Pandemic and Things – Part 52

25 November 2020

I was getting low on printed crossword puzzles. Thinking of things to do if a hurricane hits, I decided to stock up on daily crossword puzzles. I figured even if my generator conked out, I could do them during daylight hours to while away the time. Once you’ve experienced 2 1/2 weeks without electricity you realize how boring it can be. I even have a few jigsaw puzzles in reserve.

It never occurred to me that a pandemic is a lot like being in the aftermath of a hurricane. I started going through my stash of puzzles very quickly. I had a clipboard full of daily puzzles at least an inch high. I even quit printing them because they couldn’t fit on the clipboard. However, recently I noticed I was down to about 1/8 of an inch of puzzles.

My go to puzzles are the Los Angles Times crossword compliments of my digital Washington Post subscription and the New York Times puzzle compliments of my digital subscription to the Miami Herald. The Herald also has a Universal crossword every edition so, if things work out well, I end up with three puzzles a day. My routine is to work the LA Times puzzle in the morning with my second breakfast. My first breakfast is a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee in front of the computer (and printing the puzzles). After my morning walk, I do a second breakfast of 1/2 grapefruit and my second cup of coffee. It’s then I work the LA Times puzzle. I generally do not work a puzzle after that – only the morning.

During the pandemic, I go nowhere other than my morning walk or afternoon bike ride. I do yoga stretches and, arm permitting, swim laps. I have a doctor’s appointment perhaps once a month and when out for that, I make as many stops as necessary to stock up on items. In a worse case scenario, I end up having to make a special run to the pool store for chemicals but other than that, I’ve been home bound since March. You can only read so much during the day so I’ve begun working 2 or 3 puzzles a day – hence the depletion of my stash. I’ve started back printing 3 puzzles a day. It’s a waste of ink but I don’t like doing puzzles online. The ink cost is worth it.

It was my Dad that got me started on reading newspapers. He would get down on the floor with me and we’d read the Sunday comics together. That lead to reading stories in the paper and from then on, I was hooked. Everywhere I’ve ever lived I’ve subscribed to the local paper. My favorite was the Commerical Appeal out of Memphis during my Ole Miss days. You could literally set your watch by the delivery of that paper in the morning.

When I moved to Fort Lauderdale, I subscribed to the Miami Herald, not the Sun-Sentinel, the local paper. The Sentinel was good on local news but that was about it. It was also, at the time, extremely conservative. The Herald, at the time, had a national reputation and was more balanced. I finally quit it when the Monday paper became so thin in pages and all of that was mostly advertising. It didn’t help that the paper couldn’t keep delivery people. You’d change carriers three or four times a year and sometimes the paper would be delivered and sometimes not. The golden age of newspapers seem to be gone forever. The Times-Picayune of New Orleans has gone totally online and no longer offers a print version.

I subscribe the several online papers: New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Those five cost me $68.44/month. The Miami Herald delivered newspaper is cheaper (around $165/year) but that now only includes 6 days a week. Five online papers is perhaps a bit excessive but it lets me keep tabs on local and coastal news sources.

What’s interesting is how different each online version is. All have different screens for tablets and phones. The desk top version is also different. The worst desktop version is the Sun-Sentinel. Whoever laid out that web site was a sadist. I guess my reading that version makes me a masochist.

It’s been a major attitude shift going from a paper version of newspapers to an online version. I still don’t like it but it looks as though that is the future. Storefronts seem to be going the way of the dodo. Although Amazon still rules the online shopping niche, other entities are beginning to chip away. Add the pandemic to this and you have a major culture shift in progress.

Continuing with my retrospective of my Dad, today’s video is WWII. Dad went to Officers Candidate School (OCS) at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1942. From there he was shipped to the Pacific Theater under the overall army command of Douglas MacArthur.

He tells me of his time in Australia when Eleanor Roosevelt came to speak. He was not a fan. He said she had a shrill voice and didn’t really inspire him.

MacArthur, who was headquarter in Australia (having been secreted from the Philippines) was in a tenuous position. Most of the American effort was centered on Germany. The Pacific is vast and the Navy was still recovering from Pearl Harbor. The Japanese had a foothold in Papua New Guinea and were trying to capture Port Moresby on the southern coast. Australian and American troops in New Guinea were holding on by their fingernails. Port Moresby was being bombed daily and the Japanese had even launched air attacks on Darwin, Australia and along the northern coast of Australia. Such were the conditions when Dad was thrown into the fighting.

Some of the fiercest fighting was in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. The Australians were designated to hold the line against the Japanese attacks in the mountains and the Americans were sent to attack the Japanese along the coast. Buna was an especially difficult battle that Dad was a part of along with the area near the Nigia River – really a stream near Berlin Harbor. There is a book written about the Buna campaign and it was particularly brutal. The book was actually written about the 32nd division which was Dad’s division.

Supplies and equipment were virtually nonexistent yet MacArthur decided on an amphibious landing. The long and short of it was the campaign bogged down and there was terrific fighting – much of it hand-to-hand. MacArthur was severely criticized for his planning because of the loss of life in the fighting. Some deemed it more a political act to establish MacArthur’s reputation after escaping the Philippines.

From there Dad was shipped with his division to the Philippines with MacArthur. The famous “I have returned” newsreel of MacArthur wading ashore was at a fairly well established beachhead after the amphibious assault. The real fighting occurred inland and in the cities, particularly Manila.

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His division was involved in the smashing of the famous Yamashita Line of island of Leyte and later the invasion and taking of Luzon. The Leyte operating was particularly brutal with more hand-to-hand fighting.

A lot of the men in the division were from the Wisconsin National Guard. Dad was eventually made a captain and I think he pretty much stayed with the division throughout the war. It was a testament to him that many men who survived stayed in contact with him through the division’s newsletter over the later years and some even visited him in Pulaski.

PTSD was not in the lexicon of WWII but Dad certainly exhibited signs of it. He became an alcoholic and had nightmares the rest of his life. I learned from Mother at a very early age never to go wake him while he was sleeping because he felt he was in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese. How he survived WWII I’ll never know but he did the double miracle and survived Korea also.

The movie starts like much of the prelude to war. GI’s and some girls.

It then moves to some area in the Pacific with supply ships. The first scene of the supply ship shows a plane being shot down. You soon see scenes of a harbor where GI’s and supplies are temporarily offloaded.

Next up comes the building of an air strip and the landing of what I think is the B-25 Mitchell bomber – a medium bomber made by North American Aviation named after Billy Mitchell, a pioneer in U.S. aviation.

Next is a 105 mm Howitzer Mobile Carriage, the M7 Priest. It’s interesting to see the relaxed looks on the mens’ faces. Compare that to some of the upcoming battle scenes and those mens’ faces.

Large parts of the jungle are devastated due to bombardment from ships offshore. There is one blurred shot of a beach scene where a mortar is in operation. The shot with three arrows has “Japs” as its heading. Dad is apparently showing three Japanese positions on this island.

The image of the GI standing next to a sign reading Nigia River is on the island of Papua New Guinea. This was part of the Buna campaign on that island.

Even during war there was time for R&R. One scene shows a USO tour performance. Then, when left to their own imagination for a good time, you see a volleyball game, GI’s mugging for the camera. There’s even swim call.

Finally, there are captured Japanese soliders – a rarity in the Pacific Theater. I end the movie with the medals earned by my father in the Pacific.

My song recommendation is actually an entire album: Richard Rogers’ Victory at Sea. Even better, rent or buy the entire video set. The music is stirring if nothing else. The war in the Pacific was mainly a naval battle with significant, costly land engagements. However, without control of the Pacific Ocean, the land battles would have never been fought.

Stay tuned and stay safe!