European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 9, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse Yank the army weekly 1945 mail veterans Bonos dear yank just got through Reading your should veterans of this War get a Bonus in the Soldier Speaks and was surprised to read a Small minority were opposed to such an outright Why dont these so called patriots refund to the Treasury any Bonus that May be voted us and let us who think weve earned ours keep ours i dont believe the the Waves or the spars should be granted such a Treyve never had to risk life or limb and with them enlistment was entirely Wozow Raymond Kaptan dear yank m the Veteran has been away for some time and the benefits Pecan derive from a Given in a Lump will do much to help him readjust it would give him a Chance to make himself a useful citizen in his and he would be More than willing to help pay for the Bonus Over a period of time through Gawn dear yank Rapoport says that it is the least a grate Ful government can do for those who have sacrificed that it might be we Are the government although it seems dubious As hell at you and your and my kids and their Are going to have to pay for this the financial compensations some of the men suggested would Cost its a Case of robbing Peter to pay the i Bill of rights and the guarantee of getting your old Job Back is a pretty Square son Richard usic dear yank maybe we Bitch because we Haven t been in action and maybe never but there Are a lot of Fellows up on the front lines who Are giving All they have for our and we think there is nothing too Good for them when they England Chester by dear yank we should expect As our lenient business educational facilities and any occupational therapy necessary to overcome War m but having served to protect what be Longs to us and having successfully thwarted another assault on americas Basic i certainly can not justify a mass raid on an already overburdened help of any especially a Flat hand nothing More than t5 David Singer dear yank of the added danger infantrymen Are subjected we feel that combat infantry troops Only should be paid an additional Dollar a Day for every Day spent in actual not including rear rest combat units such As should receive at least 50 cents extra per Day for every Day in actual Melvin by dear yank my impression of the Best compensation we could receive for our service in time of aside from the benefits of the i Bill of would be the Privi lege of continuing our National service life insurance at the same Cost we paid while in the Knittle dear yank veterans of this War should get a but Only under the following conditions 1 that the Veteran does not use the Bonus for gambling or illegal 2 that the Veteran does not put it All in a savings where it will become dead this Means that most of the Bonus will be put Back into circulation right 3 if the Veteran gets the Bonus he should not ask for any financial Aid to help him to continue his this does not include medical Aid or the use of the i loan Tor helping him to get started in private 4 the amount for the length of time and time in the has been Well taken care As far As this i is so i wont mess that up Oner of the nazis during this time it seems doubtful that rations in nazi concentration Camps include american cigarettes and was Weller transacting business for read pc company during his residence in Paris afro Dick Mayward according to read the Man referred to is a French not an Amer ican which answers the questions he was an employee of the Paris office up to the time the office was closed and its business discontinued in 61 Constitution dear yank while Reading the minor bitching of my fellow gis in mail i noticed one made by a staff sergeant which covered half a column on just exactly what can be done to according to the article of manual and ended up stating that cutting scrubbing floors and such menial labor under Corporal guard is degrading to the rank of staff being merely a degraded i have also been made to do menial labor of the most repulsive and Ive never even been As much As arrested one single time for driving while my heart bleeds for this poor misunderstood staff Rill Gallagher dear yank the disregard for ars and giving of unlawful punishment which he mentions seems to be quite common in the third air the Mcm states that seven Days restriction or seven Days extra but not is authorized punishment for the 104th several outfits have Given seven Days restriction and seven Days extra i know of one Case where the Soldier was Given seven Days extra duty and 30 Days restriction under the 104th As for punishment fitting the dignity of Ive known of cos of All ranks being placed on up and menial fatigue details not necessarily As its of if these aah 90day wonders want to be Sloppy about military Courtesy and other customs which make soldiers because this is the air not the but there going too far when they disregard ars that Are designed to protect the rights of the go Porf a hmm better than Money dear yank we read a letter in mail Call written by Price about gis returning from overseas and losing their 20percent overseas and we seem unable to get Over it Sticks in our so to we appreciate the 20 percent while we Are but we would gladly give it up just for the privilege of being Able to awake from this Nightmare and have the Golden Gate Bridge Rise up out of the Mist before our hungry eighteen months overseas Means a lot in the eyes of the and also our but we All agree that 20 percent is of no moment when we Are Able once again to tramp the Hills of new walk Down a certain Street in shoot Quail in fish in gaze upon the wide open spaces of Texas or count once again the derricks in the Oil Fields of Alaska fanning signed by Mcm count your men dear yank youre a Fine old rag and a High flying rag and All that sort of thing and i like you As do we but some things get my Reading carelessly writ ten claims and in regard to the article in count your men by Bill some of the details just dont about that unofficial record of three rounds in 40 Davidson is Correct in saying it is As a matter of its Damn my Battery in the immortal 43d during the fired 10 rounds in 87 seconds and didst even brag about please dont think in walking around with a Chip on my the a battalion of which he Speaks is no doubt a Good one and Treyve got a Good piece of but youve got to show me where a 155mm howitzer can hit a tank at Yards with premeditated intention do my Best wishes to the 33d but dont forget the five is of the reporting profession when and and try to be accurate in during a battalion 10round concen our Battery completed the fire in 90 seconds with 3 finishing in 87 american in Paris dear yank in Howard Katzander a Weller Sticks out like a sore Katzander tells of watching a Battle inside the City with an american resident of a representative of the new York banking firm of read it telling How a prisoner offered British cigarettes and French Cognac for his Katzander said i turned him i had american cigarettes and a bottle of excellent american Hiram walkers which the american had Given to was Weller a resident of Paris during the four years of nazi domination if was he a Mem Ber of the Antinazi underground or was he a Pris Samuel Kaplan postwar Germany dear yank Joe swire had a Good idea in mail Call to control Germany by controlling her heavy but he seems to miss one important the Prosperity of All Western Europe is unfortunately and perchance somewhat to the Prosperity of German so if swire puts the Load on German he adversely affects quite a Large group of nations upon which the american people de Pend for favourable relations in International controlling Germany industrially would Only hinder world Progress in lets do away with Germany master race Prin Ciple instead of its industries or How the Tafou crab dear yank t i read about crabs on new then i saw them in person we have Here what we Call the he is by nature a Hermit crab who is not issued a Shell at but has to live in some Small sea As he grows bigger he finds a bigger Shell and uses i dont know How it but this particular crab got too big for the Shell he was using and went in search of a new it seems that sea sheels were so he chose the next Best a and stuck his Tail in carrying it at a Jaunty so now he goes trucking Down the Beach with a shiny brass Bungalow that will last till some i character makes us police up the this is a True Story and ill swear it on All the bibles in the chaplains Polo Rhodes Allied nations could set semipermanent control Over the marriage Laws and licenses of All the Ger manic for at least two this control should make certain that no lawful or could join any two people whose combined pure germanic lines averaged More than 50 in this Way none of the Good German blood would be lost and yet it would be impossible for some future Leader to band the pure German supermen together under arms and precipitate the world into War our present America has been built on such a mixture of it Hurt to try a Little on a Foito John Southworth so notation made easy dear yank this outfit has a Barracks inspection every if it does not satisfy the inspecting officer he dumps the garbage can on the nearest bed he can we would like to know what a states that we have to put up with a situation such As to conc by postwar blueprints dear yank after being forced to live in places so bad that landlords were ashamed to Tell the opa that it was for my wife and i have developed an obsession to own our own Home after the i am Only an Amateur at carpentry but i think i could build a Small provided i had a blueprint or plan that was simple enough to if enough gis were inter perhaps someone would design such a a Small charge for printing and mailing could make it available to anything that Doest look like a Barracks or a latrine is Okay with Frederick Weiss pan troop boors dear yank we Are the victims of a circumstance which we be Lieve we have the right to Bitch being Para troopers and taking the risks involved in we believe we deserve the exclusive right to Wear the distinctive uniform of our Branch of the since we arrived Here in new Guinea we have had trouble getting and a lot of us have made As Many As seven jumps in i just recently we have been issued one pair of jump boots per Man with the admonition that they Are to be worn Only during of duty because they cant be replaced once they Are worn if this situation was the re sult of a shortage in the production of boots or transportation it would be a different but it most of the red Cross army some unauthorized infantrymen and a damned Good percentage of the base commandos can get Why cant we i can hear someone saying they Are Engineer they its easy to Tell the be some of us got Engineer boots As if these Fellows want to Wear the jump suits and Why dont they become paratroopers instead of depriving another Soldier of his equipment the paratroops can usually use a few so it be impossible to get they Are either too Lazy to lace their leggings or they Arent willing to labor for the Gimme William pack 14
