Joe Cilek
- Joe! Joe! How Could You?
A letter from, Joe Celik, one of the U. S. Army's well known meat cutters, says he spent Christmas on a beach in Hawaii drinking pineapple juice. Joe is getting to be a regular cut-up since he left Lowell.
The following Sept. 14, 1944, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 3 columns 2-3:
- The Carl Mahlers also received the following letter from Cpl. Joe Cilek, who formerly operated Joes' Meat Market at the A&P store:
New Britain Is.
Hello friends:
I suppose you think I've been lost or something has happened to me as I haven't written you in ages it seems. No, I'm very much alive and in the best of health. I sure hope everything is tops with all of you.
I've been pretty busy since I've been here and that accounts for the fact I haven't written sooner. I am cooking for a group of men and also am in charge of the mess -- so between doing the cooking, baking and looking after the kitchen and mess hall, I have only a few minutes in which to write home and to my friends.
Our mail comes to us like bananas -- in bunches. But it doesn't matter how old the letters may be they are welcome out here. This place is something like the Kankakee river lowlands back home. We are at a swell spot with nice cold stream flowing down from the mountains. We dammed it up and made a swimming hole. Sure feels good to go in after a hot day's work. It's pretty warm here but the nights are cool, so a fellow can sleep good.
We are starting to be rotated for furloughs but it will be some time before they get down to me. We have a few men here who were overseas a few months longer than most of us, so they will get to go home first, which I think is right.
We have been feasting on wild pigs lately as they are plentiful here. They don't taste as good as our pigs back home, but anything is better than canned stew or corned beef - that's what we've been eating the past few months.
My morale is quite high now because I can begin to see an end to the war. We have a radio and you can bet we listen to the short wave news broadcasts. One of these days I hope to wake up and find out it's all over with.
Best regards to all my friends,
Joe
While Joe was in a writing mood he also wrote to W.A. Clark, and as he wrote it at about the same time as the one to Mahlers it contained much the same news. The letter, in part follows:
We are in a cleared portion of this island and I had the opportunity to go over a battle area. Plenty of dead Japs lying around. They went through them so fast they did not even have time to bury them. They still lay where they fell. In some places you can see a big heap of bones, so you begin to wonder how many got it there. You count the shoes lying around and you have your problem solved. I found a jap wallet with some occupation money in it, which I sent home to my sister. She is a souvenir fiend - always writing to me to send something from here.
I hope this finds all of you in the best of health. Best regards and luck to all,
Joe
This Lowell Tribune article was found in the July 5, 1945, issue (page 4, columns 3-5):
- The following letter from Cpl. Joe Cilek, stationed in the Philippines, was received by W.A. Clark last week:
- Dear Friends:
- Have finally found time to drop you a few lines. I've been hopping around so much I'm beginning to think I'm a grasshopper. I've seen all I care to see of the Philippines and sure hope that I'll get to go back to a white man's country--something like the good old U.S.A.
- I've been feeling pretty good right along up until today, and the medic here thinks I've got the yellow jaundice. We have had quite a few fellows come down with it but they give you a quick cure for it here. I'm going to rest a few days and see how I feel.
- We have been pretty busy the past few weeks and we are all pretty well fagged out. The weather was against us and the Japs gave us a little trouble, too. We have finally won the last round in this campaign so we are resting up a bit.
- I would like to write to William but I've lost his address. In fact, I've lost almost everything I ever owned. We move around so much a fellow is lucky to have a shirt on his back. Half the time you're in water neck deep and the other half in mud. It rains every day here and I don't mean just rain, because it really pours down. But in rain, mud, sleet or blood, I'll make it somehow.
- I have 81 points, so I guess I'm stuck for the duration. But what do I care. I haven't seen much of the world after all. What I've seen I don't think the devil would trade me a quarter acre in hell for it.
- My folks sold their home in C.P. so I guess when I come back I'll have to depend on a hotel room at Abe's if he is still there. I won't be worth much after a couple of more years over here, but I think someone will buy a pencil or two off of me. You won't know me when I do get back--I look something like Biddy Smith now. I'm not complaining though. Some of my buddies were less fortunate. I was [in] luck a few nights ago as I was planning on going up with a platoon who were going to build a bridge at a tough spot, but the Sgt. talked me out of it. The next morning some of the men didn't come back--their truck struck a mine and and blowed hell out of things, so I consider myself pretty lucky. The Japs are very tricky and they like to prowl around behind our lines at night, so a fellow has to keep his eyes peeled all the time.
- I hope to hear that the number of points required will be lowered so I can go home. I have 64 points on overseas, 2 points for in the states and 15 point for three campaigns. They say that 85 is the number needed, so I'm a little short. We have one fellow over forty who applied for a discharge yesterday. You know I'm always unlucky--I'm either too young or too old or else I lack something.
- Well, how is everything in general around the old town? After three years absence I should see a few changes back there when I get back. There is nothing new in the line of news here. These people are as poor as church mice and the Japs that we find here are about the same. Some of the Japs are dressed in patched uniforms, some have patch-over-patch clothes. Souvenirs are scarce here as the Japs didn't have much left to leave behind. They sure take to the mountains in a hurry when they hear or see the Americans coming. But they don't get away because we can go anywhere they can. If they hide in a cave, we ask them to come out. If they refuse, we seal the entrance and forget about them.
- I haven't seen any Lowell or C.P. newspapers since December. Guess they're holding them up until they get a boat load.
- Well, it's near my bed time, so I'll have to end this letter chat. Best regards to all my friends around Lowell.
- Joe
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