January 30, 1945 - Went ashore again. Went to where a twin engine Jap Betty had been shot down and looked at what was left of it. What parts that were left after being shot down had been torn up by souvenier hunters. We passed a couple more Jap planes that had been shot down near the strip. After we got to San Jose, we went to the railroad station to watch the little train come by. They have one house here with the sign “Justice of the Peace - Police Station”. I never saw any cops. We went on down and saw the school. It looked like a pretty nice school. We went in swimming again after getting back to the beach.

January 29, 1945 - Noon - We went ashore to get radio fixed. I would have got to go to a Liberty party anyway. We landed at the air strip and went about 10 or 15 miles inland, to the city of San Jose. Boy, it sure was dusty. They really have a lot of planes on this place. All the land is level for about 10 miles, then it starts little rolls that leads to mountains eventually. The island doesn’t look much different from some places back home. The roads were gravel. When we passed San Jose, we passed a miniature train running on tracks like streetcar tracks. It looked just like one of the first trains invented with a big funnel and everything. We also saw a lot of water buffalo. The town of San Jose wasn’t much to look at, but it did have a few permenant buildings in it. There was a big sugar cane plant here that hadn’t been run since the war. When we got back to the beach, we went swimming in the surf while waiting for the small boat. This is just about as safe as at home. They haven’t had but two air raids since they took it. The last one was three weeks ago. I will probably go ashore tomorrow to pick up the SCR 608 receiver.

December 21, 1944 - Arrived at Sansapor, Dutch New Guinea. Evening - beached, taking on LVT’s (alligators) and infantry troops of the First Division 164^th Infantry 6^th Army. We also got a load of mortar shells and high octane gasoline. The surf here on the beach is really rough. I went in swimming and it threw me around like I was nothing.

October 6, 1944 - Went ashore again - got spare parts for our radio. Had to wait three hours for a small boat so went in swimming that long in the surf. Really got a good sunburn.

October 4, 1944 - Went in swimming. Went for a ride on a private boat. Saw two movies. Had air raid but planes never came over us. They dropped a few bombs.

October 3, 1944 - Still at Sansapor - saw lightening crash in water by the landing strip. Took my first swim in saltwater. Had air raid but never saw any enemy planes.