Sheryl Jones - This is the Army, Mr. Jones!

The WWII V-Mail Cartoons of Harry E. Chrisman

SHERYL JONES

THIS IS THE ARMY, MR. JONES!
2013 Sheryl Jones

Published by Hellgate Press
(An imprint of L&R Publishing, LLC)

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Hellgate Press
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Editor: Harley B. Patrick
Cover design: L. Redding

e-Book edition: November 2013. ISBN: 978-1-55571-749-0

For Harry

by Harry E. Chrisman

THIS IS THE ARMY, MR. JONES!

The WWII V-Mail Cartoons of Harry E. Chrisman

SHERYL JONES

T HERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE INVOLVED IN PRODUCING A WORK OF THIS TYPE; its difficult to know where to begin and where to end. The beginning, of course, was Harry and his determination to fight for the country he loved, to keep his wife, mother, and family assured of his safety through his cartooning talent and his poetry and letter writing expertise. So, the first thank you goes to Harry and Catherine Chrisman for allowing me to be a part of their lives.

Next, my cousin-in-law, Major Thomas G. Grandin, retired, 82nd Airborne, who provided information on Army life, inspiration and encouragement, receives my continuing and life-long thanks.

And to my husband of fifty-four years, Don, who also reads everything I write but is kind enough to edit, correct, and suggest so that the prose or poetry is the best it can be. It sure helps to be married to an English major!

To my sister, Judy Slothower, who reads every word I write and thinks its all great even when I know a re-write is in order.

To my son Steven Jones who also reads everything and just comments, Its wonderful, Mother! I raised a good son!

A warm thank you to Morse Clary, Harrys nephew and co-executer with my husband of the Chrisman estate, for giving me permission to fulfill my promise to Harry.

A very quality thank you to Harley Patrick, my editor and publisher, who was willing to take a chance on a totally different type of military memoir, one which shows the softer side of WWII created by a soldier who wanted to ease the anxiety of those at home and others also serving in that war. Thank you Harley for sharing my sense of humor, always answering e-mails and telephone calls, and a reassurance that you would not hang me out to dry in my OD (Olive Drab) pantaloons!

And a thank you to three special friends: Rita Friedman who reads all my work, childrens books included, and is kind enough to make lots of notes; Colleen Lautenbach who also reads everything and is the worlds best hostess; and Chuck Lautenbach, my go-to guy for anything historical.

To end this part of the book, special thanks to all the men and women who did what had to be done during those war years, both overseas and at home, both military and non-military, and made it possible for me to write a book about the softer side of World War II.

T HIS WORK IS DEDICATED TO THE PRESIDENT AND OUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and to our First Lady of that time, Eleanor Roosevelt, both of whom played predominant roles in the leadership of the American people in our struggle against Japanese Imperialism and Nazi-Fascism in World War II.

Although our great leader died before the victory came, his inspiring life and the guidance he gave us lives on in a time when the nation sorely needs it.

To all who followed this democratic path through the pains of World War II, and survived, and to all born since, we learn that the beaten path is the safe one. Let us continue to appreciate and follow the philosophy laid down by this masterful architect of the Good Neighbor Policy in all of our relations, foreign and domestic.

Harry Chrisman, 1982

O N THE MORNING OF DECEMBER 7, 1941, A CLEAR AND LOVELY SUNDAY, an enemy force struck the island of Oahu, in the Hawaiian Islands. Suddenly the entire Pacific Ocean Area was in the headlines of all newspapers over the world, and the radio waves sparkled with news events of the tragedy that had befallen the United States defense forces of that western area. Suddenly, islands who names were heretofore unknown by the American People, and many of them almost unpronounceable, became occupied by American soldiers, Marines, Navy personnel and Seabees as well as having airstrips developed on them that would carry our war to the Japanese who had attacked us. Within a few months Saipan, Tarawa, Attu, Yap, Guadacanal, Midwayyes, and Christmas Islandbecame as familiar to our tongues as Cleveland, Bismark, San Francisco and Chicago.

What occurred on these islands has become a part of our American history. The occupation of islands to be used as air and naval bases, to be made into supply depots to help us gain control of the Pacific Ocean Area has been told in many history books. However, one thing that occurred, and was a blessing to the folks at home as well as to the American forces overseas, has never been properly described, its historical value told. That was the birth of the V-Mail, those small, one-quarter size letters that saved thousands of square feet of valuable shipping space, and tons of weight to be used for better purposes than carrying messages from the Home Front to the battle zones. A C-54 cargo plane could now carry 36,260,000 microfilmed V-Mails, whereas it had formerly carried but 260,000 letters.

Those of us who were serving overseas, both in the Pacific Ocean Area and at other camps, posts and stations in other parts of the world, used the little V-Mails extensively in our correspondence to those back home. But we encountered a few problems with them. If we wrote too small, the letters were difficult to read. We soon learned that to get all our thoughts expressed, we needed to write more than one letter. But when we did this, there was no assurance that they would arrive in the sequence in which we mailed them. We even tried numbering each letter, but that proved difficult, too. The V-Mails were postage-free to service people, so that was no problem. We learned it was best to stick to a single subject. However, there was one benefitat least for those men who disliked writing. They neednt write long letters to wives and sweethearts at home!

Only the true black ink photographed well. Blue ink was like writing with ones fingernails. Once I tried red ink. It worked well, but for some reason operators of the photographic equipment just sent the red-ink V-Mail on in its original form, not photographed and reduced. And that required more time for delivery. Eventuallyactually it didnt take me longI found a wonderful use for V-Mail. Black and white cartoons! In a V-Mail cartoon I could depict the First Sergeant as a creep, even point out a captain, a major or a full colonel as a nerd. I learned to put buckteeth on the officers I drew, as did my friend, George Baker, creator of The Sad Sack