July30

Scotch pairs in am. Some errands around town and company for dinner. 11C part sunny or is it part cloudy?

  Once again I got on sort of a treadmill and was shuffled around to different islands with a couple of other platoons.  There were still snipers here and there and things were never easy.

  I was finally sent home late in 1945 and once again went on furlough.

  The Japanese finally surrendered on September 2, 1945 and then the rumors about reducing the size of the army started making the rounds.

  I had been in the army for almost eight years and it was the only life I knew, I had no idea what the hell I would do if I was discharged. It eventually happened but by this time I had gotten some advice from a few of the other guys and the day I was discharged in January 1946, I went right out and enlisted in the Oregon State Militia.

  Once more I found myself having a tough time with the lack of action, because of my previous experience I was put into a training facility and expected to make fighting men out of kids off the street in about three months. But not having any choice I stayed with it but again lost my stripes and spent most of the next few years as a Corporal.

  Maybe the rest of the world moaned but when war was declared on Korea in June of 1950 I was happy. I shifted back into the regular army and was on my way just before the end of July. I stayed there until it all ended in 1953 and was soon back in Oregon. I was thirty four years old and had been an army man for fifteen years, once more I was wondering what the hell was I to do.

  I managed to get back in the militia and hung on for another few years, yeah I drank a lot but so what. I did guard duty, helped with training once in awhile and other nothing jobs. In 1959 I was honorably discharged, once again a Master Sergeant.