Post by floydragsdale on Jul 27, 2011 11:39:31 GMT -5
Shortly (weeks) after being transferred out of the 106th Division I was situated near Rheims, France at a place called Camp Baltimore. It was a base where American Troops were being processed to be shipped straight to the Pacific Theater of War. During this time the 1st atom bomb was dropped on Japan. To say the least, rapid changes in Army life and regulations began to take place. The timing of events were like a Hollywood finish as my “new outfit” was scheduled to ship out to a port of embarkation in just a few days.
After the 2nd atomic bomb fell on Japan ships at sea transporting American Troops to the Pacific Theater of War reversed their course and sailed for the U.S.A.
To say the least, events at Camp Baltimore changed, abruptly. For a while, the Army didn’t know what to do with us. All of us “stayed put” until a game plan was developed, probably by the High Brass.
Meanwhile, passes and furloughs were a dime a dozen. If a G.I. had the money, he could go to London for a week or so. However, about six of us, in my outfit, elected to go to Paris.
A real stick in the mud, was the O.D. (officer of the day). We (six of us) couldn’t leave until he signed our three day passes. He caused us to miss the morning train to Paris. Holy cow, there wouldn’t be another train headed for Paris until that evening. Our precious time in Paris was just reduced by twelve fun filled hours. What a revolting development this was to us.
While most of the disappointed G.I. were staring at the train, we just missed, zooming toward Paris, one man in our group (an officer) was looking intently at a U.S. Army motor pool nearby.
He said, “You guys stay here while I go over to that place (motor pool). I’ll be back shortly."
In about ten minutes out he came from that motor pool with a U.S. Army command car and headed straight for us. Motioning to us he shouted, “Get in, we are going to Paris." It wasn’t long before we were there.
Somehow, he convinced the guards at the motor pool to let him drive out with a command car. We drove to the center of Paris right to another huge U.S. Army Motor Pool where the Lieutenant parked the vehicle. As we left the area the guards gave the Lieutenant a snappy salute.
Grinning and winking at us the Lt. Said, “Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.” What he did and how he did it none of us ever knew and at the moment, we didn’t care. He did say, "The Army will never miss that command car at the Rheims motor pool and at Paris, they'll never know where it came from and they could care less.
Floyd,
424th Regiment
P.S. We had a great time in Paris and all of us rode the train back to Camp Baltimore.
After the 2nd atomic bomb fell on Japan ships at sea transporting American Troops to the Pacific Theater of War reversed their course and sailed for the U.S.A.
To say the least, events at Camp Baltimore changed, abruptly. For a while, the Army didn’t know what to do with us. All of us “stayed put” until a game plan was developed, probably by the High Brass.
Meanwhile, passes and furloughs were a dime a dozen. If a G.I. had the money, he could go to London for a week or so. However, about six of us, in my outfit, elected to go to Paris.
A real stick in the mud, was the O.D. (officer of the day). We (six of us) couldn’t leave until he signed our three day passes. He caused us to miss the morning train to Paris. Holy cow, there wouldn’t be another train headed for Paris until that evening. Our precious time in Paris was just reduced by twelve fun filled hours. What a revolting development this was to us.
While most of the disappointed G.I. were staring at the train, we just missed, zooming toward Paris, one man in our group (an officer) was looking intently at a U.S. Army motor pool nearby.
He said, “You guys stay here while I go over to that place (motor pool). I’ll be back shortly."
In about ten minutes out he came from that motor pool with a U.S. Army command car and headed straight for us. Motioning to us he shouted, “Get in, we are going to Paris." It wasn’t long before we were there.
Somehow, he convinced the guards at the motor pool to let him drive out with a command car. We drove to the center of Paris right to another huge U.S. Army Motor Pool where the Lieutenant parked the vehicle. As we left the area the guards gave the Lieutenant a snappy salute.
Grinning and winking at us the Lt. Said, “Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.” What he did and how he did it none of us ever knew and at the moment, we didn’t care. He did say, "The Army will never miss that command car at the Rheims motor pool and at Paris, they'll never know where it came from and they could care less.
Floyd,
424th Regiment
P.S. We had a great time in Paris and all of us rode the train back to Camp Baltimore.
