Dental School to the Army

Laboratory Dental Technician

Overseas in Europe

War's End and Postwar

Reflections

Annotation

Warren Sanford Moose was born in November 1921 in San Francisco, California. He grew up with two brothers and one sister. His father moved the family to Hillsborough [Annotator's Note: Hillsborough, California] where he built a house. His father did not serve in World War 1 because he had flat feet and the military rejected him. During World War 2, he went all over the United States and helped in Veterans Hospitals because he was an oral surgeon. His mother stayed home as a housewife. When FDR [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] took office, the Republicans were upset. His neighbor across the street often complained about the President and how he was putting the United States in further debt with all the government programs. Moose, however, believed the programs allowed people to go back to work, which helped America climb out of the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. Moose in Belgium when he heard of FDR's death [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945]. The whole world mourned for him. Moose completed high school at Burlingame High [Annotator's Note: Burlingame, California] in 1939. He attended summer school before he enrolled at Stanford College [Annotator's Note: Leland Stanford Junior University in Stanford, California]. After a year and a half, he flunked out. He attended to the University of Oregon [Annotator's Note: in Eugene, Oregon] where he found work as a hasher [Annotator's Note: a kitchen or dining room worker] at a sorority. He enlisted into the Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Dentistry. He did not stay an officer long as his credits from college did not meet Army standards. He was then ranked as an enlisted man and was inducted at Monterey, California. Warren was sent to medical basic training at Camp Barkeley [Annotator's Note: in Abilene Texas] for boot camp but was pulled halfway through boot camp to attend Laboratory Dental Technician School in San Francisco, which he completed. He was given the rank PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] and remained that rank throughout his service.

Annotation

Warren Sanford Moose was given orders to go overseas as a replacement laboratory dental technician. He first stopped in Shenango, Pennsylvania where he was held for several days. He was put on KP [Annotator's Note: Kitchen Patrol] duty and given the task to keep the fires going. He had never worked with coal before and did not realize he let the fire go out. Everyone had cold cereal for breakfast that morning. He was then sent to Long Island [Annotator's Note: Long Island, New York] to wait for his ship. He sailed across the Atlantic in a convoy. One of the freighters in the convoy was torpedoed. It felt like forever before they finally landed in Bristol, England. He made his way through the country arriving in Street, England at a repo depot [Annotator's Note: replacement depot; a unit containing reserves or replacements for large front-line formations]. He spent a better half of a year in the replacement camp waiting for assignment. In November of 1944, he was sent to a replacement depot in Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France] as a medic treating soldiers who contracted dysentery [Annotator's Note: infection of the intestines]. Then he was sent to another repo depot in Haarlem, Holland [Annotator's Note: Haarlem, Netherlands] during Christmas 1944, and then to Aachen, Germany. For a very short time, Moose was assigned as a litter bearer during the Battle for Hurtgen Forest [Annotator's Note: Battle of Hürtgen Forest, 19 September 1944 to 10 February 1945, Hürtgen (Hurtgen), Staatsforst (state forest), Germany]. He and his friend, Mel Kane [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], were then selected to be laboratory dental technicians in a mobile dental truck throughout Germany. The dental unit's main job was to keep the troops teeth in shape. He worked with two oral surgeons. His unit was often held in a holding pattern due to the fighting in the Hurtgen forest or the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He was often attached to different divisions. He earned his Combat medical badge. He crossed a pontoon bridge that was built in less than a day. He was amazed how fast the engineers put the bridge together. When he was in the mobile truck, he was never in any immediate danger. Several of the German cities were brick dust. He took a rest in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], where his friend visited Nordhausen [Annotator's Note: Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, Nordhausen, Germany] and photographed the horrors of the camp. He gave Moose pictures that showed stacks of bodies and crematoriums. That was the same time FDR [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] passed away.

Annotation

Warren Sanford Moose was at the University of Oregon [Annotator's Note: in Eugene, Oregon] when Pearl Harbor was attacked [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He woke up Sunday morning with a hangover and heard the news about the attack over the radio. Moose knew where Pearl Harbor was located and was upset about the event. There were three Japanese American students in the dormitory at the time. He does not know what happened to them but assumed they either served in the military or put in internment camps. When he decided to go to dental school, he was obligated to sign a direct commission. However, he became an enlisted man [Annotator's Note: he did not have enough credits to receive a commission] and went to basic training in Texas. His bootcamp experience was a culture shock. The drill sergeants were incredibly mean. One of his KP [Annotator's Note: Kitchen Patrol] duties was to scrub the floor with sand. Moose did not befriend many guys in bootcamp but made some friends after he went overseas. He enjoyed his time in Street [Annotator's Note: Street, England] because they had dances at a boot factory, called Clark Shoes. He befriended a local girl, Dorothy Marie Ellis [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], who took him to London [Annotator's Note: London, England] and toured him around the city. She was from London but was evacuated out during the Blitz bombing [Annotator's Note: German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom 1940 to 1941] and stayed with a family. Moose had a horrendous experience as a litter bearer in the Hurtgen Forest [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, 19 September 1944 to 10 February 1945, Hürtgen (Hurtgen), Staatsforst (state forest), Germany]. He stayed in a foxhole all night in the cold trying to keep his feet warm to avoid trench foot [Annotator's Note: immersion foot syndrome]. He thought he was not going to make it at one point. When he was finally relieved from his duty and another opportunity came, he thanked Jesus.

Annotation

In May 1945, Warren Sanford Moose was in an army camp in Belgium working in a laboratory bus when the European war came to an end. He remained in Europe for another four months continuing to assist in the dental laboratory. He was given orders to return to the United States, he was shipped to Marseille, France and then put on a ship to cross the Atlantic. Marseille was horrible experience. When he returned home, he was ready to be discharged because he was engaged to be married. Warren left the Army and used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] for pre-medical school but quit and found a job in retail sales. He eventual became an executive buyer in sales. He married and had a son. He later divorced and reunited with a past girlfriend and married again. He became interested in traveling and performing inspections on a variety of goods.

Annotation

Warren Sanford Moose's most memorable experience during World War 2 was the death of FDR [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States]. He is proud of his generation and what they had accomplished. He is disappointed in some of the newer generations and the decisions they have made for the country. He hopes and prays that the country will steer in a better direction where America will lead the world. Moose cannot say that World War 2 did not change him, but he is proud of his generation and their accomplishments. He is hurt by the way today's generations have led the country downhill. He gets chills when he thinks that America would have been occupied by the Third Reich [Annotator's Note: term for the Nazi regime in Germany from 30 January 1933 to 8 May 1945] or the Japanese Empire.

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