*Statement of SOL A. ROFFMAN, Pfc., ASN 31333157, Company “K”, _________ Infantry, A.P.O. __________.

Q: Pvt. ROFFMAN, will you tell in your own words the circumstances concerning your absence without leave from your organization?

A: We left on or about 23 October 1944 from Myitkyina, Burma. I just decided to take off. We got a plane at Myitkyina airfield, Pvt. FRANK WOJCIK and myself, and went on this plan from Myitkyina to Dinjan. We walked around and asked the pilot if he was going to Dinjan. We made up the story that we were asked to pick up some baggage at Ledo Hospital. That didn’t work as none of the pilots that we talked to were going to Ledo so we had to change the story. We saw a fellow seated with his baggage underneath the plane who was in our outfit. So we walked up to him and asked him where he was going. He said, “I am going back to the States”. We told him the truth about us being AWOL and he just said, “Well, follow me”. So we got on the plane with him and when the pilot came back and asked where we were going this soldier said, “Back to the States”, and the pilot said, “Who is with you”, and this soldier made a motion with his hand and said, “All these”. When we arrived at Dinjan this soldier who was on the plane was told he would have to wait another day. Then we decided that we would wait with him to see what would happen. The next day he was told the plane would leave at 11 o’clock and we went down with him but we could not get on the plane because they read the orders and there was only his name. We then found out about a G.I train that takes soldiers on furlough to Calcutta from Tinsukia. So we went two or three days to see what the score was about this train. In the meantime we were gambling with the boys in the Air Corps at the transit camp at Dinjan. The first day I lost, the next day I borrowed ten rupees; I made Rs. 2,200. We went out to find this train; got on the train at about 12 in the afternoon and rode for two days. We had been on this train for about 4 hours out of Tinsukia; we were sitting in a coach with a bunch of Medics who were going to Calcutta on furlough. I had noticed a soldier who was with the bunch of Medics who kept leaving the coach whenever it stopped and going up to the Engineer, and as his actions made me suspicious I felt may be he was a F.B.I. man. So I inquired from some of the medics who knew him and they replied that he was doing some sort of investigation work and was connected some way with the military police. I was sitting down eating a sandwich when this soldier walked up to us and said, “I will have to turn you and your buddy in at the next stop”. I told him that he would have to catch us first. At that time some of the other boys in the Medics who had overheard the conversation started to abuse him and told him that he was acting “chicken”. He had been drinking and although he wasn’t drunk he staggered. So he told me that he would not turn is in and that he would allow us to proceed to Calcutta with the Medics on furlough if we promised to return with the Medics from Calcutta after the furlough. We told him we would. This soldier was about 5’5”, had dirty blonde colored hair, wore thick glasses, and had blue eyes. I don’t recall any scars on his face. I would recognize him again if I ever saw him. I don’t know his name. He did not, however, attempt to arrest us when we got off (NOTE: THE NEXT SCANNED PAGE IS EXACTLY IDENTICAL AS WHAT HAS BEEN TRANSCRIBED. WHAT CONTINUES IS FROM THE NEXT SCANNED PAGE) the train at Calcutta. We stayed in Calcutta for about two weeks at the Astor Hotel. While we were staying in Calcutta we use to rent bicycles and ride from the Astor Hotel to the Howrah station; none of the M.P.s on duty at the station asked us any questions. I did on several occasions as the M.P.s such questions as “Where is the Red Cross?”, “Is this the famous station; is it worth taking pictures of”, and would engage in conversation that I had formerly been in the military policy myself. None of the military police ever asked me for any orders or passes or any form of identification during the two weeks I was in Calcutta. Our man purpose in going to the station was to ascertain exactly what times of the day the various trains left for Bombay, India. We soon learned that there was a train that left daily at 3:30 p.m. which ran straight from Calcutta to Bombay and there was another train which left at 7:30 p.m. which made a semi-circle route to Bombay. We watched the train for three days to learn what steps to take to avoid any suspicion or possibility of interrogation by military police or any other personnel at the train. Somewhere around the 10th, 11th or 12 November FRANK and I caught the 3:30 train from Calcutta to Bombay at the platform in front of the station in order to avoid any military police questioning. We walked up to the front of the train, choose a compartment and threw our bags into the compartment. It took us about 36 hours to get to Bombay; however, we did not go into Bombay itself. We got off at Dadar with some English soldiers whom we had met on the train. They were going to live in an English home for convalescent sailors and they invited us to come with them and we decided to go with them. We caught a local train with the soldiers to Bandra which is about three miles from Santa Cruz. We stayed there about six days with these English soldiers at a cost of Rs. 2/- a day for meals. We spent most of our time going to Juhu Beach by bicycle and going to the local motion pictures shows. While we were still at Bandra I one day decided to go to Bombay and find when we could catch a train and go to Karachi. I got a train and got down somewhere on Marine Lines. I met a colored soldier somewhere at Victoria Station, and during our conversation I learned he was with an Engineer outfit and was going home and had come into Bombay to purchase souvenirs to take home with him on the ship. He and I went to a restaurant in the railroad station, and as we passed by a gate a M.P. sitting at a desk stopped me and asked me where I came from and what my name was. He knew that the colored soldier had gotten off the train because he had checked him out of the gate but he had not seen me before and that is why he stopped me. He asked me what my name was and I told him my name was ARTHUR something; I don’t recall what name I gave him. He asked me what train I came one and where I was staying. I told him I was staying at the same amp the colored soldier was and I noticed he had a train schedule lying on his desk. So I read the train schedule upside down and told him I had arrived on a certain train and since he knew that the train had arrived and that perhaps he had overlooked me when I got off the train he did not arrest me but wrote the name that I had given him and told me to come back in about two hours for my ticket to return to camp. I told him that I wanted to go to the toilet and that I was in a hurry so he let me go I did not come back. Somewhere before 18 November I found that the train from Bombay to Karachi also stops at Dadar so FRANK and I caught it one night at about 8:20 P.M. We changed at Hyderabad and got on the wrong train and went to Quetta. We had not paid for tickets on this train either. We did not stay there longer than two hours, and in the meantime I told the station master, an Englishman, that I was with an outfit that had gone to Karachi and that FRANK and I had got on the wrong train. He then gave us tickets and put us in the first class on the next train and sent us to Karachi. We arrived at Karachi about a day and half later. When we arrived at Karachi we did not wait to get off at Karachi station but got off the train at Karachi Can’t. When we got off the train at Karachi a white American soldier, A T/3 in the Transportation Corps, grabbed us as soon as we had got off the train. I said, “Who are you grabbing?” He replied, “Are you two of the Air Corps fellows that are supposed to be on the train?” I said, “no, I am going to the hospital at Karachi to visit my brother who is a Medic there”. At about this time the four American soldiers who were apparently in the Air Corps got off the train a little farther off and I pointed out at them and said, “There are those guys that you want”, and when the T/3 left to meet them FRANK and I went through the Baggage Master’s office and left through a back way to avoid passing through the gate where an American soldier was checking out going soldiers’ passes. The T/3 met us again before we got off the station yards, and since he thought that we had passed through the gate and had our papers checked he did not ask us to show him our papers. I asked him for transportation to the hospital so he let FRANK and I and our baggage on a truck with four other G.I.s. We drove to the Air Depot where we had dinner. After dinner the driver told us to come along and drove FRANK and I to the hospital. So we went to the hospital, waited till the driver drove off and I watched to an Air Corps truck, and when one came by we got on the truck and the driver took us to the aerodrome; we started looking around for a place to stay. We noticed that there was a white Quartermaster Truck Company and a colored Quartermaster Truck Company. We started over to the white outfit to get a place to stay and I noticed that a Captain was in the Orderly Wing so I figures he would ask embarrassing questions. I accordingly told FRANK we had better go to the colored outfit and as I knew they were easier to get along with; so we went over to the colored Truck Company’s outfit and saw the 1st Sergeant. I told him that I was down to visit my brother who is a Medic at the hospital but that he was on DS somewhere to bring back a patient and that there was no place for me to stay. The Sergeant said he would ask his Company Commander, 1st Lt. BOOEMEISTER and told him over the telephone what I had told him. The Lieutenant asked him why we did not go to the white outfit and I told him that I played with quite a number of colored men in bands in civilian life and I would like to stay with them just for reminiscence for a few days. This is the 2042nd QM Truck Company. They gave FRANK and I cots with mosquito nets, blankets, and everything, and we drove trucks for them for the next three to four days that we were there hauling Polish refugees for work in town and back. FRANK speaks Polish and he was driving some of the Polish girls into Karachi and back and he told some of these girls that the negro soldiers were really American Indians and that they wanted to throw up a dance for the girls. He invited thirty of them to the dance and we had a big dance for them on the third night that we were in Karachi. The colored soldiers appreciated this very much and could not seem to do enough for us. FRANK and I needed some clothes so some of the colored boys donated on O.D. suit and an extra pair of pants for FRANK and two pairs of khaki for me. I got sick the next day and they had to take me to the hospital so when I went to the dispensary I told the Medical Officer I was AWOL and I had a friend with me who was staying at the 2042nd Truck Company I believe who was also AWOL. I did this because FRANK and I had agreed that should either one get caught that he would tell where the other was so that we would be turned in together. So they sent four M.P.s armed to pick me up and they took me to some military police officer but I was too sick and I refused to answer questions so they put me in the 181st General Hospital where I stayed for seven days. They then put me in the stockade where I stayed another week and then they gave FRANK and I orders and rations to proceed back to Burma. Before we left we signed papers stating that if we did not return it would result in court martial. The day we left we were taken by an M.O. up to the railroad station. When we arrived at the station we learned that the train would not leave for two more hours. In the meantime the M.P. who took us down went back to his outfit. The same Transportation Sergeant was now there and he consented to let us go and get a soft drink outside. Instead of getting the soft drink we went back to the colored outfit to get the money that I had left with them. Then we came back just in time to catch the train. We were on the train for two days and went to Calcutta. Upon arriving in Calcutta I noticed a Lieutenant, the R.T.O. possibly waiting for us. So we went out through the other window, crossed the railroad tracks, in and out of three or four different trains out to the main street and got a taxi cab. We got a room in the American Seamen’s Club for a rupee a day. We stayed there for two weeks and I got another malaria attack and I left my money with FRANK and reported to the dispensary at 77 Park Street. The Sergeant asked me what I wanted. I told him I had fever and possibly malaria. He then took my temperature; it was 104º. He then called the Major in and started to make out an admission slip to the Hospital. I told him my right name, rank, serial number, outfit, and everything and I was admitted to the142nd General Hospital. I stayed there for six days. When I learned that my medical record was to be submitted to the Colonel for approval I decided to leave them. I then went back to the Seamen’s Club and continued as before. We then went out to 96 Cryor Road, a brothel operated by two elderly women, one named ANNA and the other SERREINA. These madams took a liking to us and offered to let FRANK and I have the liquor concession in the brothel and told us that if we wanted to work there at night selling the liquor we could have the profits for our own. I refused. We hung around this brothel two or three days and I met a prostitute named JEAN WHITE, an English girl, who took a liking to me and asked me if I wanted to come home with her, sleep overnight and stay there. She said that each night when she got through her business at the brothel she had to carry anywhere from 500 to 1000 rupees and hold it overnight before she could deposit it the next morning. So I told her I would and went home with her and stayed all night with her. She lived at 58 McLeod Street, and that night after 1 o’clock when we got to her house she took me upstairs and introduced me to her landlord, Mr. PERCY MONROE. So since I knew that we could not stay in the Seamen’s Club much longer without being discovered I asked this landlord if he had a room he could rent me and a friend. He said he had one upstairs’ that we could rent it to us on one condition and that was that we did not bring any girls to the room and that we be quiet and orderly. He rented this room to FRANK and I for Rs. 150/-a month with no meals and FRANK and I moved in. We then met a friend of ours, JOE RINALDI, also AWOL from the ….. Infantry and we invited him to stay with us. We met JOE right after I had sneaked out of the 142nd General Hospital. JOE also told me about another fellow from the ….. Infantry, A WILLIAM ROHRER, who went AWOL with him but they only stayed in Calcutta three days and went back to Ledo where JOE says ROHRER is living with a nurse and is selling liquor at Ledo to make his money. For a while I got along all right with JEAN; I did not bother her about her after I got the room. I got interested in the race track as Mr. MONROE had a brother in law who was a jockey. We received tips from him every Saturday and made our money by selling tips to civilians and soldiers for the races and we worked it up this way; we would check the civilian or soldier’s name and address and give him the tip and make an agreement that if the horse won he would pay us Rs. 50/-. Since all our tips were sure ones we always collected the money. We collected this money usually on Wednesdays of the week following the race. JOE, FRANK and I used to average from 500-700 rupees per week. Of course, we threw parties each week-end for the MONROE’s and civilian friends that we had met such as Mrs. LEWIS, MICKEY HART, and a lot of girls who worked for the W.A.C.(I). During this period of time Cryor Road was put out of bounds by the military police and JEAN tarted bringing her American customers to her flat. We told her not to bring American soldiers that as she would get into trouble, and in the meantime she met an American Air Corps Sergeant who came there quite constantly. He was from Dinjan and thought I don't know his full name they called him LINNIE. He told JEAN that if she would go beck to Dinjan with him she could make a lot of money there. So JEAN asked us what we thought of it and FRANK and I advised her to go. We took her to the railroad station with the American Air Corps Sergeant and said farewell. Three days later JEAN came back drunk, disorderly, and was locked up by the civil police. After she got out of the gaol she came back and started bringing American soldiers back to the house and Mr. MONROE filed a civil suit against her and got her to leave. In the meantime I was playing the trumpet with the Base Section G.I. band called “jive Bombers” and did so for about two or three weeks. However, after that period of time I began to notice M.P.s were strolling up and down the street in front of Mr. MONROE’s house and that soldiers were apparently watching anybody that came and went, so I knew that JEAN had tipped the M.P.s off. So FRANK and I felt it was best to go to BOMBAY. Accordingly, JOE, FRANK and I decided to go to BOMBAY. I told Mr. MONROE that I was AWOL and that I had rented the room from him under false pretenses and that I had better leave as I did not want to cause him any trouble. We watched the Howrah Station again for two or three days to ascertain the proper time to catch the train without getting into trouble with the military police. We left Calcutta on the 3:30 train from Howrah Station for Bombay on 28 February. I came down to the station and inquired from some civilian that I was on furlough with two friends and I wanted to go to Bombay. We did not realize that over here we had to book tickets in advance and I was willing to pay him any sum to fix us up on this train. He consented and we got on the train. We arrived at Nagnur and we had to pay another civilian railroad official Rs. 45/- to continue on to Bombay. We got off at Dadar, got on another train and went to Bandra. When we arrived in Bandra at the Convalescent Home we were told that there would not be any room till Tuesday; so we told them to hold three beds for us and would be back. We then went down to the Royal Navy and secured three beds for three nights until Tuesday came we moved on to the convalescent home. For the fifteen days that we spent there we just relaxed, rode bicycles, went out with Indian fishermen fishing, went to movies, and so on. We visited a girls’ school in Dadar. We went in there and told them we were here to see how Indian schools run. We amused them and entertained them in all sort of ways. We danced and showed them the jitterbugs. We invited them to Juhu Beach but they did not come. There were three American missionary priest staying at the Convalescent Home, and one day we saw the Army Chaplain and talked to him. At this time we decided we had better turn ourselves in, and on 13 March 1945 we caught a train from Bandra to Marine Lines, got into a cab and asked him to take us to military police headquarters.

Q: While you were at the various brothels, did any of the M.P.s ever intercept you?

A: They came in and sat down, had a few cigarettes and went out, but no one ever questioned me as to why I as at the brothel.

* * * EXTRACT * * *

/s/ Sol A. Roffman,

/t/ SOL A. ROFFMAN, Pfc.

ASN 31333157

Absent Without Leave

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