[Letter] 1944 January 6, New Guinea [to] Dr. Stoughton

Dublin Core

Title

[Letter] 1944 January 6, New Guinea [to] Dr. Stoughton

Subject

Papua New Guinea
United States. Army. Information and Education Section

Description

Trautmann writes of his work in the Information and Education Section and of the Army's educational plans. He is also working on publications and doing news presentations over the public address system. He writes of life on New Guinea and asks Stoughton to send copies of the Bulletin.

Creator

Trautmann, Lester Raymond

Source

Wagner College Archive, Horrmann Library

Date

1/6/1944

Contributor

Wagner College, Staten Island, NY

Is Part Of

A complete index to the letters in this collection can be found here: http://library.wagner.edu/wagnerarchive/StoughtonPDF/Correspondence index.pdf

Format

application/pdf

Language

eng

Type

text

Identifier

Trautmann1

Document Item Type Metadata

Text

New Guinea
6 January 1944

Dear Dr. Stoughton:
Officer of the Day duties have only one satisfying feature: between tours of inspection it is possible to accomplish some delayed letter writing. I decided to drop you a line before the night wears on too far and I become bleary-eyed from lack of sleep.
My information and education activities are still buzzing along at a good pace. I and E work is like the old snowball rolling down the hill. Right now it's at the height of the roll and gathering speed fast. This work involves a selling job, to convince the soldier that here is his big opportunity. To accomplish that we resort to "poop" sheets among other propaganda techniques. "The Fact Sheet," a copy of which I've enclosed, is one of the most effective of these. Within twenty-four hours after distribution, we begin to notice the response. "The Fact Sheet" tells you a little something about the educational phases of I and E. At the present time we have over 400 group study classes operating on base. The results are heartening; a very satisfactory proportion of classes inaugurated continue after the third or fourth session. If they get that far, they're pretty well on their way.
All these group study and individual correspondence course work appears to be only the preliminary to the Army's projected post-fighting study plan, which will be a comprehensive and creditable program. Perhaps you are familiar with it, for the American Council on Education devoted one of its recent bulletins to a rather complete accounting. Briefly, it calls for unit schools on the battalion or comparable

[Page 2]

level, for elementary and more advanced study through the junior college; the technical school, for vocational and technical training; and the university study center, for college and graduate work. Civilian institutions will be utilized whenever possible. Some of the officers already are day-dreaming of getting assigned to the University of Manila!
Our informational phase, too, is coming along at a pleasing rate. One of the best bets for news dissemination, in addition to publications, is news presentation over public address systems. Insufficiency of radios limits that medium, but amplifiers at strategic points can provide excellent coverage. Incidentally, I'm learning very rapidly about radios, p.a. systems, transcriptions and the like. I'm finding it a rather fascinating subject.
Native sing-sings (festivals), native villages, vistas from mountains across green-blanketed valleys, in-shore islands and coral-strewn beaches have all provided me with new and interesting experiences. But the rain season is moving in again, and soon trips will be a thing of the past, I fear.
A Happy New Year to you and your family. I'd like to receive copies of the Wagner Bulletin, if you can manage to mail 'em this way.
Best regards,
Les

Original Format

Trautmann1.pdf

Date Digital

2014

Citation

Trautmann, Lester Raymond, “[Letter] 1944 January 6, New Guinea [to] Dr. Stoughton,” Wagner College Archives and Special Collections, accessed March 29, 2024, https://wagnercollections.omeka.net/items/show/16366.