Post by floydragsdale on Aug 8, 2012 11:25:41 GMT -5
Sixty-seven years ago this week, the first atomic bomb was dropped in Japan, on the city of Hiroshima. What a startling event that was. Wow; one bomb that delivered an explosion equivalent to twenty tons of TNT, sending a fireball boiling into the sky.
About a week later a second A. Bomb was dropped in Japan, on the city of Nagasaki that brought about the end of WWII.
Ships at sea, loaded with American Soldiers, sailing for the Pacific Theater of Operations changed course and headed for the States.
Soldiers (including this one) at Camp Baltimore, France (near the city of Rheims) were being processed for direct shipment to the Pacific Theater of War. Rapidly, a change came over Camp Baltimore. Now Soldiers were given passes and furloughs to London, Paris and Switzerland.
At the same time, American citizens of draft age, who had been living in Europe all during WWII and were immune from serving in the Armed forces of the U..S., faced another situation. Uncle Sam informed them, “Serve your time in the Army, or, lose your status as a U.S. Citizen.”
At that time, there were hundreds of such men, living all over Europe. Rather than send them to the States for Basic Training, they were to be trained in Europe.
I was one of the Soldiers to take part in that affair. Doing the job of a First Sgt. and drawing the pay of a Corporal was my occupation for the next eight months.
When life gives you scraps, make quilts. That’s what I did. In place of taking all the orders, I issued a few of them and in between times I got to see quite a bit of France, Germany and Switzerland.
Eventually, it was time to go home, which was in April 1946. In the meantime, Scotland, England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy were countries where this G.I. had been. Some of those places I saw through the sights of a rifle.
Floyd
424th Regiment
About a week later a second A. Bomb was dropped in Japan, on the city of Nagasaki that brought about the end of WWII.
Ships at sea, loaded with American Soldiers, sailing for the Pacific Theater of Operations changed course and headed for the States.
Soldiers (including this one) at Camp Baltimore, France (near the city of Rheims) were being processed for direct shipment to the Pacific Theater of War. Rapidly, a change came over Camp Baltimore. Now Soldiers were given passes and furloughs to London, Paris and Switzerland.
At the same time, American citizens of draft age, who had been living in Europe all during WWII and were immune from serving in the Armed forces of the U..S., faced another situation. Uncle Sam informed them, “Serve your time in the Army, or, lose your status as a U.S. Citizen.”
At that time, there were hundreds of such men, living all over Europe. Rather than send them to the States for Basic Training, they were to be trained in Europe.
I was one of the Soldiers to take part in that affair. Doing the job of a First Sgt. and drawing the pay of a Corporal was my occupation for the next eight months.
When life gives you scraps, make quilts. That’s what I did. In place of taking all the orders, I issued a few of them and in between times I got to see quite a bit of France, Germany and Switzerland.
Eventually, it was time to go home, which was in April 1946. In the meantime, Scotland, England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy were countries where this G.I. had been. Some of those places I saw through the sights of a rifle.
Floyd
424th Regiment
