prune picker

This is the blog of a prune picker. (Native born Californian) Retired oilfield. I am an old man. I blog a lot about my body and getting old. As I approach death life gets more interesting. More interesting is not good. I still drive. I attend sports, music, and civic events. I am writing my memoirs. I attend swim class three times a week. Some of my blogs might be interesting. A lot of my blogs are silly and trivial. None are very long.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Army Trips. World War II.

Between the time that I was inducted into the Army on 17 Apr 1943 and when I was discharged on 8 Jan 1946 the Army took me on many trips. I calculate 16 trips. The shortest was 30 miles and was a ride from Gary and Fourth in Pomona, California to the local Army Reception Center in Arlington. Arlington is now part of the city of Riverside. The longest trip was 5,800 miles from Pearl Harbor to a combat landing on Angaur, in the Palau Islands. On that trip we went out of the way to Guadalcanal to have our last dress rehearsal for our landing on Angaur.

I estimate that the total mileage of the trips was 30,000 miles. I spent five months traveling, four months of the five were on troopships. We crossed the equator and became Shellbacks, I crossed the Pacific four times. It sure is a big ocean. I was six weeks on one of those trips. I was on a 5 mph LST.

The table below lists the trips with some data. The table is followed by a rough sketch of the trip routes. This table will be a help as I write the story of the army part of my life.


Trip
Origin
Destination
Trans. Type
Miles
Purpose
Remarks

1
Pomona
Arlington
Bus
30
Drafted. Get nice haircut
Reception center. Inducted 17 Apr 43 (17 years old)

2
Arlington
Lompoc
Train
200
Basic training
Camp Cooke

3
Lompoc
San Bernardino
Train
200
Desert training
Aborted in 30 days

4
San Bernardino
San Luis Obispo
Truck (overnight at Santa Barbara)(Battle of SB)
300
Amphibious training
At Moro Bay

5
San Luis Obispo
San Diego (Round trip)
Troopship
700
Practice landings
Land at Aliso Canyon, San Clemente, Coronado

6
San Luis Obispo
Marysville
Truck (overnight at Merced)
350
Prepare for overseas (dip gear in cosmoline)
Camp Beale

7
Marysville
Seattle
Train (very scenic ride)
700
Catch ship
Fort Lawton

8
Seattle
Honolulu
Matson Liner SS Maui
2700
Took rugged jungle training
Camp in a pineapple field on hill above Pearl Harbor

9
Honolulu
Palau Islands
Troopship (made last dress rehearsal. land on Guadalcanal)
5800
Combat landing in Palau Islands
Wounded on Bloody Nose Ridge, Peleliu, 27 Sep 44

10
Palau Islands
Guadalcanal
Hospital ship
2200
Heal gun shot wounds
Hospital

11
Guadalcanal
Honolulu
Troopship
3600
Trip to rejoin my outfit
They were not in Hawaii

12
Oahu
Leyte
LST
5300
Or here either
Darn, I miss them

13
Leyte
Okinawa
Troopship
1100
Combat landing
Easter Sunday 45

14
Okinawa
Seoul
LST
800
Occupy Korea


15
Seoul
Tacoma
Troopship
5200
Heading home
Fort Lewis

16
Tacoma
San Pedro
Troopship (stop over night in Portland and San Francisco)
1500
Get discharged, 8 Jan 46
Fort MacArthur















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