Carl Marca was born in March 1918 in Sheffield, Pennsylvania. His parents moved around a bit before settling in Endicott, New York. From 1923 to about 2009, that was his hometown. He graduated high school in 1937. The Great Depression did not hit them hard in Endicott due to Endicott Johnson shoes, cheap shoes, being made there. Mr. Johnson never laid anybody off. Marca joined the New York National Guard while in high school. He enrolled at Louisiana State University [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University, or LSU, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana] and was discharged from the National Guard because he had left New York. At LSU, the freshman took ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] in lieu of Physical Education. He completed the basic ROTC course. After Marca graduated from LSU in 1942, returned to Endicott and went to work for International Business Machines, IBM. He was drafted in October 1942. Marca was looking forward to basic training. He went to Fort Niagara [Annotator's Note: Fort Niagara, Youngstown, New York] and then to Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York which was only an hour from Endicott. He became a member of the Military Police and was assigned to the Adjutant General section. He applied for officer candidate school in military censorship, military intelligence. He was accepted and sent to Fort Washington, Maryland. Marca had three months training there. He graduated on 15 July 1942 and his mother, future wife and sister attended the ceremony. The candidates had been told they could not say they were military intelligence, but the presiding general gave it away. He received a 15 day leave and got married then. Marca was sent to Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington, which was the staging area for Alaska. He did not want to go to Alaska. He was sent to Camp Stoneman, California. After two weeks, he got orders to Portland, Oregon to board a troop ship. His ship landed in Townsville, Australia near Christmas Day, after zig zagging across the Pacific to avoid submarines for 21 days.

Carl Marca was in Townsville, Australia for a short period of time before heading to Port Moresby, New Guinea. There he started his job as a mail censor for the U.S. Army. All enlisted personnel's mail was censored, sealed and stamped. Officers initialed that they had abided by censor regulations and their mail was spot-checked. He would also check the luggage of any personnel reporting back to the United States, to ensure they were not carrying documents or government property. Hospitals and prison for the same. In Townsville, a soldier was to be executed and Marca read his mail. Marca returned to Townsville from Port Moresby where there was a reading detachment which consisted of 30 women. Any violations would be passed along to Marca who could either cut out those parts or condemn the entire letter. [Annotator's Note: Marca repeats himself on occasion.] He had one occasion to remind the letter reader that the censorship was to be kept to military matters only. When the Japanese were close by them, censorship was a larger concern than after they had been pushed back some. A lot of mail that got pulled for censorship really contained nothing valuable to an enemy. Despite his telling the table heads they were things the soldiers could say, they would continue to be set aside. An Air Corps pilot wanted to mail back a picture of his aircraft. The censors scratched off the radars before giving it back to him to mail. The pilot brought in a LIFE magazine [Annotator's Note: an American general-interest magazine known for the quality of its photography; 1883 to 2007] that contained a full spread of his kind of airplane that had the radar visible. Marca had to tell him that they had to follow the rules regardless of what happened back in the United States.

Carl Marca was sent to Darwin, Australia to be the base censor. He was a second lieutenant. The base had B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber] bombers and was a US Navy base as well. From there he went to Finschhafen, New Guinea with the same duties. This was a support base for the divisions in the area. The US Department of Agriculture decided that coconuts could be mailed back to the United States. The soldiers would get coconuts, address and stamp them, and send them home. There were stacks of coconuts in the post office. Marca found a split coconut on his desk that his sergeant had discovered a disassembled .45 pistol [Annotator's Note: M1911 .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol]. Another soldier had reported it and the sender was court-martialed but with a minor punishment. He was an African-American engineer and his commander told Marca the light discipline was because he was the best bulldozer operator in his unit. This engineer was later transferred out of the unit because he had been trying to find out who had turned him in. When the censors signed their letters, they signed them as Commander General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area]. A sergeant tried to mail home cigarettes which was against the rules. [Annotator's Note: Marca seems to forget the story.] As the war progressed, censorship was not as strict.

When the war ended, Carl Marca was in Finschhafen, New Guinea. As a mail censor, he would cut an envelope open on the end, read the letter, reseal it and then stamp it. He went to Manila, Philippines awaiting his return to the United States. He did not have a lot of points as he had not been in any campaigns. He was assigned to the information education office for a short time. He was made a postal officer due to his work experience as an accountant before his service. He did not mind but he did want to go home. There was a backlog of parcels. The mail bags were in bad shape. Many had to be rewrapped and often did not have readable addresses. Marca was called up to a large room with 40 or 50 soldiers packing mail and told to watch two of the soldiers. He saw that they were removing things from the mail. They were court-martialed. In Manila, they were all on Atabrine due to malaria. Marca was not feeling well and went to the dispensary. He had not been taking the Atabrine which would turn them yellow. In Finschhafen, a WAC [Annotator's Note: member of the Women's Army Corps; the women's branch of the US Army from 1942 to 1978] would make the soldiers in line for mess take the pill as some would not take it so they could catch malaria and be shipped out. Jungle rot [Annotator's Note: immersion foot syndrome] was very serious as well. Some soldiers would not wash their feet hoping to get shipped back due to that as well. There was a sergeant in Finschhafen who asked Marca to give him credit for being on a campaign in Hollandia so he could earn more points towards going home. Marca noted on his service record that he had. Marca was not worried about being caught doing that. They were not in combat themselves, but they were there, and they did their jobs.

Carl Marca left Manila, Philippines on a troopship headed for Camp Stoneman [Annotator's Note: Camp Stoneman, Pittsburg, California]. He had a hatch slam on his finger. [Annotator's Note: He shows part of his finger missing.] When the ship landed, he was put in the hospital and he missed his shipment back to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Trenton, New Jersey]. He boarded a troop train to Dix. It was a boxcar with steel cots. The troop trains would have to pull over and wait for passenger trains to get by, so the trip was very long. At Fort Dix, he was processed for separation. Those who wanted to stay in the US Army Reserve were told to stay behind. Marca did so and went into the Reserve as a Military Intelligence Officer in Censorship. He transferred to an infantry battalion as intelligence officer for a short time. In his civilian life, he worked for International Business Machines, IBM, in the punch cards unit that was mobile. These units would be assigned to an Army division and would be on trucks. Marca was commander of the Machine Records Unit in the US Army Reserve for about three years. Marca wanted to be promoted, so he transferred to a Reserve school. He completed the Adjutant General School and then went to the Command Staff College at Fort Leavenworth [Annotator’s Note: Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas] for five years of Reserve duty. After he finished in 1967, he received his promotion and retired as a colonel in 1975.

Carl Marca attended lectures on censorship while in ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] in school. He also had to learn how to be an officer and a soldier as well. Being in military intelligence, instructors would come in from various branches to give lectures. Second Lieutenants were called "90 Day Wonders" due to the wartime speed of the class [Annotator's Note: Officer Candidate School was approximately three months, hence the term 90 Day Wonder]. He would have classes on codes. Prearranged codes were impossible to detect. [Annotator's Note: Marca gives examples of how soldiers might arrange codes with family members or friends.] In the censor's office, they had dictionaries in many languages as well as Bibles to help find out if military personnel were using codes to communicate with their families or others. After the war ended, Marca kept all of the dictionaries for himself. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about soldier's attitudes in their letters.] Marca says that most of the mail was about the soldiers wanting to get home. The censorship was also relaxed as the war wound down and they would try to let as much through as they could. There were reading detachments to do the main amount of reading through the mail. They had blue envelope mail. If a soldier had something personal that he did not want his officers to read, he could put the letter in a blue envelope that would go directly to the base censor. He recalls a sergeant who had a joint bank account with his girlfriend, and he did not want his officer to know it. He would bring his letters directly to Marca. They also had registered mail which had to have the base censor's stamp. Marca was a first lieutenant and a colonel gave him a registered letter. Marca flipped it open and saw the salutation, "Dear Passion Pants". He then quickly flipped through the remainder and handed it back. His reading detachment in Australia was all women and the soldiers would write jokes to upset them in the letters. Marca had a staff car and the women would ask him to send it into town to get them fish and chips. Marca says the girls were pretty but did not have great teeth.

Carl Marca was a mail censor for the Army in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Sending home prohibited items and government property were the most common violations for parcel mail. Tobacco products were rationed per month, two cartons of cigarettes. Officers could get a box of cigars instead. Marca did not smoke and his sergeant was a cigar smoker. He would take Marca's cigar ration and his own cigarette ration and swap them for a case of beer. Marca would take ice to the Australian Army camp since they did not have ice and the American Army did. The Australians would trade fruit for it. They would swap all kinds of things back and forth. The Signal Corps would trade unused film to soldiers and develop it for them as well. A friend of Marca's did shoe repair. Another guy was a baker and they would trade things with him for a pie. While he was stationed in Port Moresby, New Guinea, there were about 12 men from his hometown of Endicott, New York. When their mail came into the office, it would be given to Marca. Marca had completed Italian in high school and at LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana], so he read the Italian mail. One day someone gave Marca a letter going to Endicott and he saw that it was going to his own wife. She had a cousin stationed in Mindoro, Philippines and he wrote to her in Italian.

[Annotator's Note: Carl Marca served in the Army as a mail censor in the Pacific Theater of Operations.] One censor confiscated a pistol. He was from Texas and he took the confiscated pistol home with him. Some months later an officer wrote in inquiring about his pistol. Marca passed it along to the other censor. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about skulls.] Marca never confiscated any trophies but he did censor any pictures of dead soldiers or body parts or anything against the Geneva Conventions [Annotator's Note: standards for humanitarian treatment in war]. Parcel censorship was not much under Marca's purview. Soldiers were not allowed to give their locations in their letters. The Australians put out a newspaper called the Guinea Gold. Soldiers were allowed to mail those home. One January, the Guinea Gold printed an image of the harbor and that allowed the soldiers to send some idea of where they were home. Often the soldiers had codes to conceal some information, but it was never really pursued. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about being separated from his wife.] The mail was very important with regard to families and sweethearts. The censors did their best to not interfere with that. One postal lieutenant was a Boston Irishman and Marca's sergeant was a Brooklyn Irishman. He had to keep the two of them separated. When the ship would come in, Marca and the Brooklyn Irish sergeant would go and talk to the cargo officer. Merchant Marine mail was sent through these ships. The sergeant would go to the ship's galley and get fresh eggs and ice cream. He was good at bargaining for goods. One cargo officer wanted a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 carbine] and asked Marca to sell his to him. He told him he could not sell government property, but he could turn the gun in and then it could be signed over to the cargo officer. Marca wanted some binoculars in exchange, but the ship's captain refused. He got a case of orange juice instead. At one military installation, a soldier was found guilty of raping a nurse and was sentenced to be hanged. The Provost marshal [Annotator's Note: title of person in charge of military police] called Marca down to read his letters home. Marca said the soldier was talking of his execution in his letters. Marca and the censors would also be tasked with going through the belongings of anyone being shipped home due to mental instability, such as shell shock [Annotator's Note: older term for post traumatic stress disorder]. He went into a ward where there were 15 to 20 soldiers and was told not to turn his back on one of them because he would slug him. Marca did not get this duty very often. The ward had been in Port Moresby, New Guinea but in Townsville, Australia, where he was stationed for the majority of his time, there were not many soldiers being returned home for this.

Carl Marca worked for IBM [Annotator's Note: International Business Machines] while in the Army Reserves. He retired from both in 1975. He had not used the G.I. Bill after the war as he already had a degree and did not want to pursue a Master's. Marca's degree was in government and accounting. Looking back, he feels he should have gotten a higher degree. He was very busy in the Reserves though, and had good assignments. He was assigned to the Pentagon and worked in Force Development. He carried a Mobilization Designation Card. In the case of war, he would report to the Pentagon as a lieutenant colonel. When he was made colonel, that position was terminated. In the Reserves, promotions only occurred when there was a vacancy in the rank above. Going from colonel to general was very difficult and complicated. He does not regret his Reserve time due to his receiving medical benefits and retirement compensation at about 20 percent of his base pay.

As a mail censor, Carl Marca did not see combat in World War 2. Some of the censors would go with each Division and some of his friends did so. A friend of his was in Manila, Philippines and got see and speak with MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area]. This friend was a Jewish refugee. In Marca's Officer Candidate Class, most of the men were refugees due to speaking another language besides English. Living in Australia and mixing with the locals was the best experience of the war. In Darwin, Australia, there was not much to do as the civilians had all been evacuated. He would go swimming and take drives but there was nothing there. The aborigines would come into camp in Australia, and the natives would do the same in New Guinea. The Darwin, Australia mess hall would buy a steer and butcher it. Marca went along one day to a station, or ranch, that was 13,000 square miles. The aborigines worked as cow hands on these properties. In New Guinea, the camp tents were in coconut groves. The falling coconuts could be dangerous, so natives would come in and cut down the ripe ones. The Australians thought the Americans were spoiling the natives by purchasing carvings from them. The Australian military were the administrators in New Guinea. In Australia, there were policies towards the native populations similar to the Native-American situation. One thing Marca felt was wrong was that the Australians would take the native children from their parents and not allow them to speak their own language.

Carl Marca was drafted into service for World War 2. He wanted to get one year in with IBM [Annotator's Note: International Business Machines] after his schooling because they had a good policy of giving soldier's one week's pay every month. Mr. Watson [Annotator's Note: Thomas John Watson, Sr., chairman and CEO of International Business Machines (IBM)] of IBM had really good policies regarding the military. World War 2 took three years of Marca's life overseas. He wanted to be home but made the best of it. He feels he did his job to the best of his ability. The war held him up from having a family early. His friends have a lot of grandchildren and he only has one. He had no choice and was there for the duration. He hopes that he helped make the world safe for democracy but feels we are back in the same situation now. He feels The National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana and the teaching of the war are crucial. The sacrifice needs to be shared and the ones who died need to be remembered. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him about his hometown of Endicott, New York.] Endicott Johnson Shoes had about 20,000 workers and the majority lived in Endicott. Marca's father worked in the tannery. Marca went away to school instead of working there. IBM was also there and was a better place to work. Marca worked for Ansco [Annotator's Note: Binghamton, New York] which made photographic equipment. It was German owned, and it was seized by the government. [Annotator's Note: This occurred shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese military. Ansco continued under government control into the 1960s.] Marca was in personnel there and each German had to have clearance to work there. Marca applied to IBM while there and was accepted. Endicott had large immigrant populations of Italian, Polish, Russian, and more. The Italians were not discriminated against much in Endicott unless they were out and out Fascists. It was not similar at all to the interment policy on the West Coast of the United States. [Annotator's Note: Marca describes the internment of the Japanese-Americans and a friend of his who lost everything due to it.] Some Germans and a few Italians were interned. Marca was in Seattle, Washington where a soldier in the hospital was on the watch list who had made some remarks. Marca knew him but had to go through his mail. [Annotator's Note: Marca was a military postal censor during the war.] He never heard of a single problem in Endicott though. His family had emigrated from Italy around 1910. His uncles were training Americans mountaineering in Sardinia, Italy. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about an ice cream shop.] Pat Mitchell's Ice Cream in Endicott was started after the war. Marca had no favorite flavor because if he could get ice cream as a kid, he took it. An ice cream cone was a nickel.