Chapter ?

WORLD WAR II

          Since I started putting this book together, it has been suggested that I should write about World War Two.  I always declined for I felt that I had no personal part in the victory.  When I was drafted, the war was still raging on both fronts.  Before I finished my training, the war had ended.  I did not have to take part in any fighting.  I have always thought about this with mixed feelings.  Although I thank God I did not have to fight, a small part of me has always wondered how I would have reacted to the fear and panic of battle.  So you see, I can't paint myself as a hero.  But  after thinking it over, I do feel that I contributed to winning the war.  I feel that every able-bodied man, woman, and child helped to win this war. The men and women of the services made the biggest contributions and sacrifices, this goes without saying.  But along with these brave people, everyone I knew at that time played some part in the victory.  When Japan pulled this infamous sneak attack on the United States, it united this country like I have never seen it since.  I sincerely doubt if it ever was, so united before.  They thought they had destroyed our fleet and therefore could easily win the war.  The truth was that by that one act they ensured their complete and total defeat.  After a short time of shock and disbelief, a resolve started in this country that grew every day in its intense purpose.  Our goal, which no one doubted and was determined would happen, was the complete and total defeat of not only Japan but Germany as well.  I will try to put down some memories that I have of that time.  I will tell you a little bit about World War Two, "the big one," as Archie Bunker and I like to call it.  I may do a little bit of preaching in telling this story.  For I feel very deeply about it.  I hope you will indulge me.

          This war that erupted on Sunday morning December 7,1941, was a complete surprise.  There are some historians now who try to tell us that a few select people knew it was going to happen.  I do not believe this.  I do not think anyone would have thought that the destruction of our Navy in return for the resolve of the people would have been a fair trade, let alone, the loss of life.  Dad and I were playing cards at the kitchen table that Sunday after church.  After playing for some time, Dad reached over and turned on the radio we had setting there.  The first words we heard were that Pearl Harbor was under attack.  It said that many of our battle ships were damaged.  They would get back to us when they knew more about the situation.  Dad and I looked at each other and laughed.  We were not going to be taken in by that old “sucker play.”  It had not been all that long since Orson Wells  made fools out of many people with his War Of The Worlds radio show.  Soon the radio was back on and the news was not good.  Our battle ships, that we thought no country in its right mind would challenge, were now lying at the bottom of the harbor.  Our Air-force And Navy planes were devastated.  There was terrible loss of life.  The news never got better the rest of that afternoon and night.  The next morning President Roosevelt gave his famous speech to the nation.  He called for a declaration of war, not only on Japan but Germany as well.  This war would not end until they both had signed a total unconditional surrender.  These were brave, if not brash, words from a nation that had just suffered this severe blow.  It worked.  Thousands of men enlisted that very day.  Our president didn't paint a rosy picture that day.  He called for the people of the United States to pull together like they had never done before.  He called upon everyone to make sacrifices.  As time passed, this nation responded with grim determination.  We seemed to be saying, “We can get along without things here, just give our boys the things  they need to fight with!” 

          We, of course, were shocked as a nation that our great fleet of battle ships lay side by side at anchor in Pearl Harbor.  These great ships were completely helpless and some of them had no steam.  A steamship starting cold requires a long time to raise enough steam to get under way.  We had no planes out scouting.  Yes, I guess you could call it a scandal.  The nation knew this was a thing that shouldn't have happened, but we accepted it and went on to look for ways to overcome it.  This disaster even became a rallying battle cry.  “Remember Pearl Harbor” was quoted many times in those years.  Those words were even put to music.  The only reason that this nation could take an error in judgment that had destroyed our fleet, and make it a rallying cry, was because it happened as the result of an unprovoked attack. 

          As the smoke from our dying fleet was clearing, it was decided that we did have a few things going for us.  First and foremost was the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean that separated us from Japan.  We didn't feel that way then, but now I don't think Japan had the logistics to mount an offensive of any size against our shores.  They were never even able to bomb Pearl Harbor again.  The best they were able to do was tie some small bombs to balloons and hope they would float and explode over our shores.  It didn't happen.  We also had two aircraft carriers out at sea when Pearl Harbor was attacked.  This was not planned and was a great stroke of luck.  These two carriers, that Japan knew we had, were a great deterrent to anymore aggression to the east.  I think Japan managed to sink one or both of these carriers before the war was over.  But before this happened, they managed to play a big part in our victory in the Pacific. 

          About a year before this attack the United States, fearing we would get involved in the war in Europe, started up the draft.  Men were asked to serve one year of military service.  This one year turned into almost five for most of them.  Some managed to serve their year and be discharged  But when Pearl Harbor happened, those that were in had to stay in and those that had just gotten out were recalled.  The big plus of this was that we had a drafting policy and small training facilities already set up.  This helped but did not completely take care of the great influx of men that descended on these camps.  Another thing, before we were attacked at Pearl Harbor, the war in Europe caused our allies to ask us for arms to fight with.  We complied, causing us to have some factories and trained personnel already in place.  We did not fear an attack from Germany at that time.  They were already fighting on two fronts in Europe.  The fact that the Pacific Ocean was so large, and Germany was busy, gave us the biggest plus of all-time. 

          The heads of our government decided to fight  both Japan and Germany at once.  In the Pacific we would only be able to fight delaying action.  It was decided that we could not even defend what was ours out there.  Bataan, Corregidor, and the Philippines fell to Japan after Pearl. Harbor  There were army units stationed on Bataan, an island off the Philippines.  They fought bravely and well.  They had no air-cover, knew there wouldn't be any reinforcements and their supplies were being depleted every day.  It was decided to fall back to a natural rock fortress on Bataan, named Corregidor.  There they fought a hopeless losing battle for over a month.  Finally hungry, tired, and out of ammunition they surrendered.  They were then subjected to the infamous death march.  Weary beyond belief, hungry and with many of them already sick, they were forced to march hundreds of miles across hot malaria infested jungles.  They were offered little or no food and water during this march.  Even then, some survived but many were left along the trail.  No one knows for sure why the Japanese did this.  If it was to intimidate us, it didn't work.  It only strengthened our resolve.  Germany was another matter, with secure ports controlled by our allies in Africa, we soon mounted an offensive there.  It was said that we were fighting the war on two fronts the Pacific and the European.  This was soon changed to three-adding the home-front. 

          This nation did more than give lip service to the words “home-front.”  We rolled up our sleeves and everybody went to work.  They called on the farmers to produce-we did.  They called on all men and women to go to work-they did.  Many went to manufacturing plants that had sprung up all over the country.  There they produced planes, ships, tanks, cannons, small arms, and ammunition in quantities that no one thought possible.  Some historians have looked back on this era and still find it hard to believe.  We did this with almost ten percent of our people in the services.  I believe, at that time, we were a nation of about one hundred fifty million people.  At the end of the war we had some fourteen million people in the armed forces.  The factories asked only that you show up-they would teach you your job.  Women responded from all over and did the work of men.  The song, “Rosie the Riveter,” is based on fact.  The great auto companies quit making cars for three years.  No one complained.  They went to making jeeps, trucks, tanks, and artillery.  International Harvester Company even converted part of its plants into making the famous Garand rifle-probably the finest weapon an infantry man has ever held in his two hands.  They asked us to accept rationing-we did without complaint.  I don't remember everything that was rationed but many things were .  Shoes, sugar, coffee, tires and gasoline were a few things that come to mind.  Of course, no one could buy a new car.  It is surprising how many miles you can get out of an old car with worn-out tires when you have to.  I didn't hear any griping-people would say "Hey, this isn't bad, our boys are fighting in fox-holes, give them what they need."

          Victory Gardens were introduced and they turned out to be no joke.  Many pounds of fruits and vegetables were produced in these gardens that sprung up all over America.  This, of course, was used in the homes relieving the shortages caused by feeding our fighting men all over the world.  Millions of dollars worth of government bonds were sold to support the war effort.  Everybody bought them.  We even bought stamps in the school.   After we had bought the right amount of stamps, we could trade them in for a bond.  Hollywood even went to war.  Many famous actors joined the services.  Many more toured the country selling war-bonds.   Most of all, they turned out thousands of morale building movies.  Even Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Popeye helped us win the war.  Many fine movies were made that are still enjoyable today.  Some that I watch today are pretty corny.  But when we watched them back then, they seemed to fill a need.  They reassured us, even though they were somewhat unbelievable.

          You might get the idea, reading this, that I was proud of my country and those people making all this happen.  I was and I still am.  I think that this was the finest hour this nation ever knew; it certainly was in my life time.  It is great to live in a time when you can be proud of your country and every thing that it does.  It's a feeling I'm afraid my children never got to experience.  There are those that say "It wasn't all that great."  They will tell you that there was greed, corruption, and unfairness in those times.  I am not so naive that I do not know this.  I just will say that the scale it happened on was so small that it casts no shadow over what the rest accomplished. 

          I and every other male registered for the draft on our eighteenth birthday.  Now, my high school days were coming to an end and I had a decision to make.  Some of my school mates had already volunteered for the service.  The reasoning behind this was that by volunteering you could pick the branch of the service that you wanted.  Some preferred the Navy or the Air-force to the Infantry.  It was almost a certainty that draftees our age would end up in the Infantry.  After thinking this over, I decided I could see no advantage to any of the services.  However, in the latter part of my senior year, I did write a test for the Navy. to see if I was eligible for officer candidate school.  Those accepted would get at least two years of college.  They would also receive officer and naval training.  Just before graduation, I was notified that my test scores were good enough to enter this program.  They were, however, sorry to inform me that this program had been discontinued.  If it opened up again, they would keep me in mind.  So much for that.  One other thing played a part in my decision making.  After buying a tractor, my father had taken on more land.  I knew that he could handle the work all by himself but he would be busy.  I also knew that the drafting process took about one year after high school graduation.  I decided to stay home and help out there till they saw fit to call me.

          It was in January the year after I graduated that I received a very official letter from the United States Government.  The opening lines read, the President of United States sends you “Greetings.”  The rest was to tell me that arrangements had been made for me to travel to Fort Snelling, Minnesota.  There, I would take a physical to see if I was fit for military service.  They would supply my transportation on the Milwaukee train line.  The Milwaukee, at that time, ran a passenger train from the west coast to Minneapolis through Aberdeen.  They thought that it might be to my advantage to show up for this physical.  On the appointed day, I traveled to Aberdeen to take the first train ride of my life.  There was quite a number of men from this area on that train for the same purpose I was.  I was surprised the Government even provided dining-car privileges.  We arrived at Fort Snelling late in the evening.  They took us to a barracks where we spent the night on army cots.  The next day was spent taking the many tests that comprise an army physical.  That night we again slept in the barracks; the next day we returned to Aberdeen.  At this point we didn't know if we had passed our tests. In due time, I received another letter.  This letter informed me that I was classified 1-A.  This meant that I should consider myself available for call at any time.  Spring came and Dad and I started seeding.  I knew my time to help him was getting short.  In early April I received another greeting from the President of the United States.  He stated that he didn't see how they could get along without my presence any longer.  Therefore I should report to Fort Snelling, April twenty fourth, for induction into the armed services of the United states.

          By the time I was to report for service, Dad and I had completed seeding to the point that he only had a small amount of oats left to put in.  Being drafted from Spink County, I was to report to Redfield.  I and about twenty others would board the train there and go to Aberdeen.  There we would again board the Milwaukee and proceed to Fort Snelling.  We were encouraged to arrive in Redfield early.  When I got there, I found out our train would be late.  This would leave us a long time to wait.  I wasn't looking forward to saying good-bye to Mom and Dad.  I suggested to  Dad that if he was to leave now he would get home in time to finish the oats that afternoon.  I think they  were relieved with this decision and readily agreed.

          We again got to Snelling late at night.  The next morning I was inducted into the Army.  We must have stayed in Snelling for about three days.  We received the first of a never ending series of shots.  We were processed in various other ways.  I was soon on my first troop train, and I had no idea where I was going.  The Army doesn't tell you those things.  We finally arrived at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, a supply depot.  There we were given a duffel-bag.  We passed along a line where we were given all our equipment and clothing that we would need.  The only thing they left out was a rifle and a helmet that would come later.  We stayed there for five days.  More processing, while we were there we got to send our civilian clothes home.  I did find out that I was being assigned to the Infantry.  No surprise there.  We again boarded a train and soon were in Little Rock, Arkansas.  A short truck ride from there brought us to Camp Joseph T. Robinson.  There I would spend the next three and one half months.  I would go through a process called basic training.  This training started right away.  We were assigned bunks and lockers.  They harassed us in every way known to man.  Something was wrong.  I had seen many movies depicting Army-life; it was nothing like this.  All we had for barracks were tar-paper huts.  That evening when we finally got to bed, I went through a short stage of deep depression. 

          As I have said before, I don't know how we would have done in battle but I do feel that we were some of the best trained men of the war.  The reason I say this is that we were trained by veterans that had just returned from Europe.  These were battle hardened men.  They knew the tricks that would help us survive and they were hard on us.  I didn't do too well that first week.  I could see little or no reason for this constant harassment.  They worked us hard and chewed us out unmercifully.  I was resisting and I soon found out this was making it harder.  It was about then that I came to the realization that changed everything around.  These men had done their fighting, all they wanted to do was go home.  They were not enjoying what they were doing.  They were just trying to give us the best chance of survival that they could.  After that day, my life in the Army improved immensely.  I was looking “battle” full in the face and I, too, wanted the best chance possible to survive. 

          The second week we were in camp, peace was declared In Europe.  We were still a rag-tag outfit.  The camp put on a victory parade.  We were not allowed to carry our rifles because of our inexperience.  We were the last company in the parade.  Just one week before we were to finish training, peace was declared in the Pacific.  In that parade we were the lead-off company, all spit and polish.  We were good and we knew it.  Soon I received orders that would take me to Camp Adair, Oregon.  On my way there I would be allowed to return home for a ten day furlough.  Before I left for home, I was talking to my Sergeant.  He had taken an interest in me and after my first few days we had gotten along well.  Since the war was over, I guess he saw no harm in telling me what was in store for me.  My orders were still the same as if the war was still on.  Upon my arrival at Camp Adair I would be processed and put aboard a troop ship.  My destination was to be Okinawa.  Okinawa was an island not too far from Japan.  The capturing of this island was one of the last battles of the war. The Japanese fought fiercely for it.  They knew that we would use it for a staging area for the imminent invasion of their home-land.  He told me that when I arrived at Okinawa, I would be subjected to intense training.  The plan was that the battle-hardened veterans of the European war would spear-head the invasion of Japan.  We would be part of the reinforcements that this great battle would call for.  President Truman changed all that.  He decided to have the air-force drop the atomic bomb.  This new engine of war and it's terrible destructive force ended the war in a matter of days.  I will talk more of that decision and its effect later.  When I did get to camp Adair, I soon had a decision to make.  The military services had come up with a new plan.  They would allow anyone in the service to enlist for one year.  If I enlisted, I would receive a thirty-day furlough at home and then serve the remaining eleven months wherever they chose for me to do so.  There was now little danger in going to Japan but I did not desire to go there.  I would much rather go to Europe.  I knew if I stayed in Oregon, I would go West.  I felt that if I went to Japan, I would not return in less than a year.  I reasoned if I could get back to South Dakota I might stand a chance of going East.  I went to Fort Ord, California, where I enlisted.  I then returned to Conde for my month’s furlough.  That month at home was a happy time for me.  My brother had returned home from the Air-force.  My older sister was home for a visit and my younger sister stopped off there with her new husband.  He had just been discharged from the Navy and they were traveling from the East-Coast to the West.            Soon I found myself on the train headed for Fort Snelling again.  I stayed there only a few days.  One morning, just before Christmas, I was notified at roll-call that I would be proceeding to Camp Pickett, Virginia.  My plan seemed to be working, I was going east.  It looked like I would be going to Europe.  I then went on to Camp Shanks, New York.  There I and many others were loaded onto a troop ship.  We were soon sailing by the Statue Of Liberty on our way out to sea.

          I was one of the last soldiers of this war to sail on a troop ship.  Since that time most have been transported by plane.  I will attempt to tell you what it was like for this farm boy from Dakota.  We gathered at the dock in military ranks and files.  One file after another would peel off and march with our duffel bags on our shoulders, up the gang plank.  Once on ship we were taken below deck and assigned our bunks.  Our bunks were iron bar frames, with canvass stretched across the middle.  There was, maybe, fourteen inches between bunks and they stood five high.  We also had a small space at the end of the bunks to stack our duffel bags.  These then were our accommodations for our two week journey to Europe.  We could, of course, go up on deck anytime that it wasn't storming.  After what I thought was a very long time, we slowly slipped away from the dock.  It was about sunset when we sailed past the Statue Of Liberty.  This more than anything else made me realize that I was leaving, and it had a sobering effect on me.  We soon learned that this trip was going to be boring, after all, how much water can you look at.  There is not much for soldiers to do on board ship.  We did have a few life boat drills but if you hadn't drawn kitchen duty or a few other simple jobs, your time was pretty much your own.  Some men became deathly sick and you had to feel sorry for them. Some of them could find no relief and were sick the entire crossing.  I did not feel real great at times but I never got physically ill.  One thing we all longed for was a good solid meal and a drink of good water.  We got very little of either of these.  I guess it is hard to provide these things for the many men that are on a troop ship.  Even those of us that felt pretty well would sometimes go to lunch, fill our trays, and walk over and dump them with out eating.  There was something about the looks and smell of food that our uneasy stomachs could not handle. We had showers on the ship, now one of them would certainly feel good.  One day I decided to take one.  I had just started my shower when I found out I had made a mistake. The water provided was salt sea water.  The soap that was provided was of no use and the more I tried to rinse myself the worse it became.  I soon gave up, wiped as much as I could off on my towel, and returned to my bunk.  As the salt dried, my body turned to a pale shade of white.  No more sea showers for me.  No one was allowed to remain in their bunks, no matter how sick they were. We were told to go up on deck where we would feel better.  In our second week at sea we ran into a north Atlantic storm.  No one was allowed on deck for there was a great danger of being washed overboard.  Sick and healthy together were locked below decks. In my first days on the ship I learned that a ship has sounds of its own.  Some are not too comforting.  A ship will creak, groan, shudder, and boom as it passes through rough water.  In this violent storm these sounds became quite disconcerting to say the least. Needless to say the ship didn't sink.  Two weeks at sea and we landed at Le Havre, France.

          It wasn't long before we were placed on an antiquated troop train of European design.  This was not the most enjoyable trip that I ever took.  We were crowded into small boxcars that had the nickname, “forty and eight.”  These small cars supposedly, held forty men or eight mules.  It was now January and it was cold.  The cars had no heat in them.  We were issued K-rations for our meals. I didn't mind C rations but K were not the best.  It took us several days and nights on that cold train to reach Frankfort, Germany.  All the while that I was traveling to Germany, I kept wondering what my assignment would be.  I felt that I would most likely be placed in the Military Police.  I felt that it would be guard-duty of some kind.  My second morning at Frankfort I was pleasantly surprised,  Out of all those hundreds that had ridden that train, I and three others were assigned to a brand new division of the Army.  Its formal sounding name was Army Security Agency-Europe.  Its purpose was about what it sounds like.  We would monitor all communications coming in or going out of Europe.  We were essentially an intelligence collection service, James Bond if you like.

          Twelve men and I who had just arrived were soon billeted in the attic of a well-built German building.  This building was located in Bad Fielbel, a town located  a few miles south of Frankfort.  Our wooden bunks had a solid wood base to lay on.  We did, however, have corn-husk mattresses.  I was assigned to a personnel office.  Because this agency was new, this was a great place to work.  My lieutenant was great and chances for advancement were good.  In the short while I worked there, I spent one week-end at a country-club and one sailing up and down the Rhine on what was supposed to be Hitler’s Yacht.  The thing I remember most about my trip on the Rhine was the great old castles along the shore.  How I would have liked to have visited one!

           I had just settled into my new job that I was going to like when I was told that I would have to take a radio aptitude test.  If I passed, I would have to go to school.  This would mean the end of a great office position.  I had taken radio code in high school so I already knew a little bit about it.  I talked it over with my lieutenant and he didn't want to lose me so I set out to deliberately fail the test.  It didn't work, I passed with flying colors.  Some of my buddies who wanted to pass and tried, had failed.  I started school in a room about thirty feet from my old office.  I now had ten months left to serve and it soon looked like I would spend them in this school.  The code I could handle but to get out of school, I would have to learn to type forty words a minute.  One day with a lot of luck and the fact that they needed men to man a truck convoy to Italy, I passed.

          One day of truck-driving school, I and an older man from Texas were assigned to a semi tractor.  We were told to go and hook onto a trailer filled with radio equipment and take it out and practice.  We soon found out that the truck didn't have any power and the trailer didn't have any brakes. At the end of our run, we reported this.  We were told not to let this bother us as we were headed to Italy in the morning.  Not only that, we were given a million dollar statement of charges to sign in case something happened to the equipment.  The Texan and I talked it over.  Our geography wasn't all that great but we knew that Italy was somewhere on the other side of the Alps.  We made our decision and we went back to see the captain that had given us the statement of charges. I didn't know what I was going to say for in all my time in the Army I had never seen any one refuse a direct order and have much luck.  My good old buddy took over for me.  He told the captain you might as well send me to Fort Leavenworth right now.  He said "I will spend the rest of my life in jail before I will sign that statement and agree to take an underpowererd truck with no brakes over the mountains."  There was a long long silence.  Finally the captain said, “Will you take the truck if I don't make you sign the statement of charges?”  I was so relieved, I would have signed anything.  The Texan agreed, too.

          The next morning with two other regular trucks and a jeep, we started for Italy.  South of Munich we left the Auto-Baun. that was the end of our good roads.  The small villages from then on didn't have very wide streets.  Making the turns in these small towns was interesting.  We would drive the tractor up on the side walks on the one side while our trailer was scraping the buildings on the other.  We headed for the Brenner Pass.  I had been dreading this pass but it really wasn't so bad, in fact, it was a piece of cake compared with what was yet to come. 

          The road that we were taking would take us through Innsbruck, Austria.  Now Innsbruck is a picturesque city nestled in a valley deep in the heart of the mountains.  It had the steepest, longest, and tightest turning descent I have ever seen.  It went on for miles.  We had a trailer with no brakes so we put the truck in it's lowest gear and let it roll.  Our idea was to use our truck brakes only if the engine wouldn't hold it back.  I am sure if we had known how long the descent was we wouldn't have tried it.  It soon became apparent that the engine wasn't going to hold it.  The engine had been gaining speed from the time that we started down, and sounded as if it would blow up.  A short while later it did.  Our truck brakes ever so slowly brought us to a stop.  We both laughed about it later for when we stopped we were both riding on the running board with the doors open.  We were not far from the bottom, so we chained one of the regular trucks on behind and placed the other one in front.  In this fashion we limped into Innsbruck.  The decision was made to put a new engine in the tractor.  This would have to be done in Munich.  They gave me a choice, I could help drive back to Munich or I could stay and help guard the trailer.  No decision there, I had enough mountain driving for a while.  The next morning  three of my  buddies and I watched the rest of the group trail the tractor up the mountain.  We had five leisurely days in Innsbruck.  We didn't even have an officer to worry about.  One amusing thing did happen one day as I was standing guard.  Moving this radio equipment to Italy was supposed to be top secret. That afternoon a small Austrian man walked briskly down the street, took a look at the trailer, and matter of factly said in broken English "What you got in there, radios?"  and then went on down the street.  Five days later the rest of our group pulled into town.  They were again trailing the tractor.  The tractor was geared for pulling, not speed, so they decided they could make better time pulling it.  We were soon hooked on the trailer and were going through Innsbruck headed for Italy.  We hadn't gone very far when we discovered the road out of Innsbruck would be no better than the road in.  The only difference was that we would be going up instead of down.  It wasn't long before we found that our brand-new engine, that was not broken in, was heating up.  This presented another dilemma, should we try to stop on this steep grade with no brakes, or should we try for the top.  We had no idea how far away the summit was.  Since there was really no place to stop on that narrow road we decided to go on.  With the engine boiling and heat radiating into the cab we made the top.  After we had let the motor cool down and added water we were again on our way.  A problem developed, the heat had damaged the new engine and we were now more under-powered than before.  A day or so later we limped to our destination, Goritzia, Italy.  This city was located high in the mountains near the border of Yugoslavia in northern Italy.

          We now found out why we were sent there.  The Yugoslavs and the Italians were engaged in a border dispute.  The only reason it hadn't become a full-blown war was because the eighty-eight blue-devil division was there to enforce peace.  Even then men were dying on both sides.  This is a piece of history I have never seen in a history book.  Nor have I ever met anyone who knew about it.  The Yugoslavs had become very proficient in their use of short-wave radios.  They had learned to mimic the calls that our Military police were using in that area.  They would send them on fake calls, they also kept them up at night, and directed them away from any action that was about to take place.  The Army had a direction finding radio station set up and operating.  One of these units operating alone doesn't have the ability to precisely locate an illegal broadcaster.  Two working together are much more precise.  This just happened to be what we had in our trailer that we had just struggled over the mountains with.  We soon had it up and running and, at first, we had great luck.  They would talk for long periods of time making it easy to locate them.  They soon started talking in short bursts making our task much more difficult.  They not only had gotten smart, they had become obnoxious.  They were telling our MPs that they were dumb and they also had some pet names for them.  It wasn't long before our police were begging us to give them the location of these pests.  At that time my lieutenant was a good natured heavy set man whose last name was Bell.  One morning he said "Come on Grandpre, we got work to do."  We then went out and got into a covered van.  This van had a loop antenna on top of it.  I soon discovered that I was riding in a directional finding vehicle.  We proceeded to where our two radio finding stations had indicated a bandit might be.  He had learned not to stay on the air very long so we were not sure just where he might be.  We parked our truck and soon he started broadcasting.  With the help of the equipment that was in this truck, we drove right to the house that he was in.  Two jeep loads of Military Policemen were with us that morning, so we just indicated to them which house it was and they gladly took care of the rest of the problem.  We worked at this task many days and it became an intricate game seeing which one of us would win.  I don't know if it was more fun to find them, or to watch the Military Police gleefully go in and put them out of business.  When I wasn't engaged in this activity, I would join my other buddies copying coded messages that the Yugoslavs were sending to their troops.  While I was in Italy I did spent two days in Venice.  It was just like you have read about complete with gondolas and gondoliers.  The U.S. Army motor pool was made up of boats instead of jeeps.  I did enjoy my stay there.  I was soon notified that I was going home.  I was really eager to go, but now that I look back on it I really don't know why.  My stay overseas had been interesting and educational.  I was soon in the back of an Army six by six truck headed back through Innsbruck over the Alps to Bad Fielbel, then on a train to Brenner Haven and then a long boat ride to New York.

          It wasn't long after we boarded our ship that I found out our return voyage home would take place on a victory ship.  These ships were small in size.  They were massed-produced to fill a dire need that arose during the war.  These troop ships were manufactured to take the place of the many ships lost to German submarines.  Built quickly and cheaply with no frills, these ships were not known for their dependability.  My trip to Germany was made on a ship that hauled mail between the United States and Cuba.  It was refitted to carry troops and compared to the ship I now was on, it was a Cadillac.  I had just gotten settled in my bunk when I was informed that I would have the privilege of serving as night cook.  This duty, they told me, would last the entire crossing.  I was to rise every other night at three a.m., go to the kitchen and help prepare breakfast.  At about eight I could return to my bunk and sleep until noon.  To say the least, I was disgusted.  I could not believe that one as wise in Army ways as I was could have had this happen.  I did not know it then, but this chore was to have some interesting side effects.  Next morning at three I sleepily made my way to the kitchen.  I soon found myself breaking cold-storage eggs into a stainless steel pot.  This pot must have held at least thirty gallons.  Cold-storage eggs are very unpredictable.  Every so often one would be rotten.  We would not find this out until the contents of the egg had dropped into the pot.  No problem, we had long-handled scoops to scoop the most of the offending egg out.  Needless to say, the other cooks and I didn't eat any scrambled eggs on the trip home.  We were taught how to make hot cereal.  The ship had four huge stainless steel vats.  These vats were fastened in place and heated with the steam from the engine room.  We would open valves and fill the vats to the desired level and then we would carefully measure in the cereal.  We would open big boxes and dump the entire contents into the vats as we stirred with a long wooden oar. When the consistency was "just right” we would stop putting in the cereal.  We would almost always cook bacon for breakfast.  This was cooked on large heated grills.  Each grill was about three feet wide and eight feet long.  This process took team-work.  One person starting at one end  would place the bacon neatly in horizontal rows working sideways until the entire grill was covered.  After an appropriate interval of time, someone else would turn the bacon in the same order that it had been placed on the grill.  The last man of this three-man team would then follow and place it on large platters.  There was a constant rhythm to this as soon as you reached the end of the grill it was time to start over.  The toast was left for the crew that would follow us.  They would have the delightful task of serving this delicious meal that we had just prepared.  Not only that, they also got the credit for it.  The last chore we had was to peel potatoes for the noon meal.  This was accomplished in large drums not unlike the spinner washers we have in our homes today.  The inside of these drums was covered with a very abrasive material.  We would place a bag of potatoes in the machine, start its spin cycle and the rotation of the rough surface would do the rest.  Problem was, if you let it spin too long you didn't have much left of the potatoes.  This process left some of the deep eyes and dents unpeeled, but what the heck, they looked pretty good to us.

          At about five-thirty, just before we cooked the bacon, we had some slack time.  It was during this time that I found out night-cooks did have some perks.  The butcher disappeared and returned with enough steaks for all of us.  The baker left and came back with fresh baked bread and pies.  Food like this on a troop ship was a dream come true.  Not only that, we were invited to return the next morning for the same treat.  This, of course, would be our morning off.  Needless to say, we were there.  This gave us another benefit on our mornings off after we had eaten we would return to our bunks and go to sleep.  When the guards came to get us up, along with all the other men, we would just say night-cook and they would let us sleep.  We soon adjusted our schedules to this one big meal a day.  For some reason the regular food just didn't appeal to us.  We would however, check and see what they were serving for desert.

          Our trip home proved to be rather lengthy.  We stayed three days in the harbor.  Our little ship was slower than the one we came over on.  Three days out from port we were treated to another Atlantic storm.  This storm was far worse than the one we experienced on the way over.  The regular cooks that we worked with in the kitchen told us it was about as bad as they had ever seen.  They also told us in storms such as this one, the captain does not try to make any headway.  He just keeps the bow of the ship headed into the storm and rides it out.  For three days the entire crew was locked below deck.  With sick men everywhere, I will leave it to your imagination as to what the conditions were like.  After the storm, it was a fairly smooth but slow ride.  Boredom set in and to combat this many poker games broke out on deck.  Some of these ran day and night.  When one man got tired another would take his place.  The number of these games got less and less as some men lost their money and were forced to quit.  The Final game had all the big winners present it lasted until New York was in sight.  The money that I lost in those games was well spent for it relieved the boredom.  I was a player until the last day.

          We disembarked somewhere in New York's harbor and proceeded to Fort Dix, New Jersey.  There we were more or less deprogrammed.  We turned in our equipment, had our last physical, were told of the options that we had because of our service, had our teeth checked, had our last series of shots, and were offered enlistment in the reserves.  We spent about a week there.  Finally we were issued a discharge from the service, our severance pay, a train ticket home, and a diners card so that we could eat on the way home.  So it was nineteen months after I left Aberdeen that the good old Milwaukee rail line was returning me there.  The Army had provided me with my first train ride and it now looks-my last.  Looking back on my Army experience, I can truthfully say that it was the most fortunate thing that ever happened to me.  This conservative farm boy from conservative SD. needed this chance to see things that otherwise he would have never seen.  Now almost fifty years later some parts of it seem to be more like a dream than reality.  I now consider my trip overseas an all-expense paid vacation. It was all planned out, all I  had to do was get on and ride.  I did, however, have to carry my own baggage. 

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