Saturday
                                           Zasshonokuma
                                           Kyushu Japan
         Dear Aunty Clara,                 1 Dec1945
         
              A three day lay off in the letter writing
         resulted from one cause ---- too much piled up
         work caused by being absent from work and romp-
         ing around town Tuesday and Wednesday.
                  
              But many things have happened since I last
         wrote. Of course, anything can be stated brief-
         ly and that’s the way I’ll state it.
         
              Colonel Shubat left for the 11th Replacement
         Depot at Nagoya on his way home.
         
              Lt Kuras is leaving for the 11th Replacement
         Depot at Nagoya on his way home, Tuesday 4 Dec 45.
         
              All EM with 69 points in the Sixth Army are
         leaving for the 11th Replacement Depot at Nagoya
         tomorrow at noon.
         
              All EM with 35 years behind them leave the
         Hakata RR Station at 1200 Monday for Nagoya and
         home.
         
              All EM with 68 points leave the Hakata RR
         Station at noon Tuesday for the 11th Replacement
         Depot on the first leg of the journey home.
         
              All EM with 67 points leave the Hakata RR
         Station at noon Djdjday for the llth Replacement
         Depot on the ffj3m leg of the journey home.
         
              (Yes, Aunty Clara, they stopped naming days
         when they reached the 67 pointers but we are now
         the highest point men in Japan still assigned to
         units)
         
              When the next order comes out, we know that
         we are the ones that will be named on it. Rumor
         has it that we will not survive the week and will
         join the advance party of 69 and 68 point men at
         Nagoya.
         
              By and large, however, the 67 pointers are
         taking the entire proceedings very apathetically
         since they have been burned too many times in the
         past. One thing though was that when Lt Kuras
         brought in the good word about the reduction in
         point men being released, we were so excited that
         we couldn’t work very efficiently for quite some
         time and were full of gab about this that and the
         other.
         
              The Pacific Stars and Stripes gave a pretty
         good story today on the 11th Replacement Depot
         at Nagoya and said that the following named
         ships were due in THE JOHN LYKES, EXPLORER,
         MARINE DRAGON, EXTRAVIA and THE CAPE MEARS.
         There you have it Aunty Clara, it is not al-
         together outside the realm of the possible that
         I may come home on one of those five ships de-
         pending of course on whether they come in and
         if we get into the depot in time to get on one
         of them before they pull out.
         
               But by now any dreams of a Christmas at
         home have been blown sky high and perhaps some
         times towards the middle of January we might be
         agetting to the place we belong.
         
               More news: All men (Officers and enlisted)
         are entitled to a "controlled" trophy if they
         have over 23 months overseas service. And do
         you know what those controlled trophies are?
         Pistols, binoculars and swords! So the Brigade
         was allocated 249 trophies and our battalion (out
         of about 25 battalions in Brigade) received 168
         trophies!!!! Veterans, eh?
         
               And of them we received about 36 pistols,
         24 binoculars and the rest were swords. It was
         all drawn by lot according to length of overseas
         service and the number of points a person had.
         After the drawing, all the eligible men were
         called up to battalion headquarters and in
         the order they had been drawn, they were en-
         titled to pick themselves a trophy of their
         choice. The pistols were really the ones that
         went like hot cakes and I never expected to
         get one of them or one of the binoculars which
         cost over fifty bucks a pair. Therefore I
         spotted a darn good saber that had class and
         everything ---- but when there were but FOUR
         PISTOLS left my name was called and there I
         was the owner of one Japanese Luger which makes
         about one of the most interesting war trophies
         a man could want from the Pacific war no matter
         whether the gun means a thing to him or not.
         
              I could get a trade for that pistol in
         either cash, a saber or a set of binoculars
         anytime I want to and for actual cash value
         of the binocular and saber. I would be the
         gainer--- but the main iurpose of the trophy
         is as a souvenir and that is priceless.
         
              I know that when I get home and the
         company starts coming over, that Luger will
         be quite a drawing card (for the first time).
         Like for instance Uncle Jack, my Dad, Senor G,
         Mr Infiesta, Marty and the rest of them will
         like looking it over inside and out. That even
         drew a comment in Ebner’s "Scraper".
         
              Anyhow, that is how the situation stands
         now only I’ve got plenty and plenty of work to
         do. Lt McLain is going to be new Personnel
         Officer and seems like a good Joe. However, if
         the 67 pointers leave this next week (I hope),
         the office is going to be in a most peculiar
         condition. For about a week or so there will
         be new men in half of the positions as Lt McLain
         will be the hew Personnel Officer, Garriss will
         be the new Personnel Sergeant Major, Moskowitz
         will be the new Morning Reports Clerk, Burkholder
         will be the new Recruiting Clerk, Smarrito will
         be the new Bn Sgt Mjr, Ebner will take Bill
         Grauel’s place as Message Center Chief, and
         there will be two new telephone operators to
         take the place of Nelson and Kuckenbecker and
         someone must take Andy
         Mathis’s place at bugling while over in Supply
         Joe Wright will be succeeded as the top kick
         of the Supply Section.
         
                                      So-long,
         
     

                                              Roman