European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 16, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                You Gertie Bock Hee with my salad Ernest Santo Ana Calif contributions for this Page should be addressed to the Post the army weekly 205 East 42d Street new York i was told you wanted to see me Michael Ponce de aah Clancy clears a mess when i first got to Martin Field the Chow was even worse than it is most of the squawks made to the in were about the not that anybody Ever got sick from the it was just that the Cooks  up was a cinch because nobody came to and the pm did a land office the mess got so desperate that he actually offered the mess sergeant a furlough if he could get More of the boys into the mess but it was no As for i was spending my salary and getting Money from Home i was Only a private then in order to eat All my meals at the service that How things were when this Guy mignon reported for duty As second his full name was Antoine Etienne Armand mignon and hed had 15 years experience As a chef in Swanky hotels like the Pierre and the he got the name Philly from the mess who vaguely recalled a Steak by that name and thought he was being awfully but it was a lot better name than from the Day Philly arrived at Martin Field our Chow began to the mess sergeant let him supervise the because he used to be a Short order Cook when Philly was a big us gis noticed the improvement More Fellows started to Drift into the mess Hall and we started to look Forward to they became we still had stuff like Only Philly put up a menu calling it beef Jardiniere and it went Over it was really the same food that they always Given but Philly was a he used to build bread puddings in the shape of different buildings around the and i remember one occasion when he fooled the whole Squadron into thinking pork was even on fridays the mess Hall was hungry looking officers Hung around the Chow line eyeing us with on a Pla Toon of maps was sent Down to the mess Hall because the mob was surging against the doors like Sinatra Day at the but finally the crisis one Day the of noticed the Chow line extended along the main getting in the Way of this  have so he re ported the next Day a Check was made of the Chow but the Only ones in it were the boys it never every time i 9et settled we move to fort Leomi in our in another week the line was a Block reaching to Post we found out Why in three places at the same in in finance and in physical the Supply sergeant became frantic when 95 per cent of the Squadron members tried to turn in their trousers every week for the finance officer simultaneously noticed that his tech sergeant was starting to resemble a and it noticed that the boys time on the shuttle run was getting slower and so the co finally made the he found that the Chow line was by More but because the boys were putting on Phillys food had increased the Waist line of every Man in the and they were still the problem was especially to it was impossible to give everyone a new uniform every seven Days or and the base commander worried because the Squadron looked like a full group on finally the co put the problem to As i have was our mess Clancy looked up mignon form 20 an found he held a commercial Drivers so they had him reclassified to a a truck then they shipped him to a base somewhere in the that the Way they did things at Martin the Day i got my shipping orders i passed the mess and there was Clancy holding a scrap of food in his he was waving it at a half starved the Mutt managed to drag his Bony carcass Over to the he sniffed at it for a slowly turned away and Stag gered and Clancy was smiling Selfridge Arthur Adler Yar Birds lament Ive been waiting on a waiting near a but my co keeps and my ratings never now its not the Lack of trying keeps me sighing still no and you  think in cause in in simply i keep burning Energy yet in vain my in a private it takes More than Mere imploring and adoring though i keep on still no stripes that i can if with rank in not and my fondest Hopes must one things cant be in a seventh Camp s sgt Irving Caress the foot locked two rows of socks in neat array like buns in a bakery in shorts and Snowwhite and a Woolen i rubs elbows with the silk one aunt Bessie sent last folded handkerchiefs in shades of army a shaving kit with broken a fir staid a sewing two overseas Caps that have seen better this completes one Section of the in the other Are a a tobacco and a partially used Box of snuff two packs of two Candy bars and a comic Book in one a worn cardboard Box which holds his private family letters and those with swak on the often read and answered Long and heres a handful of Here he is on his first a family group taken in the Side Yard at that is his smiling and his proud As the kid brother and sister grinning with hero worship they Are his the other picture is his smiling across the her lips hurry this is his Well forged link with the something to return something to think something to fight Camp Gene Wierbach