Special service O takes a poll of the Bn.  Preparations are being made to send them the Bn Cmdrs and one officer from each Co to Gordonvale to get various things from Co supply rooms, jump suits, jump boots etc, etc.  Considerable sweating as to who will get to go.  Looks bad for the new married adj.  Men in hospital: 54-malaria.

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Orders comes out saying that no more may the additional individual weapons in the Bn, the Mousers, 45 revolvers, the 45 pistols GI long since surveyed or paid for on statement of charges, be carried.  The next assembly area will show whether or not this is so.  (Suspect that it is one of those things like roaring and promising trial of anyone so indiscrete as to bring jump badges to New Guinea and then after the jump, announcing that jump badges may be worn where upon a few officers and several men produce badges from no where and not a word was said.  Men in hospital: 50.

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Lt. Col. Jones, Lt. Meade, Capt. falcon, Lt. LaVanchure and Lt. Riseley leave out before dawn on a pilgrimage to the mainland.  Arrive Cairns by C-47 (Aust) 1000 hr to be greeted by Lt. B-C-D and Lt. Hill.  B-C-D, a loud mouthed former second Bn boy, got hurt at the football game and missed the big game at Nadzab.  Effect:  Very good on listeners morale.  Old camp area is falling down, weeds are growing up in the Co areas and the dust settles heavily.  The officers club is well intact under the leadership of Lt. Aldrich and Charles McNeal.  Parachutist still look that way and no doubt are still considered a very undesirable group by all other arms and services on account of their profession commands respect from all soldiers whatever the nationality and when peace comes the yank parachutist will no doubt find themselves much akin to their German colleagues not so the Japanese who aren’t people but a cross between Japs and rats and monkeys.  Hospital: 1 officer and 59 men, malaria.

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Capt. Greco gathers the Co Commanders together and says these things ought not to be and further more they’re not going to be.  This does a lot of good on account of Capt. Greco is not noted for monkeying around.  The Gordonvale commandos return while Lt. Turinsky leaves on a rather hazy mission to Gordonvale which brings to mind the fact that the Seventh Australian Division never gets any publicity because they expressed the opinion in public that Gen. Blamey whored around a lot in the Far East.  Hospital:  1 and 65, malaria.

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Recommendations for OCS turned in today:  Hospital today.  2 and 65, malaria.

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Bn received orders giving us 35 EM replacements.  Good men, their service records all show at least one court martial.  An unusually poor group of eight balls will show maybe seventy five percent courts martial.  Bill folds by strange coincidence have started to show up raffled and empty down in the creek.  Lt. Col. Jones assembled them and gave them a talk.  Hospital:  2 and 70.

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Yesterday morning regtl formation by Col. Kinsler explaining to the men that the unpopular coverall order is 6th Army and not regtl and promising a hope for 10% furloughs.  Which latter might as well not been said because promises to soldiers are taken at just what they are.

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