Wednesday, December 19, 2007

26 November 1944

Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea is quite a supply depot for all the action which is going on in the Philippines. General MacArthur’s GHQ was located here and the task force that invaded Leyte originated here. GHQ is still located here, although their field HQ is on Leyte. We have both MacArthur’s and Lt. Gen. Kenney’s* planes on the field. They are B-17s. MacArthur’s is named “Bataan” and Kenney’s “Sally”. Lots of high ranking generals come and go all the time from our strip. There are 3 air strips here. Ours is called Senteni strip after the huge lake which lies to the SE. The other is Cyclops named after a 7000 foot mountain behind here, and the third is called Hollandia. We handle chiefly transports both ATC and troop carrier.This place is also HQ for the Far East Air Force. FEAF consists of the 13th and 5th Air Forces. The 308th Bomb Squadron, and 3rd attack outfits are based here. Our neighbors in the area next to ours are the 2nd Filipino battalion who came up on the Lurline with us from Ora Bay. They are a hard working bunch and have built up a beautiful area. They are great gamblers and very generous. Hanson, one of the Sgts. in the tent had met one on the ship. He ran into him the other day and was talking to him. He happened to mention that he needed some airmail envelopes and that our PO was out. When he returned from chow that evening, there on his bunk was a portfolio of stationery, 6 airmail envelopes, 6 airmail stamps, a bar of candy and no sign of the Filipino. They are (that is, a lot of them) very intelligent, speak precise, perfect English and great gamblers, musicians, lovers, and extremely generous



* General George Kenney, commander of the Allied Air Forces in the SW Pacific under General MacArthur.

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