2000/03/06 - S.French

<p>
Notes from digging through my dad, Morgan French, WWII momentos.  He
has a large box of WWII momentos, newpaper articles all through the
years, and other notes.  Here are some of the momentos.  I hope to
spend some more time gathering info on the others.

<ul>
<li> 
<a href="20000305_p0000248.jpg">Cigarette case</a>.
  Light a cigarette, take 2 or 3 drags, put it in the
  case to 
<a href="20000305_p0000249.jpg">smother it out.</a>
  This made it have a few more puffs than if
  you tamp it out.  Save tobacco.  Dad used this in Japanese POW camp.
  The Japanese didn't care if he had it, they checked it, but since it
  had old cigarette butts in it they let him keep it.  Another POW put
  his name on it using a nail.  He was good at it and put names on for a
  lot of the POWs.  Dad doesn't remember his name. He carried it in his
  back pocket.  The Japanese would give them pack of "Kinche" (sp?)
  cigarettes, about 10, once a month.  They traded cigarettes, rice,
  everything else.  Some guys would trade their rice for cigarettes
  and not eat for 2 or 3 days.  "Doc Sparrow" would trade rice rations
  for cigarettes.  Doc would get in debt and his debtors would
  confiscate his rice.  Dad and Arnold Lawson stopped them from taking
  his rice.  He would have died if they'd kept taking his rice.  It
  was strictly against the rules to take someones rice.  Everyone knew
  it.  The penalty for stealing someones rice was to cut the thief's
  rice ration in half for one week.  Dad would always give himself a
  little less rice than the others.  He did this because anyone on the
  barracks had the right to trade their bowl of rice to the server for
  his, any time he was serving.  This was the same with the soup.
  Stealing from another POW was the _worst_ thing you could do.
  If they caught someone stealing the other men would take the thief
  out back behind the latrine and the man that was stolen from could
  give the thief 10 punches to his body as hard as he could.
  Dad was referee to many of these.

<li> <a href="20000305_p0000241.jpg">Identification</a> 
<a href="20000305_p0000242.jpg">Card</a>
 - "Armed Forces of the United States".  Dad's
 last Army ID card.  Expired 20 Mar 1962.  Dad was a Master Sargeant
 E-8.
  
<li> <a href="20000305_p0000240.jpg">Identification</a> 
  Card - "Geneva Conventions Identification Card".
  Issued after WWII.  Dad got it after he came back from Japan.

<li> POW Number 27 
<a href="20000305_p0000244.jpg">Identification</a>
<a href="20000305_p0000245.jpg">pin</a>.
  Identified Dad as Number 27.  He
  took it off of an old blanket.  Scratched the number 27 onto the
  plastic using a straight pin.  He rubbed charcoal (or some black
  powder or something) into the scratches to make it stay on there.  He
  sewed it all together using a needle you kept hidden. Dad can't
  remember where he got the thread.
  He had number 305 earlier.  The Japanese gave that to him already
  done.  The POWs died down from 305 to 27.  305 was the first number he
  got out 500.  The POWs died and the numbers reassigned until Dad was
  27.  Dad wore his number on the front of his hat.
  If he was caught without it the Japanese might hit him with a rifle
  butt, or yell at him.  The guards would do either depending on how
  they felt.  The POWs couldn't respond at all.  If they hit them back
  they would be killed.

<li> <a href="20000305_p0000246.jpg">Whistle</a> (another 
<a href="20000305_p0000247.jpg">picture</a>)- 
  Dad bought this before WWII and took it with him to
  Japan.  He kept it hid the whole time he was a POW.  He never used
  it in POW camp.  It was the only thing he took and came back with.

<li> 
<a href="20000305_p0000256.jpg">Spoon and chopsticks</a>
 - Dad got these in Japan while he was on R&R
  from Korea.  They were souveniers.

<li> Dad was in Korea from 1951 to 1953.  He was in an amphibious truck
  company.  He unloaded mostly ammunition, also PX and Commissary
  supplies.  He went over there as a tanker and ended up in the
  amphibious truck company.  He was stationed in Inchon.  It was tore
  all to pieces during the Korean war.  Sargent Wendler worked with
  dad then.
  
<li> 
<a href="20000305_p0000250.jpg">Bronze</a> Star
<a href="20000305_p0000253.jpg">Award</a> - 
  Issued April 30, 1984.  Dad got this after the
  war in Harrodsburg.  They issued one to all of the Harrodsburg men
  and given to the wives of the deceased. 
  Reason: "Meritorious Achievement in Ground Combat in the South
  West Pacific Theater of Operations".

<li> Dad's Class A 
<a href="20000305_p0000260.jpg">dress uniform</a>
and Garrison Cap.  Dad knows some of
these
<a href="20000305_p0000261.jpg">medals</a>,
including:
Purple Heart
Presedential Unit Citation with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters
Bronze Star
WWII and Koren War Unit Citations

Here is the Master Sargent 
<a href="20000305_p0000262.jpg">chevron</a>
and overseas stripes (Hershey bars). Each stripe represents 6 months
of combat conditions.

</ul>