I graduated from high school in Watertown, S. Dak
in May of 1941. The hand writing was on the wall, Europe had been embroiled
in war for all most two years. It was pretty obvious it was just a matter
of time before we got involved. I had become interested in photography
in high school and wanted to make a carreer of it. Being a porduct of
the Great Depression there was no money for higher education or trade
schools. The armed forces were beefing up, our local Nat'l Guard had
been called up. The Army Air Corp had a program where by if you enlisted
you could choose the school you wanted. They had an excellent Photo
school at Lowry Field in Denver.
On Aug. 29, 1941 I enlisted at Ft. Crook in Omaha,
later known as Offutt Air Base. I spent a week at Ft. Leavenworth,
Kan. for orientation and was sent on to Jefferson Barracks out
side of St. Louis for basic training. When I finished my basic
training there were no vacancy at the school, so in mid Oct. I
was assigned to Hq. Sq. 3rd Bomb Gp. at Savannah Army Air Base,
Savannah, Ga. I was scheduled to attend school in Jan. 1942. In
the meantime, having some typing skills I was put to work in the
Operations Office as a clerk-typist.
In late Nov. they were arranging Christmas Furloughs.
With my short time I was only allowed a 7 day leave and had to
take the early round, starting on Dec. 6, 1941. That did not leave
me enough time to get back home, but I had a sister working in
Washington, D.C. and an old shool mate and family had moved there.
So on the evening of Dec. 6 my Sis and old buddy
met me at the bus station in D. C. I stayed with my buddy and
after Mass Sunday morning my Sis joined us for Sunday dinner.
After dinner my buddy and I walked up to the corner drug store
for ice cream and got the news of the the Pearl Harbor attack.
That nite I recieved a telegram to report back to base immediately.
There was no bus out until Monday nite, so Monday my buddy gave
me a whirl wind tour of our nations capitol. We were standing
outside the Capitol Bldg. taking photos when FDR was giving his
"Day of Infamy" speech and declaring war.
When I got back to base everything was in a state
of confusion. But in a couple weeks the Gp. started packing for
a move. On Jan. 19. 1042 we boarded a troop train and headed west.
leaving all our top brass and and several top ranking enlisted
men and airplanes in Savannah. The men to form a new Gp. which
I believe turned out to be the 312 Bomb Gp, which later showed
up in New Guinea. The planes to pull sub patrol.
Five days later we arrived in Oakland.
After a week of unloading equipment off rail cars and reloading
onto the USS Ancon, at about 1:30 A.M. Jan. 31, '42 we boarded
the ship. About 2:30 P.M. that afternoon we pulled away from the
dock and sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge. So much for the
photography school at Lowry Field. It would be 3 years 1 month
and 8 days almost to the hour before I would sail back under that
bridge.
