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From Boca Raton to Guam

Before his enlistment, my father was an organist with a day job (optometrist). He maintained his musical skills by playing for regular worship services at most of his posts. He took up his father’s love of photography, which led to his war-time vocation. At age 26, he entered military service relatively mature while retaining a youthful exuberance and humor that makes for entertaining reading. He covered everything from his life in the Army to current events of importance to soldiers, from D-Day through the end of the war in Europe to the surrender of Japan. His updates on these momentous events give us a “you are there” feeling, coming as they might on the radio at the Special Services tent in the middle of the night.

 

For entertainment he relied on the latest movies, for which he often included a review in his next letter, sometimes acerbic: watching a “stinker” while sitting in mud and soaking in rain at “Cocoanut Grove” (see Photos page) was no joke. He devoured contemporary novels. He also listened to various US radio programs and occasionally took in a USO show. All of these events recorded in letters are listed at the end of each chapter. Each chapter has a table listing the names of people my father noted in letters. He wrote regular letters, to his mother, sister, and friends from previous posts.

 

As he progressed through training, marriage, fatherhood, promotion, and responsibly, his letters remained mostly upbeat with occasional signs of weariness and a growing yearning to go home. This book ends with the surrender of Japan, without resolution of the looming demobilization problem that would keep him on Guam for another nine months.

How Did the Book Come to Be?

Around 2016, I discovered my father’s WWII letters to my mother. I had been trying to construct his wartime experiences from his photographs, but without the letters I didn't have enough information to tell the whole story. Now, I would learn about every aspect of my parents' war experience. After I sorted the letters my wife, Annette, scanned them chronologically in batches of 10 for me to read and transcribe into a Word document. I enjoyed reading the letters more than any other part of the project. My parents came to life as the young couple that I never knew. I didn’t intend for this to become a book, but I soon started grouping the letters into chapters for each location where my father was sent.

In his letters, my father often mentioned photographs that he had recently taken, pairing these pictures with specific events. He mailed the photos to my mother, who put them in sturdy Army albums that have preserved them to this day. I scoured the albums for certain photos and often found them, which Annette scanned and I placed into our growing document.

 

Once Annette had scanned most of the photos, I began working with the experienced local printer Hiram Webb, with whom I had previously collaborated in another project unrelated to my family. The goal was high quality reproductions of photos showing the actual tint of each silver print using colored inks, rather than artificially printing then all in black and white. Other items such as postcards that my father used for some letters appear in the true colors. 

 

Within a few months we had a trial print of the book. During this time, I was most fortunate to be given a referral to Anne Blythe, a veteran Raleigh editor, who agreed to work with me at this late stage. I was able to make valuable changes in the approach of my Prologue, Postlogue, and chapter introductions. No wording of my father’s writing has been altered. With the invaluable contributions of Hiram and Anne, the final version of the book was produced late in February 2023.

Features of the Book

This is a large book with a high-quality binding. It is printed on opaque paper to offset the text and the 256 photographs. It is attractive in appearance and pleasing to the touch. The narrative consists almost completely of my father’s writing in over 241 letters from February 1943 to September 1946 sent from eight locations. Photos are placed throughout the book, often next to particular letters to enliven the story. Two appendices contain additional pictures not associated with specific letters. Other appendices have copies of materials of interest, such as my father’s military records and a message printed on silk in several far east languages intended for use by downed piolets.

Suggestions for Reading the Book

While compiling the letters, I left out wording that was repetitive or seemed to lack interest. Nevertheless, by the time that I completed this book, I realized that it would be a long read. However, this story does not have a plot line demanding that every page be turned the first time through. One could set the book aside for a while or skip ahead to a later chapter. There is no need to save the appendices for the end of the story; take a break and browse the interesting materials in them. Items in the detailed table of contents for each chapter may spark your interest. There is no wrong way to read it, except not to. I hope that each of you who buy this book will find your own way to enjoy it.

Malcolm Bio
MC photo 4 web page.jpeg
Malcolm W. Cass, Jr.

Like my parents, I was born and raised in Maine. My father was an organist who made his living as an optometrist. My mother was active in the church and the community at large. She sang soprano in our church choir and led the children’s’ choir.  I inherited a gift for music from both parents. I followed my father to Bowdoin College, and like him I majored in chemistry and played the chapel organ. However, my career would be defined more by work than music. 

 

I earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from The Johns Hopkins University. While there, I met and married Annette Laura Samuels, an art history major at nearby Goucher College. The tight job market for chemists at that time led me to take a post-doctoral fellowship in England. After an idyllic year we returned to the states for my new job in research and development at a global chemical/pharmaceutical company’s Rhode Island site. For the next 20 years I worked there in various areas, ending in pharmaceuticals. During this time, I became interested in painting, selling my work at a cooperative gallery in Lexington, Mass. Music took a back seat to painting until I found a piano teacher who restored my practice of music as a serious endeavor.

 

I continued my pharmaceuticals career in North Carolina, until my retirement in Raleigh in 2012. Since then Annette and I have travelled, and I have pursued my passion for music, through singing in my church choir and community choruses, playing the piano and organ for worship services, accompanying a joyful group of developmentally impaired adult singers, and performing at senior communities. The discovery of my parents' World War II letters in the attic of our family home in South Portland, Maine, inspired me to write From Boca Raton to Guam.

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