War Time for Jesse and Gus
JESSE’s TURN
As in most stories in the Chronicles, Jesse’s Turn is not necessarily in chronological order. He sent the typist a bunch of information, then the typist, being more commonly known as “Curious,” asked some questions, the answers to which resulted in even more questions and more answers. Some of that has been edited into the story, much of it is left as it happened.
The dates on our rings and announcements were not the correct ones, but we were married on Saturday afternoon, August 29, 1942. We took buses to Columbus OH and on to Pittsburgh, PA, where we were not able to get on a crowded bus. They decided not to provide a second bus for several hours, so we arrived on the farm in Martinsburg, PA late Sunday afternoon. Laura stayed for several days with James, Johnny, Esther and Martha before returning to Ohio.
THE NAVY GOT ME
The next morning at 6:30 I caught a bus for Altoona planning to join the Navy. But I almost didn’t make it. Back on August 1, I got a card directing me to take a physical exam for the Army Draft. On the 8th of August I got a card saying I was 1-A, and on August 15, I got a card directing me to report to the Army on September 1.
I was upset and decided to avoid the Army. The Navy said to give them 24 hours and I could do just that. I reported to Altoona on August 31, and they sent me on to Pittsburgh. They checked me out and wrote “TR” (temporarily rejected) behind my name. My teeth were not good enough, and they didn’t want someone with a toothache trying to help fight a battle on a ship.
I ran downtown in Pittsburgh and found a dentist. He insisted the tooth should come out, but then the Navy wouldn’t take me. He said he would fill it, and then the Navy could worry about it. (A marginal note says: 5-1-98 Tooth pulled and another added to lower partial. Still have 3 of my teeth.)
It was August 31, and the Navy enlistment office in Pittsburgh was trying to set a record for monthly enlistment’s, so they kept the line open late. I ran back just as they were closing and the “TR” was changed to “accepted.” I was sworn in at 9:30 and was on my way on a train to Great Lakes, Illinois. The Army did telephone for me the farm at Martinsburg, and James told them what I had done.
Later in the war the Army insisted that the Navy take draftees instead of being able to be so choosy. (Paul, Harold, Gus, Johnny and the typist all thought the Army was the choosy one. At least the Army choose all of us. Perhaps it was the Navy who took just anyone!)
At Great Lakes, nearly all of the new sailors were sent to new partly finished barracks out in a muddy field. Eight companies were grouped together in a large building. I was fortunate that a couple of weeks before, one of the eight companies in a group had dissolved early because one of the men had developed a contagious disease. So about 150 of us were sent to that old established area of the base. In one week, the other seven companies graduated from Boot Camp, and we entertained seven new companies. Of course by then we were veterans and knew how to lash hammocks, prepare for inspections, and in general show those civilians how the Navy worked. As a result, we won the inspection every week, and I was selected to carry the banner with a red rooster on it, at the head of all our parades.
We had shots and tests all the time. One day I was really upset. On the drill field, I had lost my wedding ring. I spent hours trying to find it, but no luck. Laura was able to have a jeweler make a plain band for me to wear. On our 35th anniversary we bought new rings, and she had the two earlier ones made into a pin that she likes to wear.
Boot camp lasted about five weeks. Laura came to Chicago, and we took a trip to Pennsylvania and then to Ohio. At Great Lakes I survived many shots, a stiff new canvas hammock and sea bag, and the usual orientation into Navy Life.
In boot camp I had 99% on so many of my tests, I became Honor Man of my company. At the end of boot camp I was told I could select a school. The recommended ones were Fighter Director, and Quartermaster. But FD schools were not available right away, so I chose Quartermaster school, since a quartermaster in the Navy is the enlisted assistant to the Officer of the Deck. After 7 days of boot-leave, I returned to Great Lakes, and then was sent on a troop train to Newport, Rhode Island.
This school was in Newport, RI, and after about 12 weeks I was promoted to QM 3/c.
LAURA’S EXPERIENCE AT NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
When Laura came to Newport to be with me, she had a difficult time finding a suitable place to live. One place available would require her to go through a bathroom and lock the door to be safe in her room. We passed that up. She then stayed with a Navy family with the woman who had a small boy. There wasn’t much room, and Laura had a twin bed, very little food, and no pay.
One Sunday she saw an advertisement in the paper as she was on her way to church, and after she checked it out. On that Sunday afternoon, I had to attend a “happy hour” boxing match in a large gym with hundreds of others. Suddenly over the loudspeaker came the message, “Seaman Second Class Humberd report to the Commandant’s Office immediately.” When I got there I was instructed to put on my dress uniform and report at once to the home of
Commander Kincaid, the head of all of the navy schools on the base.
He lived on the Island on the base and when I got there, I found Laura visiting with them. Their daughter Virginia Earle was coming home from Wellesley Academy for Christmas vacation, and they were looking for someone to be a companion and to accompany her for security reasons during that time.
Of course, a young lady who neither drank or smoked, and had had three years of college filled the bill just right. Laura got $75 a month and a three room apartment right in the Commander’s home. The Kincaids had been in China for 17 years, and Mrs. Kincaid even taught Mandarin Classes.
CHRISTMAS WITH THE KINCAIDS
While in the commander’s home, it was indeed Christmas, and everyone who lived within 75 miles of Newport got a 3-day pass. Since the commander’s home was my home address, I got the pass, and spent it there. On Christmas morning we had Christmas with them in pajamas. Mrs. Kincaid liked to dress in Chinese dresses, and she trusted Laura with her clothes and jewelry.
While she was there, Mrs. Kincaid’s mother came. She was a Morris of the Morris Plan Bank family. Also, while Laura was there, Madame Chiang Kai Chek was to come to visit. Unfortunately, she became ill and was taken to Boston for an appendectomy. But her ship did come in and her leading Army and Navy officials came to visit and Laura met them. Madam Chiang did not like to fly.
Virginia Earle enjoyed having Laura there. When she went to a movie or program with her folks, she had to sit in overstuffed chairs — when she went with Laura she could sit on folding chairs — and she particularly like it when Laura and I both went with her and she got to sit among hundreds of enlisted men.
Laura got her first taste of venison when an Army General found out she had never eaten any. Also, the Dean of Women of Wellesley came to visit. So it was quite an experience.
LAURA DECIDES TO RETURN TO OHIO
In fact, a couple weeks before my school was over, and Commander Kincaid was promoted and shipped out to Newfoundland, both Mrs. Kincaid and her mother tried to persuade Laura to stay with them. Mrs. Morris wanted her to go to new York in a penthouse and be responsible for guests in the home. Later she would take her to their estate in the South for part of the year. Mrs. Kincaid wanted her to accompany her to Boston and stay with her. Laura was the one who actually received Commander Kincaid’s orders when they arrived. She always called him Admiral Kincaid and that did not seem to bother him at all.
But Laura returned to her folk’s farm in Ohio. Life was so uncertain, and no one knew how long or how fast things could change. While we were in Newport, we of course got to know about air-raid alarms, and other ways the war affected people on the coast. The upper half of headlights were painted black, store windows were completely dark, and one had to identify himself everywhere he went. When Laura was with Caid, the Kincaid’s dog, everyone recognized the dog and she didn’t need to show her I. D.
NAVY SCHOOL AT NEWPORT, RI
Only 32 of the 135 sailors in the Company were rated, and the others went to sea as Seaman 2/c. I was second in the class. One of the fellows had been in the Seascouts for many years, and knew the ropes. He already knew the Rules of the Road, the meaning of flags, and how to signal with Morse Code and Semaphore. I had all that to learn. Our class of 150 or so was divided into two sections, and he led the one and I the other, but in the final analysis I came in second. One section attended school in the morning and drilled in the afternoon, and the other drilled in the morning and attended school in the afternoon. We alternated week by week.
While there, we had 20 inches of snow a couple of times. I lived in a plain barracks with a pipe six feet off the floor on each side of the barracks. We swung our hammocks up there after 1600 Put a pillow at one end, a blanket at the other, put the other blanket over you, and you slept high off the ground like a banana. All during boot camp and quartermaster school I slept in hammocks and had my clothes in sea-bags. Later they got to use bunks and lockers, but I guess it was worth being in the “real” Navy.
AT NORFOLK, VIRGINIA
In the middle of February, I was sent to Norfolk to await assignment. While at Norfolk, Laura had come down to stay for a couple weeks. We took the train to visit Paul in the Army one day.
At another time, Laura and I were strolling along one of the streets in Norfolk when a small boy came running up to Laura and said in a serious tone, “Lady, you shouldn’t be out with that GOB.” (slang for sailor) Remember, in this town some stores had signs restricting dogs and sailors from entering. Laura thinks of that episode, along with another that took place in Newport earlier. She was on a crowded bus, perhaps the only female among 40 sailors and after some roughhouse and other noise, one fellow bellowed, “Watch it sailors, there’s a lady aboard.”
The other special situation occurred in Chicago just after I became an officer. As we walked down the street in Chicago, dozens of sailors coming towards us had to salute, and anyone coming from behind us would have to say, “By your leave, sir,” before passing us. It reminds me of the officer who always returned salutes with the expression, “The same to you!” When asked why he did that, he replied that he had been an enlisted man once, and knew what they were thinking.
A DEGREE FROM BRYAN, WITHOUT A GRADUATION
At Bryan University I had 180 quarter hours of credit in 3 years. Graduation required 186 quarter hours. We (Laura and I) had gone to Bryan in 1939 and while we were Juniors, heard President Roosevelt declare war. While I was in Quartermaster School in Newport I got a letter from President Rudd (president of Bryan) asking what I intended to do about my degree. The faculty had voted that if I got 6 hours of correspondence work they would grant a degree.
I took the letter to my commanding officer, who just happened to be a Professor from the University of Chicago, on leave in the Navy. He wrote a letter to Bryan and suggested that they gave me 6 hours of advanced mathematics credit on the basis of my Navy record. Then the faculty voted to grant me the degree with the class in 1943. Laura went to Tennessee and got the diploma, since by then I was in Trinidad. But in 1993, we returned to Bryan and I was given a farmed “Golden Anniversary Diploma” at Commencement. I was also on the platform and took part in the graduation program.
STILL AT NORFOLK, VIRGINIA
While in Norfolk, at the commissary, the officer in charge would have kept me in groceries for the duration of the war if I hadn’t already had that one stripe on my sleeve.
After a month working in the Commissary, I went aboard the USS Pastores, getting my first quartermastering duties on a fruit ship that had been taken over by the Navy.
We left Norfolk and sailed to New York City, where I had liberty. I spent about 4 weeks on that ship. At first I joined some seamen with bricks and sand and worked on the wooden deck. But since I had gotten a single rating in QM school, I was soon assigned to stand deck watches on the USS Pastores.
ON THE USS ALTAIR, IN TRINIDAD
We stopped in Kingston, Jamaica, and were supposed to stop in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but someone was quarantined so we passed by, and on to Trinidad where I spent about a week on shore before they noticed my single stripe and sent me to the USS Altair, a Destroyer Tender, a repair ship, in Trinidad, just off the northeast coast of Venezuela. I stood quarter-deck watches for the next several months.
Our job was to repair Destroyers. This was early in 1943 when the Germans were shooting up merchant ships and destroyers rather freely.
While I stood deck watches, I kept taking course work for promotion. One of the jobs of the Quartermaster concerned the ship’s garbage. All the garbage was put in a large box hung over the side of the ship. About 1/2 hour after high tide early in the morning, the Quartermaster would pull a rope and dump the garbage in the harbor and let the moon be our garbage scow, taking it out to sea. After six months the joke was we might not be able to get unstuck from the coffee-grounds.
The ship had 1800 men assigned, but 1200 lived on shore and came aboard to repair destroyers that had been hit by German submarines. When we left Trinidad in July 1943, we plotted 12 German Submarine sightings between Trinidad and Norfolk in recent days. Needless to say, I slept topside with my clothes on the whole trip.
APPLYING FOR MIDSHIPMEN’S SCHOOL
A Yeoman asked why I didn’t apply for Officer’s Training. I was on the Altair only a few months, but while there I applied and made the very last V-7 group, for Officer’s Training. The Division Officer who signed my request had gone through Midshipman’s school at Northwestern University in an earlier class. After the V-7 program, came the V-12 program where the Navy sent people from high school to college, and then to Midshipman’s School.
Now I realize requirements for that V-7 program required; (1) a degree from an accredited college; (2) you had to be unmarried; and (3) you had to have a credit of Trigonometry on your college transcript. Of those three requirements, I seemed to meet all but three of them. However, three years of college, a year in the Navy, and a degree, (Bryan was far from accredited) together with my boot camp and QM school records, somehow put me in the running. I was accepted in the very last V-7 program at Northwestern University in Chicago.
I arrived in Chicago exactly one year to the day after I had been an Apprentice Seaman in Great Lakes, IL. I was back in Chicago again as an Apprentice Seaman, losing my single QM stripe. Of the 1400 college graduates assembled from 800 colleges and universities, fewer then 200 were “Mustangs” so that was rather special, coming out of the fleet to Officer’s school.
Of course, I wasn’t sure how Bryan would stack up with the other colleges such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and 797 others.
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMEN
We were right downtown next to the Water Tower. In fact, the building in which I lived was the Water Tower Building. Laura came to Chicago and took an apartment on Huron Street. That space is now a parking garage. This fall, we expect to attend a Reunion of Midshipman’s school and will be staying in a hotel on Huron Street. Laura got a job at Montgomery Ward, and walked many blocks to work (too dangerous today on those streets). She was responsible to work up truck orders for suburban M-Ward stores. That was the Christmas they printed thousands of booklets with the new story of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
We were able to get a few ration points to help in groceries (24 points for canned foods, and 24 meat points for November). That may be hard to explain to some people. I couldn’t eat all my meals with Laura. I had three classes, five hours of study and two hours of drill each day. I was supposedly free from 5:00 to 7:30 each day, but had to report at 6:22 to answer roll call for the evening meal. So I would run to the apartment at 5:00, back to Tower Hall at 6:22, and back to the apartment at 6:30. Fortunately the apartment was within the permissible blocks for us Midshipmen. We were restricted to just a few blocks without liberty passes.
I thought I would get Laura a radio, and when I found one, the man asked, “Do you have AC or DC?” We had light bulbs and an iron, so I said I assumed we had AC. The first time we plugged the radio in, it burnt out, as we were in that part of the building with DC electricity. Chicago was changing over, and buildings and even apartments next to each other did not have the same current. We were in Chicago on October 17, the day the first Subway opened, and we rode on it.
We received $150 for uniforms, and had to buy a dress white uniform. I had my picture taken in a similar one is a studio, but never got to wear my own. At Columbia University the honor students received a sword as a sort of reward. Our Captain at Northwestern, in true Navy tradition said, “The satisfaction of a job well done,” is the highest reward one can get. So, no sword. After the initial uniform allowance, officers were expected to buy their own clothes, although enlisted men had an uniform allowance.
I graduated 4th in the class at Midshipman’s school at Northwestern University and was commissioned an Officer and a Gentleman in December 1943. It takes four years to become an Ensign at Annapolis, but I was a midshipman for only 3 months. Well, I guess 3 years of college and a year as an enlisted man would make 4 years preparation.
MIDSHIPMAN’S REUNION, YEARS LATER
In 1994, when Laura and I attended a Reunion of the Northwestern University Midshipman’s school, we were at a table on a Sunday morning and I overheard a man on the other side of Laura mention a Tender. I asked what Tender he had been on, and he said “The Altair.” When I saw his name tag, I recognized him as the one who had signed my request 50 years before. We were both excited, and even had our picture taken and it was published in the Reunion paper as quite an event. I have a picture of the Altair, and for a few years have enjoyed the Altair’s Reunion News, but have never gone to a Reunion for that ship.
Thanks again, for the clipping April 23, 1988 about “90-day Wonders to Hold Reunion.” That has given us some very enjoyable experiences in Chicago, San Antonio, and Norfolk. We will be in Chicago again over our Anniversary. Those men went on to records in the Navy, or became Doctors, Professors, and successful business men. They come from all over the country.
About 20,000 Midshipmen went through the School at Northwestern in 26 classes from 1940 to 1945, but only a little over 100 showed up for the Reunion in 1994. They only have about 700 names. I was in class #16. An Admiral (from Class #1) spoke one night. He was the first skipper of the first Nuclear Submarine, the Nautilus. Another Admiral (from class #4) spoke one night. He was head of the group that broke the Japanese code that helped win the Battle of Midway.
Of course all 100 of us geezers were about same age and full of stories. A young Lieutenant was there from Northwestern University Reserve Officers Training Corp, to present the colors. He has been in submarines for 12 years. He really thought he had ended up in a nostalgic group.
Another year we spent 3 days at Norfolk at a Navy Reunion. We have now enjoyed reunions in Chicago, San Antonio, and Norfolk. Next one, Chicago again.
At Norfolk I got to visit an Atomic Submarine (being de-commissioned). Then a trip through the newest ship — Missile Destroyer commissioned June 25. WOW! I fought WW II in a rowboat in comparison. CIC (Combat Information Center) is 10 times as big as mine, and full of electronics, lights and screens. We had plastic screen and grease pencils.
SCHOOL IN SAN DIEGO, THEN TO THE USS ROE
On December 10, 1943 I had orders to go to San Diego for ten weeks in Torpedo School. After graduation on Navy Pier on December 22, I had “leave” until I had to report on January 15 in San Diego. So I was on the farm in Pennsylvania the last day of 1943 when we found that the farm had been sold and the folks had to move. I never did get in on either the place in Altoona or Akron.
On January 11 I caught the train to California. I would not come back until July of the following year. On the way to California I got to talking to a salesman who was introducing a new mosquito insecticide to California. He had a double room at the Biltmore (cost $8 to $10) so said he would share it with me. (Just called the Biltmore at 800-245-8673 and found the cost for that room in 1998 is $225.) He bought me dinner at Jerry’s Joynt (very expensive, must of cost $1.50) and Clifton’s Restaurant (quite a place) and I went on to San Diego.
The torpedoes we worked on were 20 some feet long, and had a nose that would normally be filled with TNT, etc. We practiced with ones filled with water, so at the end of the run, the water would be expelled and the torpedo could be reused. After all, they cost about $12,000 ap
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Gus tells his story
AFTER HIGH SCHOOL CAME THE ARMY
• I took part in church, later became custodian, then Sunday School teacher. As years went by I got a job working for the City of Beaverton. Shortly after I finished High School, I was drafted into the Army. During my time in Service I was sent to Africa, then on to Italy where I was for three years. Then came the day when I was sent home! I can still see my Dad come running out to the gate to meet me. Mom saw me coming down the street. They were very happy to have me home.
• I was in the US Army, during WW II, from 1942, the year I finished High School, until 1945 when I was discharged. Where do I start with such a story, let's see! My folks felt hurt when I left in 1942, they did not want me to go. But I had no choice, I had to go.
TRAINING IN THE USA
• I first went to a camp in Kalamazoo, Michigan, then from there to a camp named Camp Claiborne in Louisiana. There we trained, I was a leader of a machine gun (50 Cal) group. My job was to place the guns in a field, and hide them. One time we got up and went on a 25 mile march. At a camp in Arkansas we also trained on an anti-tank gun. As this one outfit I was with, was getting ready to move out, I was sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, to the 88th Infantry, where I was for three months. We could go to town on a pass, and we also could go to a movie on the base, or go to the PX.
We were there for a while, then one day we were put on a train and landed in Norfolk, VA. We were soon loaded on a big ship, and off into the Blue Sea we went. At night the moon shone on the waves reflected white, from all the salt. After almost three to four weeks we finally saw land.
• Between the time I first reported to the Army, and the time I went overseas, I got to go home on furlough twice. Rationing was in effect at that time
ACROSS THE ATLANTIC TO AFRICA
• We didn't know where we were headed from Norfolk, but after many days on the ocean, we landed in North Africa. We were stationed in Oran, Africa. We stayed in North Africa for a month. In the day time it was hot, and at night it was cold. You could see for a long distance across the desert at night. One ship that left for Italy was strafed by a German airplane, but we got through OK when we went.
AND ON TO NAPLES, ITLAY
We then boarded another ship to Naples, Italy. We joined the Fifth Army in Naples. We landed at Naples, and a short way out of town we set up camp. Italian people and their children would line up for something to eat. I got to know a family and would give them extra food. One day they invited me to their home for supper, which was real nice. We ate spaghetti.
We stayed in Naples for two weeks, then off we went right into the shooting and the shelling. At one place we had to move a bunch of 105 Howitzers into a field of mud. These guns had to be dug in when they we were fired, or they would jump backwards. One night I had to fire one by myself. This went on all night. We had to crawl under barbed-wire while machine gun bullets flew over out heads.
THE BATTLE FOR CASSINO
• We battled up to Cassino. This place set on top of a mountain the Germans could look down on us. There was quite a battle before we took it. After this on to Rome. After we went on to the Gothic line. Some of the places we went thru were Salerno, and Anzio. After Rome it was on to Florence, Bologna, Venice, Milan. I have books on our trip which helped, although I remember these places anyway.
In one of our places in Italy, the thing I remember is the different people I met. A little girl who I made sure got left-over food, and I met her family. A young lad stayed with us and helped out in the Kitchen. The saddest thing I remember when me and two others came upon two young men, maybe 22 years old, who were laying side by side, dead. This is one thing I will always remember.
THE ROCK GOT BIGGER, THANK GOD
• Now I have a true story to tell. It may seem made up but it really happened. I know because it happened to me. While in Italy we pulled into a place where we set up guns and the kitchen and dug holes for us to sleep. We started to dig for a hole about 15 ft from where we had set up the kitchen. While digging we soon hit a stone. He wanted to quit but I said let’s keep digging. To my surprise and his, the stone got bigger and bigger. He quit and went somewhere else.
I dug a little more, and the stone still got bigger, so I gave up. I moved back about 15 feet and dug in beside a hill and put up my tent and went to bed. About 2 o’clock in the morning the Germans began to shell us. Shells were falling all around us. All of a sudden I heard a Big Bang.
The next morning when we got up we saw where a shell had landed right at the corner where the other guy and me were first digging our fox hole. There was a piece of the shell that came through my tent. The Captain asked who was in that tent. I told him that it was me. He thought I was very lucky. But it was the Lord who was watching over me, and prayers of people from churches. Then at another place where we were, a shell landed close to me and some others, but no one was hurt. At one time I was sent to the Hospital because my finger was mashed while unloading stuff from a truck.
CAPTURED GERMANS
• We had a German cook with us for awhile. He could make pancakes really good. The Germans used 12 year olds to fight. I can remember when we captured 200 Germans who gave up. I can still in my mind see them marching by. I had to be a guard and watch them when we got them in the stockade. We had snow, rain, mud, and the winters were cold, and the summers warm. At night when we drove our trucks, we would use special lights so we could see where we were going. I drove trucks and jeeps, at different times.
ROME, PISA, FLORENCE, VENICE
• We got to visit Rome. We saw the Coliseum where lots of people lost their lives, and where they had horse races with Chariots. We stayed in the center of Vatican City and saw where the Pope would come out to speak to the people of Italy. As we traveled through Italy we went to Florence and Venice, saw the leaning tower of Pisa. And the leaning tower does lean, I saw it in person. Venice was surrounded by water, and the people got around in boats. In the center of Venice there were hundreds of pigeons.
MET A LOT OF PEOPLE
• Along the way I met a young man. He took me home with him, and I stayed there over night. Then along the way I got acquainted with another family. Got to go home with them. In the first family I met, the mother was expecting. I was invited to come after the baby’s birth. I was to be the Godfather. Did not get to go. The Boy is about 47 years if he lived. Wish now I would have got their names, addresses and gave them mine.
I can remember when we use to dig deep holes for things left over from the kitchen and would just get done, and move out next morning.
HOME AGAIN
• One day we were to go to Switzerland, but instead we headed in another direction. We ended up in Naples and were put on a ship. There I met a guy from home that I grew up with. We were going to be shipped to Japan, but they gave up and we were on our way home, which was OK by me. I will never forget the G.I.’s that I saw who had been killed. That is what war does. Never proves anything.
RIBBONS
• While in the service, I received a ribbon for being a Sharp-Shooter. The gun was a 30-30, and also the 50 Cal machine gun. I also got a good conduct medal, plus over seas ribbon, plus one for service award for the years served.
I REMEMBER ITALY
• One thing about Italy was mountains, winding roads, and woman carrying things on their head, and an old guy behind them with a cane. I often wonder why I never kept in touch with the ones I met. We moved a lot so was hard to keep in touch.
I had to look in a book I have of Italy to get names of places I spoke of. Just think, I got to see all of this and it cost me nothing. But sure would have been better under different times, then being there fighting. It was great to get back home. My folks were glad to have me home. This wraps up my time in the Army. Hope you all enjoy this. I almost forgot one outfit I was in, was one of the outfits that landed at Normandy. I was sent to another outfit. After finding this out I was pleased in one way, but sure feel sorry for those who were there.
Now it was back to farming, milking cows, feeding chickens and pigs.
Tidbit by Jim and Emmy HumberdSimilar tidbits in: Humberd Chronicles, Travel Tidbits
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