Jim Froelich questions/WW2: Rationing and Recycling Study

Mike Moldeven (MikeMldvn@AOL.COM)
Sun, 26 Jan 1997 19:39:14 -0500 

Jim,  Comments on your questions follow:

>>We are studying WW2 in our English class, and are doing reports on the
topics of our choice.  I have chosen the subject of rationing and recycling
in WW2.  I would appreciate your help in answering some questions for me.
They are:  <<

> What types of products were rationed in the area you were in during World
War 2?

During WW2 I worked in the survival equipment maintenance shops of the
Hawaiian Air Depot at Hickam Field, a short distance from Honolulu, on Oahu,
Hawaii.  I, along with hundreds of other men workers, resided in a houses and
barracks adjacent the field.  I arrived at Hickam within a couple of weeks
after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which is just across the fence from Hickam.
 Hickam and Pearl were heavily damaged in the attacks, and "rationing" wasn't
much thought about at my level, we were too busy trying to gather up what was
left and worth salvaging, fixing and just putting things together again and,
in my shop, preparing personnel and cargo parachutes and other survival gear
for operational use.  It was a work, eat, sleep routine for months at a time.
 Rationing must have been someone's job because I remember that we all ate
Spam slabs or Spam hot dogs, each meal for weeks on end, because that's all
there was.  On the job, it wasn't so much "rationing" as it was taking care
not to waste scarce supplies and materials.  It's hard to ration direct
support to combat operations a few thousand miles further west.

> What types of materials were recycled, and how were they used?

On the job, whatever useful parts that we could save from equipment that was
beyond repair, was carefully removed and stored for installing on repairable
equipment.  In parachutes that would include pilot chutes (which draw the
main canopy out of the pack when the ripcord is pulled), parachute packs,
life raft emergency supplies like shark repellant, radio communications gear,
sea marker packets, etc.; emergency survival kit components (like weapons
(Bowie knives and pistols), food, medical items, rain protection gear, etc.).

     The base had a salvage yard to which unuseable materials were sent.  I
believe that much of that was shipped back to the mainland on ships returning
home empty or light from the Pacific.

> What effect did rationing and recycling have on civilian life?  {I am
working on topics such as Victory Gardens, cars, travel, luxuries, black
market, patriotic attitude, and entertainment.}

I have no direct knowledge of the effects of rationing on civilian life.  We
lived under special circumstances, as described above.

> Did rationing or recycling benefit soldiers or civilians directly?  How?

Here again, I can respond only from the viewpoint of my job.  Yes, of course,
the conservation of critical supplies, whether by rationing or recycling,
helped get the job done.  The first years of the war in the Pacific
(including) Hawaii) had many shortages in military materiel and civilian
supplies.  The transportation pipeline from the mainland to Hawaii was a
couple of thousand miles at the closest.  Triple that, at least from the East
Coast and more from the Great Lakes ports.  Enormous amounts of equipment and
supplies came through from the mainland in a damaged and corroded condition
had to be repaired or was unuseable.  We used what we had, and what we had
was often stuff that WE had repaired (recycled?) ourselves.

Mike Moldeven