SCIENCE SERVICE fee

SO

 

THE INSTITUTION FOR THE POPULARJZATION OF SCIENCE organized 1921 as a non-
profit corporation, with trustees inated by the National Acedemy of Sci the
National Research Council, the American Association for the Advancement of Science,

the E. W. Scripps Estate and the Journalistic Profession. WATSON DAVIS, DIRECTOR.

1719 N Street, N. W. WASHINGTON 6, D. C.

Telephone NOrth 2255 Cable Address Scienserve

 

August 16, 1946
Dear Joshs:

Glad to hear from you again. The postoffice in your old
neighborhood doesn't know where you have vanished to as I wrote
you twice and both times rec'd my letters back with the familiar
"moved-—- left no forwarding address"

; I don't remember where I left off when I last wrote
so I'll go back to last May— rather May 1945. I think I told you
that I got sick of hanging around the base and presented a project
"through channels" to the Commandant whereby I would get shdpped out
on a sort of "observer" trip as part of a research study I was making on
effectiveness of selection techniques at the Station. MX The plan
was actually approved in fall of 1944 and in Nov I went through the
whole training program(retaining my rate etc), went thhough boot camp,
purser trng school, hospital corps sch, etc and etc. even served a
one month internship at the Marine Hospital in Staten Island, two weeks
of whiqh was spent as Ambulance Intern at the Staten Island General Hospital.
That's a story in itself so I'll leave that part go till I next see you.
Aboard ship Iwas to serve as SupplyOfficer and handle all medical work too.
Well, in May 1945 I was sent on a six week trip to Antwerp. Plans

were supposedly foolproof BUT instead of going on a six week trip to Antwerp
I was yanked off the ship (my cHKH capt. also) and we were assigned to another
ship (this all happened two hrs before sailing) and found ourselves headed
for the So Pacific.

Instead of a six webks trip I had an 11 month trip involving 3 ships.
I wag in Panama, Philippines, New Guinea, Formosa, French Indo China,
ManSquria, and China.

I had a Navy Gunner flow off to Isle of Samar with a case of acute
appendicitis, One man was murdered in a little town near Manila in the Philippines,
One kid fell in the forepeak and fractured his collarbone, and of course there

were, the regular cases of VD. Oh yes we were inna Cholera epidemic too. ZL.
hee Denad ok tele ¢ pupehe Once. ’

We became involved in the Chinese Givil War as we we part of the Navy's
7th Fleet,, Task Force 74.1 which was a hush hush operation and denied by the
State Dept. After HXX several of the boys tipped of€their folks as to what we
were doing, and they in turn tipped of Drew Pearson, Winchell and others. The
whole darn task force was sold (donated) to the Chinese by ah act of Congress
and we were sent home as Passengers. We hung around in Shanghai with no work
waiting for the Congress to pass the bill from Xmas to Feb 22nd and I arrived
in Frisco on March 8th this year.

Couldn't get KEXEZ¥KAX relieved in Frisco on acc't of no one wanted to
take my box of papers which represented the sum total of what was left of my ship.
Also was involved in a Coast Guard hearing on some property that vanished and anothe~

BOARD OF TRUSTEES: OTIS W, CALDWELL, BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTE FOR PLANT RLSt ARCH, EDWIN. G CONKLIN, PRINCEION UNIVERSITY, MAX B. COOK, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWSPAPERS, Treasurer: FRANK R. FORD, EVANSVILLE PRESS; ROSS G. HARRISON, YALE UNIVERSITY,
A. HH. KIRCHHOFER, MANAGING (DITOR, BUFFALO FVENING NEW, WARREN LEWIS, wISTAR INSTITUTE, R.A. MILLIKAN, CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, O. W. RIEGEL, DIRECTOR WASHINGTON AND LEE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, President, HARLOW SHAPLEY, DIRECTOR.
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. H. L. SMITHTON, exiC Unive AGENT OF THE f 9 SCRIPPS TRUST, NEIL H. SWANSON, EAECUTIVE FOITOR. SUN PAPERS, HUGH §. TAYLOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, WILLARD L. VALENTINE, 201TOR OF SCIENCE. Vice-President and Chairman of Executive

Committee: ALEXANDER WETMORE, SECRETARY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
on acc't of the guy that was murdered. So by time I got to New York it
was already March 21st and I managed to get cleaned up there by March 23rd.
and then hit for Boston.

While home I discovered I required 6 weeks of active service
either at sea or back at the station to qualify for a release both from
the USMS and also from USNR since I also had a reserve status in the USNR by
this time. I didn't relish the thought of going back to sea after that
other trip so I managed 41 to get recalled back to te station. Yb bicbu X fboy

Was at Sheepshead from May 3rd to June 30th and finally let out
only because my boss at Science Service pulled some strings to speed things up.

This brings up another story—~ what am I doing in the nation's capital?

Am working for Science Service-- you know the outfit that. took over the
Science Club program of the Institute. They built it up from 700 clubs at the
Institate peak. to. slightly over 10,00 clubs.

Don't particularly like the job-—- it's all paper work. Also,
the heat is bad, food is 1MMH¥X and prices are e sky high and I do mean
high with a capital H.

I had several comtacts that I thought would materialize when I
came home from China but I lost out on all of them by arriving so late after
vV-J day.

Now ; you are up-to-date on ny whereabouts and my doings——
How about your own????

Be good

PS--- suggest yg@u tip of your old postoffice * as to your
mierenkoute— you might | be losing important mail—