Selective Service, 1942-1943, Conclusion

The first post on this topic left off in the winter of 1942-43 with a successful application for deferment until completion of sophomore year at St. Mary's, and a presumed sitting of the national test the Army gave for the Army Specialized Training Program.

Next up is an April 30, 1943 letter from the Adjutant General's Office of the War Department. Gene was 19 years old at the time, so in paragraph two, the latter of the two options would have applied to him.

Tucked away among these papers are supporting documents, such as a letter from the high-school Principal . . . 

Don't bowl us over, Rev.

. . . and a report card from a trigonometry class taken at Hutchinson-Central High School (now known as Hutchinson Tech) on Elm Street in Buffalo . . . 

Trig in 2-hour classes for 44 days; goodness!

Hutchinson-Central, founded 1904 in Buffalo
to meet the need for industrial engineers.

. . . and last, but not least, a memo from the Prudential Insurance Company, JPZ's employer, verifying JPZ's  Naturalization as a United States Citizen:

Wonder if that Certificate is online somewhere - 

Then there is a manuscript draft of a letter applying to postpone induction until the actual end of the St. Mary's College academic year.  The Blogger server rejects it - apparently it does not appreciate hash marks like we do - but check out the reply from the Selective Service.  Local Board 602 is quartered where??

PS 11, corner of Poplar Street and Doat Street:
Sharon and Deb's school,
kitty-corner from their Poplar Street House.
Who knew?

Blah, blah, come after Commencement Day,
but come here to Sharon and Deb's future school.

So now the Dean of St. Mary's College does his bit with a letter of recommendation, complete "With sentiments of respect and esteem,"  for Gene for the A.S.T.P.:

Next two are the front and back of a directive sent from the "Armed Forces Induction Station - Old Customs House - Buffalo, New York" on July 19, 1943.

This says "Go to Local Board 602 at P.S. 11, and then  on August 9, 1943 go to Active Duty at Camp Upton, New York."

And finally we have the written order from Local Board 602 sending our EJZ on his way to Camp Upton, Long Island, by way of East Entrance, Central Terminal:

EJZ remarked wistfully that Buffalo's Central Terminal
was at one time a very busy place.

Next up:  Boot Camp!  There is a 19-inch long photo to check out.  Do we repair it, or leave it torn in twain?  How many faces in that Fort Benning, Georgia Basic Training class do we also see later in the Photobook of the Chicago A.S.T.P. class?

Julie

Film: Miasto 44

"First Glimpse of Rising Movie" is an item in the latest News from Poland.  It concerns the release of the official trailer for the Jan Komasa film about the Warsaw Uprising.

The Warsaw Uprising was launched 1st August, 1944.

The film, Miasto 44, (City 44) will première in Warsaw 1st August, 2014.

Direct link to trailer is here.

Polska walczy!  Poland fights!  This Armia Kajowa flag appeared on Warsaw buildings and lampposts in the days prior to the uprising.

Selective Service, 1942-1943

EJZ's papers, photos, and so on from the Second World War were inadvertently divided when the Marilla house was emptied in 2004.  Now that Marty has shipped the New Trove to Argyle, they are again all in one place and combined into one collection.

Now that each item has been arranged in order of date on the specialized work surfaces of the Society offices, the entire collection is present and in order for the first time since it was in that black metal foot locker in 1946.

Part of it.

The rest of it.

So we shall leave Gene in Chicago at work on his Japanese irregular verbs, so to speak, while we throw the True Tardis into gear and full-throttle back to December 1942, the time of our earliest Army-related ephemera.

Selective Service considered him, a college student, according to his permanent address in Buffalo.  But they appear to have addressed mail to him at St. Mary's College, Orchard Lake, Michigan.  Chronology recap:  high-school graduation, 1941; College freshman, 1941-42; College sophomore 1942-43.

The strip of manila paper, below, looks like the bit at the bottom that you keep while you send back the top.  We can only guess that it sought to confirm identity, location, work or school status, and so on.

How I wish we could all sit around a fireside with him and have him pass these papers around and tell stories.  Imagine the party!  Well, imagine is what we do, since we have never seen any of these things before.

The following two images are drafts in Gene's handwriting of a letter to the Selective Service Board in Buffalo, asking for deferment for a few months until he finished sophomore year. First draft is on the front of the letterhead paper; second draft is verso.

We can picture him - and perhaps classmates, as well? - discussing the application as a desireable and acceptable thing, and then discussing the tone and wording of such a letter. Everybody at Orchard Lake knew that this was coming; when eventually we get to the pile of Orchard Lake things we will see ongoing discussion in student publications of the war in Europe and in the Pacific.

When you lose somebody it is comforting beyond description to have something in that person's handwriting.  So, save some stuff.

First draft.

Were we having that imaginary party, I would at this point formally thank my father for sitting down next to me at 8pm the night before my 8th-grade composition was due, on the subject of "Americanism in Teddy Roosevelt," and force-marching me through several drafts before midnight.  He was irritated that I had put it off, but helped me anyway.  All these scratchings and hatch-marks remind me very clearly of that incident.  Thanks, Dad.

Second draft.

"No. 12167

January 18, 1943

Having sent you my questionnaire December 15, 1942, I am now in a position to be classified by your board.

Being a student at St. Mary's College, Orchard Lake, Mich., however, and registering for the second semester of my Sophomore year after the advise (sic) of Rt. Rev. Msgr. L. Krzyzosiak, President of St.Mary's College, I feel in the position to appeal for a deferment until June, when I shall complete my Sophomore year.

I am enclosing a letter from the President of St. Mary's College."

And here is Fr. Msgr. Dr. Krzyzosiak's lawyerly letter in support of the application, citing the recommendations - "urgings," actually - of the War Manpower Commission.

Well, the app was successful, although we have no doc related to the awarding of deferment.  The Army Specialized Training Program was "implemented" in December of  1942.  Then, pretty quickly, a "pre-induction qualifying test" was written up:

"During the late part of the academic year 1942–1943, a national testing program was conducted among the male college student bodies."

So, he must have sat that test, and we shall see what came of it, next post.

Julie

Your Real Dr. Who

OSS CBI Photobook 4

Page 4.

Page 4.

Page 4, scan, top half.

Page 4, top half, detail.

Page 4, top half, detail.

Page 4, top half, detail.

Page 4, top half, detail.

Page 4, top half, detail.

Page 4, top half, detail.

Page 4, top half, detail.

Page 4, bottom half.

Page 4, top half, detail.
The Japanese Language Program lasted 10 months.
Could you interrogate a prisoner in Japanese after
studying the language for just 10 months?
Me, no.
And to think that thousands of fighting-age fluent speakers
of Japanese were either interned as "aliens" or fighting at Monte Cassino.
But you couldn't drop an ethnic-Japanese American soldier
forward in China, could you; the Chinese would kill him as an invader.

Separate print, not in the book.
Private Zdrojewski; no insignia.
So, start of the program.

OSS CBI Photobook 3

Photobook, page 3.

Page 3, top half, scan.

U. Chicago lounge, carpeted, muraled, and furnished.
Nice painting of the Roman Forum in the murals.
Somebody has this audience in stitches.

A Staff Sergeant has his elbow on the back of a sofa
at right in the photo above.
Post June 1942 Monthly Base Pay: $96.

A 4th Grade Sergeant is sitting way over at left,
by the table lamp.
Post June 1942 Monthly Base Pay: $78.

Page 3, bottom half, scan.

Page 3, bottom half, scan, detail.
Gene holds a book of which we can see no detail;
he and his buddy hold a map of Imperial Japan.

Page 3, bottom half, scan, detail.
The Three Stooges.

Page 3, bottom half, scan, detail.

Page 3, bottom half, scan, detail.

Page 3, bottom half, scan, detail.
What is the rifle?
Is it the same rifle they took to CBI?

Page 3, bottom half, scan, detail.
Is this lady the same person as in the wall photo in OSS CBI Photobook 2?
See her handbag behind the headlamp of the truck?

Page 3, bottom half, detail.

A Private wore no insignia, and received a Base Pay, Post June 1942, of $50.  This information comes from Finding Your Father's War Revised Edition:: A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II US Army.

Julie

OSS CBI Photobook, Further Addendum

This was about the time that people at the Language School made a vinyl recording of Eugene speaking English and Polish.  My earlier post about that includes links to the recording, up on SoundCloud.

Julie

OSS CBI Photobook 2, Addendum

Last time this map showed up on the dorm room wall.

If I squint at the original print through my admittedly crummy hand lens, I can see, in the very top line on the map (black letters on white background) this:

" . . . 1772 to the Present"

or maybe

" . . . 1792 to the Present"

Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned Poland among themselves in 1772.

After some pushback, Russia invaded Poland again in 1792 to nail down their occupation.

If I squint at the second line (white letters on black background) I can make out this:

"(Something) (Something) Hitler's (Something)"

So it's likely a map of wartime Poland.  Assuming that is so, the pose and arrangement look intentional.  Gene sits there with what could be a newspaper in hand.  The radio and the map are behind him.  His expression is one of a man who has just heard or read melancholy news about the land of his ancestors.

Meanwhile, in Buffalo, his father, our JPZ, would be taking similar photographs in his own living room.  Photo portraits that tell a story seem to have been the family business.

Julie

OSS CBI Photobook 2

Page 2
Army Specialized Training Program,
University of Chicago
c1943-44

So last night I remembered Dad telling a story about "being in the Army" and "going for an interview" as part of his attempt to influence what he would do next.  This could have been going into Basic, or coming out of Basic; maybe some papers in the New Trove will pin that down.

Page 2, top half, scan.

Dad said that interviewer asked this and that: High School?  Yes.  College? Two years in a liberal arts program.  Languages?  English, Polish, Latin, French.  Blah, blah; bye-bye.  Then as he was leaving the interview room, he suddenly turned back and said, "Oh, yes! I can take pictures!  I have a lot of experience in photography."

Dad indicated that he always thought that was the moment when the "OSS" lightbulb went on in the interviewer's head.

EJZ supported by colleague.

Faculty and students in the Japaese-language class.  Click to enlarge.
EJZ second row, second from left.
Favorite language teacher, third row, fifth from the right, close to the Brass.

EJZ.  Photographer has trouble with focus.

Favorite teacher stands between Brass and Fedora.

See the ASTP patch on the left shoulder of EJZ's field jacket?
We do not have the field jacket or the hat, but we do have the patch.
See OSS CBI Photobook 1.

Page 2, bottom half, scan.

Someone somewhere could very likely identify these faculty.
Fave teacher is back row, first on right.

They had a lot of class time, then a lot of athletic training, then a lot of military training.
They were on active duty, in uniform, all the time.
Dad looks like he's been studying too hard here.
In the photo up left, who is standing by the truck?
What is shown in that map?  Anybody recognize it?
Then a nice radio, a nice bookshelf, photos of buddies in uniform,
then a photo of lovely ladies on some beach.