K-P Duty

In Dobodura, New Guinea, the 457th began to notice severe shortages in their sugar supply.  As it turned out, there was a major boot-legging operation in progress.  With the absence of alcohol, the men felt necessity would be the mother of invention, but they were caught with their stills in production.  The makeshift liquor companies were immediately put out of business.

My father had other ideas.  The following letter was one I never tired of reading; it always gives me a chuckle or two.  My father’s ingenuity was unfailing.  He used to tell me, “If you think hard enough, there’s a solution to every problem.”  After years of having tended bar, this was going to  be right up Smitty’s alley.

Letter # 10 has been previously published by “Whistling Shade” magazine in 2007.  I submitted it during their war story inquiry.  And also, in The Miller Family’s “Soldiers’ Stories vol…