What do you remember about this past year?
I remember happy moments (Honey achieved a major professional milestone, visits with family), sad moments (Grandma passing away, the sudden death of a friend), fearful moments (Mom went in for heart surgery), and ordinary moments (painting the house, walks with Honey, "Skyping" with Mom and Dad). All in all, it was a good year.
66 years ago, a young soldier was discharged from the United States Army after 4 years of service, the final 11 months of which were spent in the European theater lugging a typewriter and box of records. For years afterwards, he told about leaving for the War in Europe, watching the Statue of Liberty on the way out of the Harbor -- then watching to see it again on the way back, because that meant HOME!
His trip home from Germany began Monday, November 26, 1945. He reached the States on Christmas Day, then was discharged on the last day of the year. His wife and daughter met him, thankful to have him safely home.
He wrote about that trip home, in two parts. The first part was typewritten, then several pages were handwritten to add to it later. Here are the two parts transcribed:
Part I:
"From Weiden, Germany Started for hom 26 November 1945
D-Day, H-Hour---- Monday morning, all ready to move out,
Troop is 18 miles from here, are supposed to pick us up here. Will call when last truck is leaving, then we
go to the front gate. After taking care
of M/Sgt Fowler’s bed (hiding everything that we could move) we went to the
Office to pick up records. At 0925 Call
came “Last truck leaving now”, we assembled outside the gate. We watched the convoy come by, the last truck
stopped for us. We boarded the train in
Weiden at 1000 26 Nov 45, did not leave until about 1230. Train was plenty cold but we were assured
that there would be heat in one hour. After
about two and a half hours there was still no heat. We changed engins a couple of times, but no
heat yet. Then it was discovered that
the Car between the engine and the rest of the coaches had a broken pipe and
there would be no heat. All the way down
we kept thinking that at the next station we would have heat. “It never came”. It is hard to tell which way we are going, we
go forwards for about ten minutes, then go back over the same distance to see
if we missed anything on the first trip by.
We (Clerks) have some work to do before we get to our next station so we
pick the warmest time of the day to do this work. We finished half of the work the first day
out, and the rest the day day. The first
day ended soon with everyone about to freeze.
The morning of the second day start off good,, with someone leaving the door open and ice on the inside of the windows. After having a good breakfast of “K” rations about 1000 the day started off good. After completing the last half of our work, we settled down to enjoy the trip. What a trip. From morning until night we are suppoed to get hot food at the next station, the second day passed without any.
The morning of the third day started off better, we were now in France and if nothing more the weather was warmer. We crossed the Rhine river in the evening of the third day. From here on the weather should be beter. We stopped under a bridge and you should see the boys trading candy for bread."
The morning of the second day start off good,, with someone leaving the door open and ice on the inside of the windows. After having a good breakfast of “K” rations about 1000 the day started off good. After completing the last half of our work, we settled down to enjoy the trip. What a trip. From morning until night we are suppoed to get hot food at the next station, the second day passed without any.
The morning of the third day started off better, we were now in France and if nothing more the weather was warmer. We crossed the Rhine river in the evening of the third day. From here on the weather should be beter. We stopped under a bridge and you should see the boys trading candy for bread."
Part II, handwritten later:
"
Did not record much from here on but we went on to CALAS
STAGING area at MARSEILLE,FRANCE. We
must have arrived about Nov 30, 1945 and stayed there waiting on a Ship Home
until Dec 13, 1945. Then we boarded the
ship BLUE RIDGE VICTORY for home. There
was about 4 or 5 other ships leaving about the same time as we did. While we were loading on our ship there was
some welders on floating stations welding the seam up and down the bow, or
front of the ship when it was broken apart in rough seas as it came over after
us. After the ship was loaded we
departed. This was 13 Dec 1945. We hit a storm and rough seas soon after
leaving and all water pipes were torn off the walls of the ship from midships
to the front. Our unit, 90th
Recon Troop, was on 1st deck below water line at midship, we had
water. We were a little worried that the
front seam would break open again but it did not.
The ship lost power one
afternoon for a few hours about Dec 20th and we drifted 4 miles off
course. After certain repairs was
completed power was restored and we continued on.
The other ships stopped at the AZORIE ISLAND to ride out the storm but our captain said we would go on and we did.
The people in charge were not sure we would make it to NY by Christmas so turkey and all the trimmings were loaded on the ship before we left and it began to look like we would make it so the captain said lets feed the troops “Christmas Dinner” early because we don’t want all this turkey left so about the 23rd of Dec we had a Christmas Dinner, turkey and all abord ship which we all enjoyed.
We arrived N.Y. Camp Shanks on Dec 25, 1945. It was nice & sunny when we arrived about mid afternoon but when we were let off the ship about 5 or 6 oclock in the evening it was raining. Hard at times, we got wet walking to our camp site but that was not so bad because they also had prepared a turkey dinner for us. We stayed there at Camp Shanks a couple days while we turned in some of our equipment. I got rid of my box of records there, then we were sent to the separation center in our State. For me in was Fort Bragg also 20 to 25 other men. When we got to Fort Bragg about Dec 28 they also had a turkey dinner ready for us. I will always remember 1945 because that year I got 3 “Christmas Dinners” turkey, & all the trimmings.
I was discharged about 9:00 oclock PM on Dec 31, 1945.
The other ships stopped at the AZORIE ISLAND to ride out the storm but our captain said we would go on and we did.
The people in charge were not sure we would make it to NY by Christmas so turkey and all the trimmings were loaded on the ship before we left and it began to look like we would make it so the captain said lets feed the troops “Christmas Dinner” early because we don’t want all this turkey left so about the 23rd of Dec we had a Christmas Dinner, turkey and all abord ship which we all enjoyed.
We arrived N.Y. Camp Shanks on Dec 25, 1945. It was nice & sunny when we arrived about mid afternoon but when we were let off the ship about 5 or 6 oclock in the evening it was raining. Hard at times, we got wet walking to our camp site but that was not so bad because they also had prepared a turkey dinner for us. We stayed there at Camp Shanks a couple days while we turned in some of our equipment. I got rid of my box of records there, then we were sent to the separation center in our State. For me in was Fort Bragg also 20 to 25 other men. When we got to Fort Bragg about Dec 28 they also had a turkey dinner ready for us. I will always remember 1945 because that year I got 3 “Christmas Dinners” turkey, & all the trimmings.
I was discharged about 9:00 oclock PM on Dec 31, 1945.
T-4
Thomas C Deese"
 |
| Sgt Thomas C. Deese in New York, 1945 |
He lived through a year of war, with all its bravery and fear, heroism and pain. It changed him, and an entire generation. But this is what he remembers about that year, is 3 "Christmas Dinners."
