Ray Monson

GEDCOM Note

No middle name

Original Message

Story Three: WWII Bill & Roy (& Ray) joined the service the same day Harvey did but Harvey was discharged two years earlier (Sep 1943) because of medical problems. Their story matches Harvey's pretty much until about Oct. 12, 1942 (Roy thinks closer to January.) when Harvey's regiment was flown into Papua New Guinea without Harvey, but with his brothers. (They did however take all of Harvey's medical records. When records finally got back to Brisbane the doctors ran a bunch of tests on Harvey and decided to ship him back to the states. His last 3 weeks in Australia Harvey spent at a holding camp outside of Brisbane. He left Australia on Christmas Day and crossed the International Date Line on New Years day. He had two New years days in a row!) Two days later Bill, Ray, & Roy were at the front line - on New Years as Roy recalls. They were lucky to survive.

The islands and/or towns that they landed had names like Hola, Biak, Liddy (or Leti?), Zamboanga, Mindanaco, and Mindoro. I could not find all of them, but the last three are in the Philippines and Biak is a very small island off the northwest coast of New Guinea. Bill & Roy recall that one of the first stops was Zamboanga and then Hola. They are sure that they were at Biak for Christmas 1943.

Their division, Company A 163rd Infantry, was in New Guinea for three campaigns, and of the 230 who arrived only 35 were walking at the end - the rest were sick or dead. U. Roy said there were 10 in and 10 out of the hospital daily - many with dysentery, malaria or dengue. (an infectious, eruptive fever of warm climates.) Roy himself was in during the first campaign. Bill credits their survival to their own special Guardian angels - "that's all there is to it" he says. Roy says "There are no atheists in a foxhole." And both Bill & Roy believe that Harvey quite likely would not have survived at the front because he was assistant squad leader of the rifle company - a very vulnerable post and one of the first to the front.

Many of the casualties were from disease not war. Malaria was a serious problem and in the beginning was treated with quinine (which kills the parasites). But during the war the quinine supply from the East Indies was cut off and other compounds were developed that were even more effective: Atabrine, chloroquine, and primaquine.

In the first campaign Roy was Assistant Supply Sergeant or "Artificer" but later was Machine Gun Squad Sergeant. The first campaign was the longest (about a month), and they returned to Australia after that one. But after that they stayed at the front until the end (1945).

Bill & Ray were cooks which gave them some protection. As Mess Sergeant Bill was First Cook and in charge of the kitchen. (Ray was a First Sergeant and also a First Cook: The rank among cooks was 2 first cooks, 2 second cooks, student cooks and then KP personnel.) As the official Mess Sergeant, Bill had the ultimate responsibility of feeding Company A. He ran the Company A kitchen. He had to secure, transport (sometimes with great difficulty), and prepare enough food for the men. He was quite adept at his job and often had enough to feed other companies as well. For one 2-day stretch Bill & his Company A crew fed the whole battalion (Co. A, B, C, D, & headquarters). To add variety to the army diet (which was mostly corn beef and hard tack) the cooks would trade the latter with the natives for such local staples as papaya, bananas, wheat meal, pawpaw squash, and lemons. They also sometimes shot the wild goat-like sheep though the locals did not approve. The natives especially loved the corned beef and the cooks had to be very careful to only trade the single serving cans. Otherwise one native would open a large can, eat a serving, and hide the rest in a tree - where it would spoil and make him sick.

Bill & Ray were good cooks, and much appreciated by their men. Their skills were much appreciated later in life by friends and family (esp. Harvey). And for several years (46-50) they operated the Hotel Cafe in Alex (Name?).

Roy left New Guinea before Bill & Ray, but arrived home after. He came by way of Hawaii (where the West Coast men disembarked) and then went all the way through the Panama Canal to New York. Bill & Ray were surprised to get home in August of 1945, ahead of Roy but didn't want to say anything in case something had happened to him. Roy finally arrived home on Sep 12, 1945. They were all discharged in Sep 1945. I think Roy said he was discharged at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. He remembers a nearby town called Crosby.

(Note: Hansel & John Monson were also in the military - both in the Navy. John enlisted Feb 1946. When discharged?)

Story Four: After the War

When Harvey got home from the war he joined Hans & Chet in working the home farm. But when Bill & Roy & Ray got home they began to farm the Skogen place - which Hans made a down payment on for them with the money they sent home from the service. The Skogen place was in section 34 of Timber Creek Township. This was in 1945.

In 1946 Obert Skedsvold talked Bill & Ray (the cooks) into buying the Alexander Hotel - a decision Bill & Ray soon came to regret. They bought the "hotel" from Anton Skedsvold, Otto Tank, Lowell Powell, & Pete Nygaard for $4,000.00. The drafty structure was set on cement blocks and opened on the East - "they should have just burned it down" says Uncle Bill. The first thing Bill & Ray did was travel to Mpls to buy a gas stove. That was just the beginning of their expenses trying to make something out of the place. They invested thousands of dollars and then sold it in 1950-51 to Elmer Iverson for the same amount they originally paid for it - plus they still owed $400.00 for stoker coal after they sold it. (In 1949 they rented briefly to Margary Weber)

It was all the repairs and improvements that made the place such a money -loser. They had lots of customers during those years - as did the other two cafe's in town. Besides the locals they had REA workers and custom combiners. And they had lodgers upstairs: a teacher, Chip & Leona, and Olive & Shorty Ohm (& kids). It was a very cold drafty place to live until they insulated the ceiling. Then the women complained that it was too warm, says Bill.

To keep the hotel afloat, Bill & Ray did other work. Bill did carpenter work on the side - a shift at the hotel and a shift of carpenter work. Perhaps they also helped Roy with the farm work on the Skogen place.

During this time Roy farmed the Skogen place. I'm not sure what happened to Ray's share (or maybe he never was a co-owner), but after a year or so when the farm payment came due, Bill let his share go. He decided that "if the place couldn't support itself he wanted out." So Roy ended up with the Skogen place until he sold it to Tim Dwyer in the late 1950s. After that Roy (and Hansel & John) worked for National Tank for a few years, and then Roy went to California to work in (or start) a furniture store. But he found too much heavy lifting involved in that and came back to North Dakota.

In 1963 or 64 Roy bought the farm in Epping. Roy had 4-6 quarter section plus he farmed some rental acreage. The first year there Roy had a 50 bu per acre wheat crop. - unheard of. I think Roy also had cattle on this farm because Uncle Bill also told a story about trying to round up some cattle for Roy. Uncle Bill said (and Doug Monson confirms) that Roy did not like cattle or riding horses. So one day when his cattle got loose, Roy asked Bill to round them up for him. Bill agreed and spent all day trying to herd those cows to the corral. Several times he got them all gathered at the corral and then "away they'd go again." Finally Roy told Bill to just leave the corral gate open and wait until the cows came looking for water. The next morning the cows were there and they shut the gate.