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
Showing posts with label U.S. Army (1945). Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.S. Army (1945). Show all posts
Post #54: Aboard the troop train to California
Post #54: Going cross country - postcards home
October 1-5, 1945, on board the troop train from Florida to California
Monday a.m. October 1
Dear Kay, We left Camp Blanding at 5 p.m. yesterday on a troop train - we just ate breakfast at Atlanta, GA and had a few minutes to walk around. We are going to Birmingham and St. Louis. It's a lot colder now than it was. I'll write again later. Love to Keith and all of you, Hall
Monday night, 9:30
Dear Andy, We have reached Memphis, Tenn, came through Georgia, Miss, - will get into St. Louis 7:30 in the morning. I am tired of riding already. It's very crowded and rough riding, nothing much to see, but I hope for new scenery tomorrow. I wish you could be here with me for company - no one I know here. Love - Hall
###
Tuesday morning, 6 a.m.
Dear Aunt D. We are in St. Louis now, but I haven't a chance to get off train yet. It is really a big place and really cold - we nearly froze last night. It's nice to get out of the South. We got off of train for a few minutes. They have a very large station. It's almost freezing. Love - Hall
Tuesday afternoon
Dear Kay, There are 2000 troops on this train and this is just a small train that never saw so many soldiers before. Engine trouble has delayed us - the store keepers are doing a rushing business. We won't hit Kansas City Missouri till 8 p.m. tonight and will ride all night in Kansas. Kiss Keith for me. How is his foot?
Love - Hall
Wednesday morning, 10 a.m.
Dear Kay, We just reached here. Love, Hall
Editor's note: Though this postcard contains just a few words of greeting to Hall's sister Catherine, the postmark of "Hastings Nebraska" provides a possible clue to the brevity.
For thousands of WWII era soldiers, Hastings Nebraska was a remarkable stop on the troop trains that crossed the United States. There, the North Platte Canteen was located in the Union Pacific Railroad Station and operated by volunteers from local communities. The caring townspeople distributed coffee, milk, sandwiches, fruit, cakes, candy, cigarettes and magazines to the men and women on the trains. From Christmas Day 1941 through April 1, 1946, the volunteers met every troop train that came through town, extending their hospitality and good cheer to six million service men and women.
Postmark October 3, 2:50 p.m. Hastings Nebraska
Dear Andy, This is lovely farm land out here - just as level as a dime. The towns are few and far between. We are in Nebraska now. Love - Hall
Postmark October 4
4 p.m.
Dear Linda, I thought you would like this card. We just hit Colorado and are now back up in Nebraska at Sidney. The people and houses are few and far between out here. Love, Uncle Hall
Editor's note: I was curious about the geography of the train route and discovered that Sidney Nebraska is located in the notch of Nebraska just north of Colorado. Going from east to west, the train tracks went from Southern Nebraska through the northeast corner of Colorado to the northwestern corner Nebraska.
Wednesday night, 7 p.m.
Dear Kay, We just pulled into Cheyenne and have 20 minutes. It's a nice place and capital of Wyoming. We will hit Salt Lake City tomorrow. Love - Hall
Friday 7 a.m.
Dear Kay, We just crossed the border into California, went through Reno. It's nice to see trees again.
Love - Hall
Friday, 8 a.m.
Dear Kay, I didn't see this - but went through a lot of country just like it. It's beautiful when the sun is coming up - 3 miles high in places. Lots of tunnels. Love - Hall
###
Friday 8 a.m.
Dear Andy, I have to write when the train is stopped - so can't write much. The meals are lousy and hard to eat on the train. We have to walk through 20 cars with coffee in one hand and a plate in the other. We don't end up with much. Love - Hall
Postmark Oroville, California, October 5, 1945
Friday 8 a.m.
Dear Linda, Well at last we have reached California and I am sure glad. I am going to stay off trains after I get home and just travel by car. I'll bring you home something when I can. Love, Uncle Hall
October 1-5, 1945, on board the troop train from Florida to California
Dear Kay, We left Camp Blanding at 5 p.m. yesterday on a troop train - we just ate breakfast at Atlanta, GA and had a few minutes to walk around. We are going to Birmingham and St. Louis. It's a lot colder now than it was. I'll write again later. Love to Keith and all of you, Hall
###
Monday night, 9:30
Dear Andy, We have reached Memphis, Tenn, came through Georgia, Miss, - will get into St. Louis 7:30 in the morning. I am tired of riding already. It's very crowded and rough riding, nothing much to see, but I hope for new scenery tomorrow. I wish you could be here with me for company - no one I know here. Love - Hall
###
Tuesday morning, 6 a.m.
Dear Aunt D. We are in St. Louis now, but I haven't a chance to get off train yet. It is really a big place and really cold - we nearly froze last night. It's nice to get out of the South. We got off of train for a few minutes. They have a very large station. It's almost freezing. Love - Hall
Tuesday afternoon
Dear Kay, There are 2000 troops on this train and this is just a small train that never saw so many soldiers before. Engine trouble has delayed us - the store keepers are doing a rushing business. We won't hit Kansas City Missouri till 8 p.m. tonight and will ride all night in Kansas. Kiss Keith for me. How is his foot?
Love - Hall
Wednesday morning, 10 a.m.
Dear Kay, We just reached here. Love, Hall
Editor's note: Though this postcard contains just a few words of greeting to Hall's sister Catherine, the postmark of "Hastings Nebraska" provides a possible clue to the brevity.
For thousands of WWII era soldiers, Hastings Nebraska was a remarkable stop on the troop trains that crossed the United States. There, the North Platte Canteen was located in the Union Pacific Railroad Station and operated by volunteers from local communities. The caring townspeople distributed coffee, milk, sandwiches, fruit, cakes, candy, cigarettes and magazines to the men and women on the trains. From Christmas Day 1941 through April 1, 1946, the volunteers met every troop train that came through town, extending their hospitality and good cheer to six million service men and women.
Postmark October 3, 2:50 p.m. Hastings Nebraska
Dear Andy, This is lovely farm land out here - just as level as a dime. The towns are few and far between. We are in Nebraska now. Love - Hall
Postmark October 4
4 p.m.
Dear Linda, I thought you would like this card. We just hit Colorado and are now back up in Nebraska at Sidney. The people and houses are few and far between out here. Love, Uncle Hall
Editor's note: I was curious about the geography of the train route and discovered that Sidney Nebraska is located in the notch of Nebraska just north of Colorado. Going from east to west, the train tracks went from Southern Nebraska through the northeast corner of Colorado to the northwestern corner Nebraska.
Dear Kay, We just pulled into Cheyenne and have 20 minutes. It's a nice place and capital of Wyoming. We will hit Salt Lake City tomorrow. Love - Hall
Dear Kay, We just crossed the border into California, went through Reno. It's nice to see trees again.
Love - Hall
Dear Kay, I didn't see this - but went through a lot of country just like it. It's beautiful when the sun is coming up - 3 miles high in places. Lots of tunnels. Love - Hall
###
Friday 8 a.m.
Dear Andy, I have to write when the train is stopped - so can't write much. The meals are lousy and hard to eat on the train. We have to walk through 20 cars with coffee in one hand and a plate in the other. We don't end up with much. Love - Hall
Postmark Oroville, California, October 5, 1945
Friday 8 a.m.
Dear Linda, Well at last we have reached California and I am sure glad. I am going to stay off trains after I get home and just travel by car. I'll bring you home something when I can. Love, Uncle Hall
Post #53: Bivouacs, bayonets, and barb wire at Camp Blanding
July 7, 1945, 1:30 a.m.
Service Club
Camp Blanding, Florida
Dear Pop,
Thank you for the letters and for taking care of obtaining my teacher's retirement number for me and for sending the insurance approved form. It was a good plan to make that copy. I decided to have the government take care of the policy's payments for me while I am in the army, and I will have two years to pay it back to the government after I get out of the army. I am taking care of all of the other insurance payments myself.
It is now between 1 and 2 a.m. I am Sergeant of the Regimental Guard tonight for the 66th Regiment. I have to see that the guard is posted on time by the corporals of the guard house in case any trouble should arise in the Regimental area. The guard has walls around their various posts. They have two hours on and four hours off all night. We have three different shifts of ten men each.
I guess you have been having pretty warm weather up there from what Catherine says, and I noticed last Sunday that the high in N.Y.C. was 97 degrees F. It is extremely hot here too, and very muggy with showers every day. Also we are in the toughest part of our training cycle now and will be going out on bivouac again for two weeks the last part of July. It will be my fourth two week bivouac since I've been here, but the first one in the middle of the summer, and from that angle it will probably be the toughest. Of course we have a lot of short bivouacs from time to time of two or three days each, in which we have night training and sleep out on the ground, and often get soaked, as we did two nights ago.
Yesterday the non-commissioned officers had to put on a bayonet obstacle demonstration for the company four different times. The course is about 500 yards long and consists of running through it, bayoneting the various obstacles, crawling under barb-wire entanglements, without getting your rifle dirty, and scaling ten foot log walls, jumping wide ditches full of water, throwing hand grenades etc. We demonstrate to the trainees and then they do it. That is the way all of our training is carried out here, and one has to keep in pretty good shape to stand it, especially at this time of the year. We also give lectures and constructive analytical critiques before and after the demonstrations.
Today I have been in the army exactly 51 weeks without having missed any time at all when I wasn't either on duty or able to be on full duty. July 17th will be the beginning of my second year and July 27th, I believe, will mark the beginning of my second year at Camp Blanding. I certainly never expected to be here this long when I came down last year, and I hope the war keeps on going well so that I won't have to be here this time next year.
There are many times when I have an intense desire to volunteer for overseas assignments, as different opportunities arise to do so, but so far I have stuck it out here, realizing that in many ways this position has more potentialities for advancement, and is more advantageous to me at the present time.
One such opportunity presented itself last week when they asked for volunteers between 26 and 30 years of age, with fairly good educational requirements, for the C.B.I. (China, Burma, India) Theater of War, consisting of becoming a para-trooper first and then going to China to assist in the training of Chinese soldiers in American combat methods.
I have been advanced to full Platoon Sergeant of the 1st Platoon and have 65 men under me, who I am responsible for. So far we have the best record of any of the three platoons in the company. I have as my understudy and assistant, Pvt. Edward Veach, whose people at the present time live on Catherine Street in Poughkeepsie. However he lived several years in Bangall and went to school in Stanfordville. He knows Andy and a lot of the people I know. He was a Sergeant when he came back from Germany in January but went AWOL for 10 days to keep from being sent back over again in the army of occupation, so was demoted to a private.
He was in continuous combat from June 6, 1944 until January 1945 in France, Belgium, and Germany, and was wounded twice and has the Purple Heart. He is only 19 years old, but has been through a lot, and it is these men who really should be doing all the training here in the States to the replacement troops. They have been through it already and can give the trainers a lot of valuable instruction which has been learned the hard way.
Most of the instructors here are overseas men at the present time, but many are not physically fit to stand the pace here, or are just marking time until they get out on points. One of our non-commissioned officers from Minnesota left today after five years in the Army. They certainly deserve to get out, and for many, the re-acclimation and readjustment back into civilian life will be very difficult, indeed after the regimented life in the Army. Many of these men have changed a lot and have different viewpoints on life than originally. Many will be much better civilians because of their experience, and many I fear will not.
Remember me to Katie and I hope that you and Katie and the boys had a nice time during Katie's vacation on Pugsley Hill. This is all I have time for now. Please tell Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Julia I enjoyed hearing from them and will write soon. I also wrote this as sort of a general letter as I just don't get around to writing to everyone.
Thanks again, and I hope this finds you feeling fine and everything going well.
Lovingly, Hall
July 7, 1945, 1:30 a.m.
Service Club
Camp Blanding, Florida
Dear Pop,
Thank you for the letters and for taking care of obtaining my teacher's retirement number for me and for sending the insurance approved form. It was a good plan to make that copy. I decided to have the government take care of the policy's payments for me while I am in the army, and I will have two years to pay it back to the government after I get out of the army. I am taking care of all of the other insurance payments myself.
It is now between 1 and 2 a.m. I am Sergeant of the Regimental Guard tonight for the 66th Regiment. I have to see that the guard is posted on time by the corporals of the guard house in case any trouble should arise in the Regimental area. The guard has walls around their various posts. They have two hours on and four hours off all night. We have three different shifts of ten men each.
I guess you have been having pretty warm weather up there from what Catherine says, and I noticed last Sunday that the high in N.Y.C. was 97 degrees F. It is extremely hot here too, and very muggy with showers every day. Also we are in the toughest part of our training cycle now and will be going out on bivouac again for two weeks the last part of July. It will be my fourth two week bivouac since I've been here, but the first one in the middle of the summer, and from that angle it will probably be the toughest. Of course we have a lot of short bivouacs from time to time of two or three days each, in which we have night training and sleep out on the ground, and often get soaked, as we did two nights ago.
Yesterday the non-commissioned officers had to put on a bayonet obstacle demonstration for the company four different times. The course is about 500 yards long and consists of running through it, bayoneting the various obstacles, crawling under barb-wire entanglements, without getting your rifle dirty, and scaling ten foot log walls, jumping wide ditches full of water, throwing hand grenades etc. We demonstrate to the trainees and then they do it. That is the way all of our training is carried out here, and one has to keep in pretty good shape to stand it, especially at this time of the year. We also give lectures and constructive analytical critiques before and after the demonstrations.
Today I have been in the army exactly 51 weeks without having missed any time at all when I wasn't either on duty or able to be on full duty. July 17th will be the beginning of my second year and July 27th, I believe, will mark the beginning of my second year at Camp Blanding. I certainly never expected to be here this long when I came down last year, and I hope the war keeps on going well so that I won't have to be here this time next year.
There are many times when I have an intense desire to volunteer for overseas assignments, as different opportunities arise to do so, but so far I have stuck it out here, realizing that in many ways this position has more potentialities for advancement, and is more advantageous to me at the present time.
One such opportunity presented itself last week when they asked for volunteers between 26 and 30 years of age, with fairly good educational requirements, for the C.B.I. (China, Burma, India) Theater of War, consisting of becoming a para-trooper first and then going to China to assist in the training of Chinese soldiers in American combat methods.
I have been advanced to full Platoon Sergeant of the 1st Platoon and have 65 men under me, who I am responsible for. So far we have the best record of any of the three platoons in the company. I have as my understudy and assistant, Pvt. Edward Veach, whose people at the present time live on Catherine Street in Poughkeepsie. However he lived several years in Bangall and went to school in Stanfordville. He knows Andy and a lot of the people I know. He was a Sergeant when he came back from Germany in January but went AWOL for 10 days to keep from being sent back over again in the army of occupation, so was demoted to a private.
He was in continuous combat from June 6, 1944 until January 1945 in France, Belgium, and Germany, and was wounded twice and has the Purple Heart. He is only 19 years old, but has been through a lot, and it is these men who really should be doing all the training here in the States to the replacement troops. They have been through it already and can give the trainers a lot of valuable instruction which has been learned the hard way.
Most of the instructors here are overseas men at the present time, but many are not physically fit to stand the pace here, or are just marking time until they get out on points. One of our non-commissioned officers from Minnesota left today after five years in the Army. They certainly deserve to get out, and for many, the re-acclimation and readjustment back into civilian life will be very difficult, indeed after the regimented life in the Army. Many of these men have changed a lot and have different viewpoints on life than originally. Many will be much better civilians because of their experience, and many I fear will not.
Remember me to Katie and I hope that you and Katie and the boys had a nice time during Katie's vacation on Pugsley Hill. This is all I have time for now. Please tell Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Julia I enjoyed hearing from them and will write soon. I also wrote this as sort of a general letter as I just don't get around to writing to everyone.
Thanks again, and I hope this finds you feeling fine and everything going well.
Lovingly, Hall
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)