A letter to my father from James Forrestal

The picture here is of James Forrestal, the first United States Secretary of Defense.  In World War I, he enlisted in the Navy and ultimately became a Naval Aviator.  He eventually reach the rank of Lieutenant. After the war, he returned to Wall Street and made his fortune.  He also became involved with the Democratic Party and helped Franklin Roosevelt become president.  (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forrestal) 

Forrestal became Secretary of the Navy in May of 1944 and Forrestal led the Navy through the closing year of the war and the painful early years of demobilization that followed. As Secretary, Forrestal introduced a policy of racial integration in the Navy!


You might wonder why I would write about Forrestal here in my blog.  When I was going through my father's papers from the war years, I found the following letter that was sent to him from Secretary Forrestal. I was very impressed with the tone of the letter, especially in contrast to the tone of politics today.  Enjoy the letter.

 

Zamboanga

Recently I have been reading the letters that my father sent to my mother during World War II. I was born in 1947, after he returned.  He was drafted in January of 1944 with two children under three.  Although I have not yet found the letter, I remember my mother telling me that my father was able to tell her where he was in a letter. All of the letters were censored and they were not allowed to tell anyone where they were. He wrote in a letter that he was "at the place where the monkeys have no tails". My mother said that there was a popular song of the day called "The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga". I always suspected that this was a bit racist and didn't really pursue it farther.  My father served in the Navy aboard a Landing Craft Infantry (Large). These ships transported soldiers from large troop ships to the beach.   

My father took a picture of Moret Field in Zamboanga with a sign, "They Have No Tails in Zamboanga". 

This made me curious and I made Google my friend and found the following.  First of all the background for the song.  The quote below is from Wikipedia.

"The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga" is the official regimental march of the 27th Infantry Regiment, as the "Wolfhound March". The lyrics of this official version were written in 1907 in Cuba by G. Savoca, the regimental band leader (died 1912), after the regiment was formed in 1901 to serve in the Philippines. According to Harry McClintock, the tune was borrowed from an official march of the Philippine Constabulary Band, as played at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. One version was collected as part of the Gordon "Inferno" Collection. As with many folk songs with military origins (such as "Mademoiselle from Armentières" from World War I, the song becomes a souvenir of the campaign for those who served." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkeys_Have_No_Tails_in_Zamboanga )






Below is a video clip from the movie "They Were Expendable",



Moret Field was renamed when the Marines landed at Zamboanga on March 10 1944.  The objective was the nearby San Roque airstrip. Taking over that site, the Marines renamed it Moret Field after Lieutenant Colonel Paul Moret, a well-known Marine aviator who had died in a transport crash after taking off from Noumea, New Caledonia in 1943.