| 1946 Brought great hope for Dad and millions
of men just like him. The war was over, he had survived as was
headed back to his friends and family. But first he had to get there so on
with our story.
Dads two day stay in Bremmenhaven turned in to nine days the army was not ready to send him back yet. While Dad waited for a ship to leave on , he did more socializing , his Fraulien friend Hilda even came came to see him from Bremen. He had another physical and his baggage was inspected to see if he had turned in all equipment he was supposed to. |
German Navy Base, Bremmenhaven 1946
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GI's Relaxing aboard the U.S. Victory
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On January 6, the big day came. At 8:00am Dad left the
Marine Barracks at Bremmenhaven and went to the pier there.
He boarded the merchant marine ship U.S. Victory. A vessel that held about 1500 men and crew. Around 2:OOpm they set sail for America. Dad stood on deck and watched as the ship sailed though the English Channel and remembers seeing the White Cliffs Of Dover. Once they got into the Atlantic the fun began. Dad was placed on garbage detail, and almost became sick from the smell of throwing it off of the fantail. The weather also turned bad and and was very rough the rest of the way home, he says the ship rolled and pitched the whole way. the weather was so cold ice formed all over the outside of the ship and they never spent much time outside. For recreation they showed movies in a empty hold of the ship at night and during the day did physical activities there. Also the merchant marine men had a gambling room set up and and many soldiers were fleeced of there money by the sailors. Dad remembers one guy whose bunk was near his who kept saying as soon as he got to shore he was going to go right back to Germany to marry his fraulien he left behind. On January 16, they passed the Statue of Liberty, and docked that night at pier 84 in New York City.
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| Next Stop was Camp Kilmer New Jersey. here Dad saw a lot
of his buddies from the 78th, they had been on a ship that had left
Germany a week before Dad and arrived the same day as him. They were
given lectures on reenlisting in the Army but only about two out of five
hundred did.
On January 18, Dad and his buddies were sent to the post nearest there home. Dad says it was sad leaving all his friends he had been with for three years, but any ways they were all anxious to get home. Dad went to Camp Atturberry, Indiana and arrived there on the January 19th. On the 21st he was formally discharged and sent home. Click here to see Dads discharge paper. About 4:30 am on January 22 Dad arrive back in Battle Creek, His mother and father met him at the train station, it was real joyful moment for them and Dads eyes swelled with tears from the joy. He was back where he started, almost 3 1/2 years earlier, thankful to God for getting him through the war unharmed, but yet he looked upon his memories with fondness knowing he had done things and seen places he would never had done without that letter from Uncle Sam which he received in the mail in 1942. |
My Dad, Lynn K. Juckett. The Best Dad On Earth. |
