Ah, the ladies...

My Uncle Jack came of age post-war (WW II) and joined the Army to see the world. After boot camp, he was sent back to his home town, San Francisco, and assigned to the Sixth Army Base at Presidio. There wasn't enough housing there at Presidio and they told him, your folks are here at San Francisco, go home and report for duty here everyday. He applied for transfers to see the world and was stuck at Presidio for his entire enlistment. Can you guess why he didn't re-enlist?

There's the right way, a wrong way and an Army way.

 

Kokoda Track was tough fighting and we Americans tend to forget that it was the Australians who stopped the Japanese victory streak on the Owen-Stanley Range. The initial resistance was by Australian Commandos (think Boer Commando and not British trained Commando) companies.

To assist the Australian counter-attack to push the Japanese across the Owen-Stanely Range to Buna-Gona, MacArthur sent an American column up along a parallel trail. He knew it was there because it was on the map. He never went there himself and didn't know the terrain. Some trail. Men were pulling themselves uphill on branches and vines and MacArthur kept complaining that they weren't making progress and were too slow.

 

There's a Scottish newspaper called The Edinburgh Evening News. Years ago the editor was a guy called John Gibson who used to regale readers of his weekly personal column with tales of his National Service in the RAF...at RAF Turnhouse (Now Edinburgh Airport).
According to him he had a permanent pass to live at his parent's home in Edinburgh and report for duty at the airfield every day for two years.

 

Indeed it was the Australians who handed the Japanese their first major land defeat...AND the first to hand Germany their first Major land defeat (North Afrika) (Check the Olympics...Australia finished above both Japan and Germany - It does not pay to take on Australians)



Buna and Gona saw some of the most medieval fighting of WW2...And our American brothers were there...

 

That was Pvt. Rock who shortly afterward was promoted to sergeant. There are printed "historical documentaries" on him that I used to read as a child.