Shipping out
Training was over in Texas. It hadn't rained for
all the time I was there. Hot humid sweaty weather. It was
like taking a Swedish steam bath most of the time. The salt tablets they
made you eat came out in the creases of the fatigues when they dried out.
White against a green fatigue color. We were given ten day passes to
go to our homes where ever they may be. Ten measly days! I bought my
railroad ticket and boarded a train in Gainesville Texas. The train
chugged out of the station loaded down with all sorts of human cargo.
Here I sat waiting for some speed to take me home! I wanted to see mostly the
'girl' I left behind. and of course I longed for Daddy and my Momma. My niece
Bonnie was born while I was away. She'd be about 3 months old when I
got there. This date was about August 15th. It seemed as if every
thing important happened on August 15th--like the landing in South France.
It took four whole days on the slowest train in the world to get
home. We stopped at every little place to pick up passengers and let
them off and also in the middle of nowhere to pick up a can of some farmer's
cream! I wanted that engine to put on some steam!! We went up through Wyoming
and Montana Idaho--I thought Alaska was next!
At home it was sort of normal. I spent most
of the time with the girl friend. I saved some time by buying an airline
ticket back to Texas. I think it cost about 150 dollars in those days and almost
broke my bank. I think my account was down to about 150 dollars
after that expense. While I was home I had arranged a joint savings
account with my Mother and Dad--mostly with my Mother because she could
write English best and could take care of banking the allotments I would send
home each month. I figured that if I was killed they could have a
'nest egg' and I also took out the 10,000 life insurance policy on myself
making the folks and next of kin beneficiaries if I should be killed.
They'd have a 'good time' if I didn't make it home, I thought with some
degree of morbidity.
The days went by too hastily as you could
guess. The scene is still in my mind of when I said good bye to my
mother in the farm yard and I remembered that very scene every day I was gone.
It was the scene that came to mind when I went berserk on Anzio when I
finally got my first letter after 8 months of being in and out of
hospitals and up to and back from the front. I cried my heart out. My mother was
a stout hearted woman and I don't think she let out her emotions as I did.
I knew where I was going. I couldn't tell them at that time.
They warned us about "Loose lips Sinks ships"--that was a bill board
expression all over the USA. Some of you might remember the ads about the
"Fifth Column" and spies
My brother Donald and Sister Ann drove us to the airport in
the 1937 Chevy. My girl friend and I were trying to be as close as
we could because it was possible it would be the last time we could be close.
It turned out that way but not because I was killed.
I boarded a regular passenger plane which was like a
C47 cargo plane. The best of the day. 150 mph top speed.
We landed in lots of airports on the way to Los Angeles and then towards Texas.
It took 24 hours of flying. I was late! I didn't know what the hell
to do being on an AWOL basis now. In Dallas or Fort Worth, (I forget
which) I wanted to hire a cab to get me to Camp Howze as fast as I could.
The son of a bitch wanted to charge me $150 to get me there. He didn't
give a damn one iota of my plight. Soldier or not! What patriotism I
thought! I wished he was dead on the spot! I
called the camp and they gave me an extra "day of grace" they said for
my honesty. I took a bus to make it in adequate time. I didn't wish
to be tossed into the hoosegow. I shouldn't have worried one bit.
Others didn't make it back for a whole week and weren't given any reprimand at
all. Some of them stayed at home and never did return to make the
troop train out of Texas. In a few days we packed all of our gear
and belongings in the "A" bag and "B" bags. We were ordered
now to wear our best Suntans. It was the hottest days of the year and for
the first time we were looking like drugstore soldiers at least.
We were taken by truck to the rail road station.
It was the same old "hurry up and wait" in the army! While
standing there on the loading ramps a big black cloud came over and drenched us
for the first time I was in Texas!! We hadn't had a rain in all that
time!!- then-, we are soaked to the skin in our best Suntans! The rains in
Texas can wet you down in seconds!.
We were loaded on nice rail trains this time. These were nice
Pullman types. No sleepers though, as I recall. One of the
first stops was back in Dallas or Fort Worth or maybe both. There were throngs
of people at the station being patriotic waving USA flags and such
demonstrations. I beckoned a young girl to come up close to the
window and handed her my old address. I needed pen pals where I was going.
I never did get a letter however. I wasn't allowed to tell her where
I was going and the old address was obsolete. I was foiled on that
attempt.
We were shipped by train through a different looking America. We
changed from Pullmans to box cars. We finally arrived at a camp in Virginia. One
memorable sight was when we were side railed waiting for a string of Pullmans
loaded with German prisoners heading inland. This was the first sight of
German uniforms. They were in PULLMANS!! Yes and we were in ordinary cars!
Ironic!
We were instructed to not let our
whereabouts be known to the people at home. It was a grave offense to mention it
in your mail which would be censored from now on. I thought this might happen
so I had devised a code for my girl friend to use. My letter would be
marked in such an innocent way and then every fifth word or something like
that would have the first letter in it which would spell out a whole word.
It took ages to write that letter just to tell her I was being shipped over seas
but I didn't know where.
For my folks it was simple. This is is the
code: "Nineteen days and nineteen nights". That's it! Why?
Because my Dad always used to tell us it took him 19 days and 19 nights to come
from Croatia. With that phrase, they knew I was destined for over seas
shipment.
One GI got caught! The dumb bugger wrote on the back of
a stamp some few words that he was being shipped out--they caught him off the
bat!
The barracks in this place was hardly better than
in Texas. I think they were worse. The terrain
surrounding had at least some vegetation and trees for crimminy sake! In Texas
it was a huge expanse!