Glossary
ALS: autographed letter signed.
APO: Army Post Office.
ATC: Air Transport Command (ATC) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as the strategic airlift component of the United States Army.
AMG: Allied Military Group for Acquired Territories.
Baksheesh: a tip or bribe to expedite service.
B.O.T.M. Club: Book of the Month Club
“Chop”: an identifying symbol created to be used as a signature stamp, used in Eastern culture. (References to JDM’s “Chop”)
CBI: China, Burma, India Theater in World War II, under the command of Gen. Joseph Stilwell.
Donovan, William J.: an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat, best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), during World War II.
ESKY: short for Esquire magazine.
faw: Find A Way.
kush-kushj: – Kush is a particular variety of cannabis grown in the Hindu Kush mountains.
Mountbatten, Admiral: Lord Louis Mountbatten was a British naval officer who oversaw the defeat of the Japanese offensive towards India during World War II.
OD: (or OOD) Officer Of The Day, duty officer serving on a rotating basis.
OCS: Officer Candidate School.
OSS: Office of Strategic Services, a wartime intelligence agency and precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency.
P.O.D.: Payable on Death.
Pony Edition of Time: The Pony edition of Time Magazine was printed during the World War II especially for air transport. To facilitate this, the magazines were printed in a miniature format (5.5″ x 8″). Textually identical to the normal magazine issue, these Pony editions were published without advertising, which included the rear covers.
Pine Camp: Army camp near Watertown, N.Y. and about 50 miles from Utica and Poland, N.Y.
Ernie Pyle: Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist and war correspondent, best known for his stories about ordinary American soldiers during World War II. He was killed by enemy fire during the Battle of Okinawa. At the time of his death in 1945, Pyle was among the best-known American war correspondents. His syndicated column was published in 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers nationwide.
ROD: Rochester Ordnance Dept. (where MacDonald first served in the Army).
Rommel: a German field marshal and commander of the 7th Panzer division during World War II. Rommel was popularly known as the Desert Fox because of his victories as commander of the Afrika Corps.
Route Step: a style of marching in which troops maintain prescribed intervals but are not required to march in cadence or to maintain silence.
Station Complement: personnel who maintain the station and run many of its essential services.
Uncle Sugar: Uncle Sam, or the United States of America.
VE Day: Victory in Europe Day, generally known as VE Day (Great Britain) or V-E Day (North America), celebrated on Tuesday, 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender.
V Mail: the microfilming of specially designed letter sheets. Instead of using valuable cargo space to ship whole letters overseas, microfilmed copies were sent in their stead and then enlarged and printed at an overseas destination before being delivered to military personnel.
WAAC: The Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was the women’s branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on 15 May 1942, and converted to an active duty status in the U.S. Army as the WAC on 1 July 1943.
Wendell Willkie: an American lawyer and corporate executive, and the 1940 Republican nominee for President.
Yahnundasis: a golf club in New Hartford, NY.
“Yank”: a weekly magazine published by the Army during World War II.