Pittsburgh Remembers World War II by Dr. Joseph Rishel

Author:Dr. Joseph Rishel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

The March 25, 1942 issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette showed U.S. Marines giving new recruits the “send-off they deserve,” accompanied by American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps, as they marched down Wood Street to the train station. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

The men were put on an antique steam train called back into service to convey troops to their secret basic training destinations. For security and safety reasons, all recruits were told to sit on the floor. When the packed train pulled out at midnight with full military honors, Bill whacked the seat above him with his hand and dust flew up from the long unused seat. It hadn’t even been cleaned! Two hours later, the train stopped in the pitch black of the countryside. Pulling between two other trains for security, they transferred the army draftees to one train and the marines to another. The sixty navy recruits stayed on their original train. By 7:00 a.m., they were at Samson Naval Training Station, outside Ithaca, New York. Disembarking, Bill thought, “I’m in New York! This is New York dirt!” He observed units marching and thought, “I hope they don’t think that I’m going to do that!”

Boot camp lasted fourteen weeks. Bill explains the derivation of the term “boot camp.” It actually refers to the leggings worn by soldiers in previous wars. If you were a “boot” you had to wear leggings that snapped up the side of your leg over your boots. The officers could tell the “newbies” from the more seasoned recruits by their “boots” or leggings. One of the things that newbies had to do was navigate a one-mile obstacle course. Mud was made around the course with hoses. Bill was in good shape from playing football and easily completed the course. Even though rifles were not used in the navy, the recruits were taught to break down rifles and clean them. Bill had never fired a gun, but he proved to be a good shot, clustering them close to the bull’s eye on the target range.

Bill had a seven-day leave before he was to report to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for his overseas deployment. His father, who was the head accountant at Pittsburgh Steel Company, now Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, took him to his office in the Grant Building to “show him off.” Bill met about fifty employees. Pride had overcome his father’s initial reluctance concerning his son’s enlistment. There were three other Pittsburghers from his unit on leave here at the same time. Bill’s mother realized that he could stay a day longer with them if he flew back to New York instead of taking the train with his fellow sailors. Bill decided to play a joke on his friends. He told them that he was going to go AWOL and would not return to the navy to go overseas. They were aghast, saying, “You’re making a mistake! You’re liable to get shot!” After his flight to New York, Bill took a cab from the airport to the barracks and got there before his friends.

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