The Waters Start to Get Murky

We have been following a fairly clear trail so far.  Our EJZ's outfit completed Basic at end-November, 1943.

Nice clear date at the bottom of the
Second Company's book.

The War Department ended the Army Specialized Training Program at end-March, 1944.  The men were put into Army Ground Forces, in preparation for the upcoming invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe.

December through March, four months, agrees with the statement typed on EJZ's Discharge Papers, to the effect that he served four months of a 10-month Japanese-language course.

Ten full months would have gone to the end of December, 1944.

Now, although the very next page of the Photobook is all photos of Washington, DC in the autumn or winter,  we have evidence of Eugene remaining in Chicago from at least April through August.  Here it is:

April 27, 1944, to Pfc Zdrojewski, in Chicago.
This is the first evidence of  "Private, First Class."
It is from Camp Savage, which was the HQ
of Military Intelligence Language School
("HQ MIS Lang Sch, Cp Savage, Minn.')

So for some reason he applied to transfer to the
class at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
They were full up,
so he stayed at U Chicago.

You've all been wondering where he got those sexy eyeglasses, right?
From the U.S. Army, of course: two whole pairs.

The point is that the prescription order is dated
"27 July 1944."

That brings us back to Photobook Page 6.
That top-left photoportrait
has always seemed a little goofy,
but now we have figured it out.

Gene had flipped the negative in order to make a print
of a horizontally-flipped image.
I admit to the internet for all time
that I failed to recognize that my Dad's hair
is parted on the wrong side in this photo.

But when it is flipped back using Preview (thanks, Jim!)
we really see the real Pfc. EJZ, jokester.

And we see that his Furlough pass has a date:
"31 (Something!), 1944."

Dan Ehrlich ran this through his PhotoShop-with-Extras
until the image was "pixeled out."  Thanks, Dan!
"31" - check;
"1944" - check;
The abbreviated name of the month
begins with a letter that has at least one
straight line segment and also has a curly last letter.
I'm guessing it's "Aug."
They were at the beach.
We can infer the shore of Lake Michigan.

Next post we will pick him up in D.C., after which things get murkier yet.  Right now we can suppose, perhaps, that although A.S.T.P. was formally at an end, Eugene was in a group already earmarked by U.S. Military Intelligence for the land invasion of the Japanese Empire.  The Joint Chiefs realized, with dread, that such an invasion was very likely going to be necessary, as the Tojo clique showed no willingness to give up - quite the contrary - even after their irreversible setback at Midway.

OSS CBI Photobook 6

Gene pasted his A.S.T.P. patch
onto the page with the photomontage.

Photobook Page 6, scan of top half

Even having tried with both hands, I have failed
to figure out how this shot was set up,
except that it must include a mirror and a tripod.

Always messing with lighting,
flash units, timer, exposure -
both JPZ and EJZ
were enamored of the
technical aspects
of portrait photography.

Photobook, page 5, scan of bottom half

How do you create those ghostly fade-outs,
or whatever they are properly called,
in the margins?

Chicago Buddy Ralph Sebastian

"Ralph Sebastian
1345 Whatley Avenue
(Westville)
New Haven, Connecticut"

"Lots of luck Gene,
Sincerely, Ralph Sebastian"

The shoulder patch perhaps is A.S.T.P.

Julie

Army Buddy - Pfc. Arthur E. Kwapich

This photo was in the folder of Army papers
in the New Trove.

Does that look like Kentucky to you?

Maybe he was a friend from St. Luke's or from Orchard Lake
and mailed this photo to Gene at Fort Benning or U Chicago.

"14th Armored Div.
2nd Army
Camp Campbell, Ky."

The 14th Armored Division of the United States Army raced across France and Germany, fighting Panzers and liberating POW camps, forced-labor camps, and concentration camps.

What happened to Arthur Kwapich?

Julie

Chicago Buddy Joseph R. Messina

The New Trove included a framed photo of John Peter Zdrojewski,
framed exactly the same as the photo of Julia Zdrojewska
which was already here.

In the Army folder were photos of three buddies.

At right is Joseph R. Messina.
We know nothing about him.
We would like to.

He has two bars or clasps appended to his
Marksmanship medal.

". . . Studio, 203 No. Wabash Ave., Chicago, IL."

"172 Ocean Ave,.
South Beach, Staten Island, Zone 5
New York, N.Y."

Julie

OSS CBI Photobook 5

 Our detour back in time to review Basic Training being over, we resume our cruise through the four months in 1944-45 at the University of Chicago.  Our EJZ was a member of an A.S.T.P. class studying Japanese language.

This is Page 5 of the photobook
which we did know about as kids in Marilla.
The book was on a table in the living room.

Page 5, top half.

Those hats are called "garrison caps."
Gene has his tucked into his belt.

Page 5, bottom half.

Gene is second from right.
What happened to all these guys?

Mass pull-ups.
What's the thing in the foreground
that looks like a doghouse roof?

Julie

Dog Tag

These things are part of the New Trove
that Marty rescued from obscurity
under the attic eaves of the Marilla house.

The folder held the papers we have seen, in previous posts,
from Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia.
The belt wallet held insignia and medals.
The little waterproof duffel had maps of Chinese terrain,
and related items, which we will get to
when we finish with the Chicago photos.

We never saw these things.  We did see the photo-scrapbook,
but the rest we did not even know about.
Now it's all collated and chronological and we study.

There was a black metal footlocker up in the attic, always.
Maybe this is the key to it.

Having consulted pages 104-105 of Finding Your Father's War Revised Edition:: A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II US Army, I'm pretty confident that, for example, line 2 consists of the following:

First: "42021053," Army Serial Number;

Second: "T43," the date of the first tetanus inoculation, hence the year of induction;

Third: "44," the date of the latest tetanus booster;

Fourth: "B," the soldier's blood type.

Also, on line 5, way over on the right, is stamped a lonely-looking letter.  It is "C," for Catholic.

The notch in the metal on the left side was to hold the tag properly in the stamping equipment.

Julie