Word: guinea
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...most of the U. S. troops now here, New Guinea was just a forgotten name in a geography book. Probably one in a hundred remembered that New Guinea is the second largest island in the world (after Greenland...
When American troops appeared in New Guinea, they found natives ("Boongs") with the world's bushiest hair, which sometimes ringed heads with a solid twelve inches of felt-like fuzz (in which they love to pin flowers). They also found seven-toed cats-and a lizard called Gecko which sings, and a bird whose six-noted whistle sounds like "Did he do it?" Pause. "No, oh." U.S. pursuit pilots shot down by daring Japanese Zeroes found themselves parachuting into a leech-infested jungle so thick the earth never feels sunshine-hard, though the sun may try to broil...
Good Health. Despite natural hardships, American troops in New Guinea are generally in good health. Scratches don't heal easily as they do in better climates, sometimes linger as little sores for weeks, then turn into ulcers. The Medical Corps thanks its stars for sulfanilamide powder...
Though New Guinea is now in the dead of winter-if any land three to eleven degrees from the Equator can be said to have dead of winter-it's steaming hot. A large percentage of U.S. troops in New Guinea are from the Deep South, but they all agree they never saw the sun shine so hard in Georgia or Mississippi...
Nights, however, are pleasantly cool- one-blanket weather. Food is passable: almost all of it comes from cans. There is no food obtainable in New Guinea beyond a few paw paws, bananas and coconuts. Supply officers still laugh grimly over the suggestion from headquarters that they supplement rations by buying in the open market. The food problem is aggravated because the soldiers won't eat mutton. "These boys simply won't touch sheep," says the exasperated mess officer who watches supplies of mutton pile...