Letter 29 October 20, 1945 Dear Mom & Dad, This morning we are due to get underway at 0600 for Tsingtao. You can find that on the map about 100 miles south of us. Yesterday a plane flew up here and, although it sounds funny, left some mail for us. It was surface mail (3c and free) however--no airmail. It was dated for Sept. 7th to 10th, 12945. In Okinawa, I got mail as late as Sept.. 17. I got one letter from Sterling Gottlieb. There wasn't much. Most everyone uses airmail. If they didn't it would never come or go fast. Captain held a lower deck inspection yesterday that took three hours. Today, there is another inspection, of different compartments. I am enclosing a plan of the day for today's slated events. We'll be underway until tomorrow noon. Would you pleases send me a few pictures of myself. Some people make a habit of collecting them for their scrapbooks. Just some of me standing in the garden, or something. Try to get them of me in uniform. We are underway now. The new point system deal will get me out in August, 1946. They may cut it down more. For your information, I now have 23 3/4 points. According to the latest, we continue to make 3/4 point a month and they lower the requirement one point a month. (Starting with Dec., 39 points). This is all I'll write now. A refrigerator ship was in a few days ago, and we got fresh oranges, apples, meat, etc. Had fresh Perch yesterday. What a treat! P.S. Send no Christmas package as it would probably never arrive. All my love, Wally.
U.S.S. GREENWICH BAY 20 October, 1945 0500
Reveille. All departments make preparations to get underway Notes. R.H. BAKER, Lieut., USNR
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