David Peabody Guion
Nov 30, 1945
Manila
Dear Folks –
I have here only five letters from Ye Olde Homestead which have as yet not been answered. We have been extremely busy up to about three days ago. That’s the primary reason that I have not answered these letters until now. But our busy days are over for the present, anyway. Now if you don’t hear from me it will be because of pure negligence on the part of one Cpl. Guion. Here’s the story: a the matter of 24 hours our Radio Circuit Korea was taken off the air, the Teletype Circuit was moved downstairs in the GHQ Teletype Tape Relay Station, and our Message Center was closed. It all happened so fast that we don’t quite believe it yet. Lt. Greenberger sent a message asking for instructions from Korea. As yet we’ve received no reply. The two most likely answers as things are now: (1) we will stay here and work downstairs in GHQ Signal Center instead of a sub- division of it as we were before, and (2) we will go to Korea where our fate is unknown. Neither one of these possibilities is any more likely than the other – your guess is as good as mine. There is also a more remote possibility that we will go to Japan. Time will tell.
In the meantime, we are waiting for answers to two messages that were sent a day or two before we were closed up. One was a request for replacements for the men who have left here going home for discharge (this situation has cleared considerably, by the way, and as a result my morale has improved immensely). You’ll probably remember my mentioning Sgt. Mendendorp, the guy that was my Team-Chief on that advanced party to Okinawa. We became pretty friendly and I hated to leave him when I was assigned to this team coming to Manila. But now he has arrived as a replacement for one of the guys who has left. Once again, he is my Chief and I’m sure glad he’s back. These two replacements that we’re waiting for now are two more of the guys that were in that five-man team that was in the advanced party on Okie. The missing man on that original team has left for the states from Korea. So if the two replacements get here, it will make our old team with the exception of one, intact once again. The second message that we are waiting for is an answer approving the recommendations of a boost in rank to four members of this detachment, one of whom on this list is yours truly up for T/4. The question is, if no action is taken on these messages before the message saying that were closing up is received, will they go ahead and send replacements (doubtful) and approve the rank boosts (possible) even after the third message was received. I can only hope that action was taken.
Tomorrow I will post the rest of this letter.
Judy Guion
"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons 