Chapter 37 Version 2
1945
“They made a mistake. You have to take this back” said
Agatha.
“There is no mistake” said Jane.
“Yes, they made a mistake and you have to take this back”
insisted Agatha.
“OK” said Jane and she picked up the envelope and put it
back into her purse. It was no mistake and it wasn’t going back!
After graduating from beauty school in the spring of 1945,
Jane took a few weeks to do what she had been delaying. She had been living
with some pain. Then it was done. Without her appendix, Jane felt better but
stayed in bed for a week to convalesce. She spent her time in bed not reading
or listening to the radio, just sleeping. Then she was allowed to walk. On the
first day she walked down to the post office and that was much too far to go. A
neighbor spoke with her at the post office and drove her back home.
Jane started working at Charlotte’s beauty salon before she
was fully recovered. On the job the first week, she lifted something that was
too heavy and created a lesion on her operation. Going back to the doctor, he
confirmed that she injured the operation and Jane only worked at Charlotte’s
for one week. She did make $80 for the week. When she came home and gave it to
her widowed mother, her mother couldn’t believe that she made that much money
in a week. Jane didn’t take the money back and she didn’t go back to work at
Charlotte’s.
Jane was confronted with a problem. A few older women at the
beauty salon, and one in particular who was Jane’s neighbor, decided they did
not want an inexperienced girl working on their hair. After recuperating, Jane
was in Holyoke at the second floor apartment of her sister Helen at 5 Faille
Avenue and she called a local beauty salon to see if they needed a new
beautician. She immediately walked down to the beauty shop for an interview.
“I think you are going to like working here” said the
manager of the salon after about one minute into the interview. Jane started
working the next day.
Helen’s husband Kay was in the Navy in Nevada so Helen
welcomed Jane’s company during the week. On weekends, Jane went back over Mt.
Tom to be with her friends in Easthampton. Jane would give her friend Bert
facials. She went to the Majestic Theater on Cottage Street on Sunday
afternoons with her friends including Aurelia. Jane liked westerns and light
hearted mysteries like “The Thin Man Goes Home” with Myrna Loy, William Powell
and Asta the Dog.
Jane’s friend Bert was going to a beauty salon owned by
Lorita in Easthampton. She recommended Jane to Lorita when she heard that
Lorita was looking for a beautician.
“No thank you, I am not looking to move from my present
job.” Jane told Lorita on the phone.
Jane’s brother Ed had been going to infantry school down in
Fort Benning , Georgia before going to unit training for infantry officers at
Fort McClellan in Alabama. He started infantry training in October of 1944 and finished
his infantry officer training in June. He left for the western Pacific in July a
few weeks before the atomic bombs were dropped. His assignment was to the 800th
Military Police Battalion that was based in Manila in the Philippines. He
arrived in mid-August the day after the Japanese surrender delegation left
Manila to return to Japan. This was a few weeks before the formal surrender of
the Japanese on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Ed was in Manila when Stanley
arrived on the USS Rocky Mount to take Admiral Kincaid’s staff to Korea. The
800th MP’s had been involved in the taking of New Guinea and Luzon
with heavy losses. Had the Japanese not surrendered, they may have been
involved in the scheduled invasion of Japan in November. Instead, Ed was assigned
to be part of the occupation force. Lieutenant Borsuk was put in charge of
seventy military policemen in the Kobe/Kyoto area of Japan. His job was not
only to police the occupation forces, but also to police the civilian
population. Having 45 points for demobilization, Lieutenant Ed left Japan in
February of 1946 and separated from the active military in April at Fort Devens
in Massachusetts.
“No thank you, I am not looking to move from my present
job.” Jane again told Lorita and again Lorita would not take no for an answer.
She kept calling on weekends when Jane was home.
On the day that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima,
Kay left Fallon, Nevada for his annual leave. Including his travel time, Kay
was on leave from August 5th to August 31st. At every
stop of the train, he heard the Andrew Sisters singing, “On the Atchison,
Topeka and the Santa Fe” both coming and going. By the time he returned to Fallon,
his job of torpedo training for use by bomber pilots was no longer needed. But
on November 1st 1945 Kay only had 31.5 points and was not yet
eligible for immediate release. On January 30th 1946, Kazmer went to San
Francisco on his way to the Boston Separation Center in Massachusetts. He was
honorably discharged from the Navy on February 8th 1946 and returned to Helen
in Holyoke.
“OK, I am interested in coming back to work in Easthampton”
Jane finally told Lorita in December of 1945. Jane started working for Lorita
in January of 1946. The timing of Jane’s decision was good as the salon in
Holyoke was sold to investors from Vermont. A few months later, a water problem
in the salon spilled over into a food store next door. The salon in Holyoke shut
down and never reopened. Timing is everything.
It seemed that everyone was being demobilized except Joe. On
September 17th, 1945, ACORN 29 itself was decommissioned. Joe was
assigned to Naval Air Base Yonabaru, Okinawa. There would be no need for his
ACORN unit to rehab another captured airfield during the cancelled assault in
November against the Japanese island of Kyushu. His training as a LCI, Landing
Craft Infantry, motorman would have been especially dangerous in that landing.
Japan still had over 6,000 aircraft for the defense of the homeland. Their plan
was to use half of the aircraft as kamikazes against the landing craft concentrating
on the infantry and wreaking havoc on the shoreline. Smaller ships and
mini-submarines were also to be used as kamikazes to go along with the 3,000
aircraft. This would be a change in tactics as the beaches were not contested
on Okinawa. The defense on Okinawa was done in the inland hills. But the atomic
bombs were a game changer and Joe was never called to this next assault. He
might even have been ferrying Lieutenant Ed’s MP unit to the beach on Kyushu.
On November 1, 1945, Joe had only 27 points and was
ineligible for immediate release. He decided to study for the exam that would
qualify him for an advancement in rating to MM3c. He was MMS3c – a shop
machinist mate. A MM3c would be a full machinist mate. Joe sat for the exam on
January 25, 1946. He qualified and on February 6, 1946 was approved pending an
actual vacancy. On February 26th, his rate was changed from MMS3c to
MM3c. This was done on some of his paperwork.
On March 18th, a day before his birthday, Joe’s
points were recalculated to be 29 and he was eligible for discharge. He had the
option of reenlisting at his new rate and probably be assigned to an airfield
in China or he could go home. Joe had seen enough. He opted to go home.
Millions of veterans made their way home under Operation
Magic Carpet uneventfully. Joe’s trip home would be one of the exceptions. On
his way home, his ship broke down and was lucky to be close to Japan as it was
towed into Yokohama in Tokyo Bay. The ship took two weeks to repair so Joe
enjoyed some R&R in Japan. Had the ship broken down in the middle of the
North Pacific in bad weather, it may not have made it to Seattle. Timing is everything.
As it was, the repaired ship had to contend with huge swells and it was a very
rough crossing to Seattle.
Then it was off to the Navy Separation Center in Boston via
train on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Joe arrived in Boston on April 24th.
He was honorably discharged on April 26,1946 as a MMS3c as his paperwork for
this rate increase didn’t catch up with his records before he was discharged.
Joe did not care to “Hurry Up And Wait” any longer.
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