A California experience at the end of WWII

Post #55: Boarding an aircraft carrier and arrival at Camp Haan
Sunday Night, 8 p.m.
October 28, 1945

Dear Pop and Katie,

We just arrived here at Camp Haan in time for supper after riding all last night all day today in a crowded coach car on a troop train. This camp is about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles and about 15 miles from Riverside, which is the nearest city. We are also about 150 north of the Mexican border.

We traveled about 400 miles from Monterey down the California coast – most of it right alongside of the ocean, and through the heart of the citrus fruit area. We also went through the center of the oil region around Los Angeles – thousands of oil derrick wells, all in operation.

However, after getting up at 3:30 a.m. yesterday and working all day getting ready to leave last night or today, I didn’t enjoy the scenery as much as I might have, and was plenty glad to hit here. This is a tremendous camp and is about ten miles long from one end of the buildings to the other – no tents either, which we are all very glad of. We have six man wooden huts with a stove in the middle.

This is sort of a desert region up in the mountains, and no vegetation to speak of. Everything is painted olive drab color and camouflaged. There is also a huge air field in conjunction with the camp (March Field – 4th Air Force). They have hundreds and hundreds – I should say thousands of planes here which they have scrapped for salvage.

One huge pile about a mile long and 15 feet by 15 feet. You never saw anything like it. Much of this is composed of new plane parts which haven’t even been uncrated, but when the war ended were thrown into the scrap pile.

All during the war, this camp was an artillery camp, and anti-aircraft training center. Now it is more like a huge ghost camp and is used for a final embarkation center before going to the actual P.O.E. (Port of Embarkation) and sometimes they go right from here to the ship.

Editor’s note: For photos of Camp Haan, see http://www.skylighters.org/special/forts/haan.html

Well there’s lots I could say, but I can’t think of everything and am pretty tired, but I would like to tell you that I had the privilege of being escorted along with the rest of my company, through the great aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet. This was yesterday morning before leaving Monterey.

The Hornet is one of the largest and most famous aircraft carriers in the world.We had a special naval escort take us all through the major portions of the carrier and were taken out and back in an L.C.M (Landing craft medium) – the kind where the whole end lets down, like they used in the invasion of Normandy and in the Pacific. The L.C.M. we rode in actually took part in the invasion of two islands in the Pacific.

Editor’s note: After WWII, the U.S.S. Hornet remained in service and was the carrier which recovered the Apollo 11 astronauts after the first manned space mission to the moon.

Since 1998, the U.S.S. Hornet has been open to the public as a floating museum at the Naval Air Station Alameda on San Francisco Bay. For info see: http://www.uss-hornet.org/

It was an experience I shall never forget and most educational. We also drew up alongside of three destroyers and one large submarine (The Blackfin).

Editor’s note: For info on the Blackfin see: http://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=680

We don’t expect to be here long but probably will stay for a few days. I hope so as it is a much nicer camp than Monterey from the standpoint of eating, washing, and sleeping facilities. I shall write again as time permits, and please remember me to the rest.

I hope Phillip and John are feeling fine and getting along well in school. I hope you all are managing to keep warm and that you don’t have a winter anything like last year. I always appreciate hearing from you, but I know you both are very busy and I know I have more time to write at the present. 

Lovingly, Hall