The House of Memory by John Freely

Author:John Freely
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2017-03-07T05:00:00+00:00

At the moment of his burial a bugler played taps, and many broke into tears, as did I, for Roosevelt had first been inaugurated just after we came back to the United States from Ireland for the second time, and he was the only president I had ever known.

Two weeks later we learned that Hitler was dead, and then on May 8 the news came that Germany had surrendered. The war in Europe was over, but fighting continued unabated in the Pacific and the Far East. Scuttlebutt said that our outfit would take part in the invasion of Japan along with General Tai Li’s LPA, crossing over from China to attack one of the main Japanese islands.

Scuttlebutt also had it that our training would now be terminated so that we could be sent to China as soon as possible, and for once rumor turned out to be true. A few days later we were informed that we would finish our program almost immediately, after which we would have a week of home leave before being shipped out.

I did a quick check of the roster at the next muster and saw that we were now down to 160 enlisted men, 10 over the limit that had been set for Roger Three. Five of the 10 were eliminated in the last of our endurance tests, when we had to swim a mile parallel to the beach, beginning from the end of the breakwater at the Fort Pierce Inlet. Time was not a factor, but endurance was, and I had no difficulty—though I was one of the last to finish, as I had to drag along a friend, a Puerto Rican boy named Juan who otherwise would have been eliminated.

Scuttlebutt said that the last cut would be made at the beginning of our final week, and once again rumor turned out to be true. When the final roster was posted, I was relieved to find that my name was on the list, along with my friends Bill Glennon, Tunney King, Pete Echeverry, and Ronald Fuller, though Juan didn’t make it. We received our individual leave papers and orders the following day, and I learned that after my home leave I would report at Penn Station to be sent by train to the naval base at San Pedro, California, the main port for troopships leaving for the Pacific and the Far East.

I was sorry to leave Fort Pierce, which I had enjoyed more than any other part of my Navy training. But I had been in the Navy for a year and was anxious to go overseas; the war was reaching a climax, and I wanted to get into action as soon as possible.

Our training had ended so abruptly that I hadn’t had time to write home and tell my family I was coming. So my homecoming was a complete surprise for them, and because I arrived on a Sunday afternoon they were all gathered around the table having dinner.

That evening all of my relatives came by to welcome me home.

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