What Did You Do In The War? Daddy!

9 AM, December 8th, but in 1941, it seemed a proper time to reminisce and put down old service experiences. They were at a football game in Hackensack , New Jersey when the Pearl Harbor attack was broadcasted. The next morning they took the ferry, as usual, to New York City to 90 Church Street and the Navy Building . He told the receptionist that they had to find something for him to do and he'd wait in the lobby until they did. She explained that she didn't know what, how or why; she couldn't help, so he sat. After a couple of hours, a woman came down to talk to the girl saying, “We have to get someone else on the switchboard, the person there was already into a double shift." He jumped up and said if it was a P.B.X. board, he could handle it. The woman retreated and presently a man came down to talk to him. He explained that he had been a bellhop up in the Catskills for four summers and knew the P.B.X. inside out. The man took the lad's name and address and said to go on home and he would call if they could use him.

Back on the ferry and to Cliffside Park , where his mother asked where he had been and why were there men asking about him; what trouble did he get in? They had talked to his old school, his priest, and even his scout leader. They had left a name and number to call in New York City and he called and was asked to come right back to the Navy Building . There he was met and escorted to the 6th floor/ went through the security entry and into the enormous two story room of the Command Post for the Eastern Sea Frontier, There were maps on a great wall of the coast from Main to Florida/ with top brass sitting and watching the activity being marked on the wall. Through another security lock they went and into a small communications room with the P.B.X., a teletype, and a radio chattering away. His job was to insure the lines were kept open from Bangor , Maine to Miami , Florida by constantly checking. It was an unbelievable job being able to hear from the radio all the sub attacks, blow by blow, from the destroyers and search bombers being dispatched from fields all along the Eastern shoreline, and the ships under attack.

After two months, Comm. Bassett told the lad, they wanted him in uniform. He said fine, but what rating would he get? He was asked what he expected and answered Petty Officer/ 2nd Class. He was told to get a physical downstairs, which he did, and then papers were put in front of him to sign...., but the rating was Seaman, 2nd Class. When wanting to know why the lower rating, he was told it was because the draft board was called and the lad was his. Without signing the papers, he went home to 'sleep on it'. The next day he drove down to Red Bank, New Jersey to Fort Monmouth and enlisted in the Army. the next time he saw Comm. Bassett was 10 months after being commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant when he gave him courtesy call back at the Navy Building. Comm. Bassett just laughed, congratulated him and said, "I should have expected you would do something like that."

At Fort Monmouth , they had a group of 18 officers training recruits at the Sea Girt firing range while they lived in Army rented hotels. Then they were all shipped to Camp Crowder , Missouri and in a short time, created enough trouble that the General had them transferred to the Corps of Engineers at Fort Belvoir , Virginia into Special Forces training and, as usual, all were raising hell in Washington , D.C. almost every night. Next, they were packed off the Camp Drum , New York , a staging area for overseas shipment, and back on a train to Newport News , Virginia , put on a Liberty ship with over 100 ships for 15 days in a convoy to North Africa .

Upon arriving in Oran , Algeria , they found that they were 'lost' on paper and it was after four weeks were rushed to newly taken Naples / Italy on a British destroyer. Not knowing enough about us, we were all deployed as detached duty officers to wherever there was a lousy job to do. He was headed for Sardinia and Corsica with 28 GI's and joined a regular Engineering Unit to build the first M.A.S.H. unit at Bastia . Five days to build a 100 bed unit where they just ran dump trucks a bit into the sea where a Lorain crane would dump in wet sand and gravel, then back to the site to unload between 2x6 forms. A road grader leveled off the base and trucks with bags of cement were thrown off, all mixed and leveled by the grader again, a water truck wet it down and again the grader mixed and rough graded when they had to level it properly by long 2x6's pushed back and forth while going forward. In 5 days, the foundations were in and the tents and operating prefabs were erected while the concrete cured. All wonderful until a base section Major, who was in Italy , flew in to inspect and wanted to know why we had wired two 50 K.W. generators to the buildings with bare wire. We told him no wire came to us so the 2nd Lieutenant climbed the French power line poles, where the lines were inactive, and hack sawed down what was needed. We had a few words and four hours later, the 2nd Lieut. was on a plane, sent back to Italy, assigned to a signal outfit as Power Officer for the 5th Army and tried to get to the newly taken hospitals, telephone centers, and power stations to keep them from being blown up by the retreating Germans. He had 14 line trucks to repair communications and power stations, again was lost in the sauce by Base Sections they led a crazy life far enough forward so no one bothered them... but far enough back to save their tails.

He was a 2nd Lieutenant for 3 years because he never belonged to an outfit permanently. A loose cannon, was he, who got every lousy job to be done, but did them all well, as his records show. His campaigns were Rome-Aruo, North Appines , and Po Valley and he finally arrived back in the States as a 1stLieutenant on New Year's Eve -1945. He had terminal leave and rest and recuperation built up by the Army paying his salary until May 15, 1946.

He was lucky enough to record all his activities by 201 files, cameras he carried and even enjoyed a 25th Celebration of the Liberation of Livorno, where he and his wife were the honored guests.

A WWII Veteran and the Story of His Encounter
with Life in Bella , Italy
"D" Day, 6th of June 1945 is for Reminiscing.

So, about that day, 51 years ago, his daughter, Sharon, asked, "Dad, what did you do on that day in 1945?"

The place was Livorno , Italy , RC and his tent mate Lt. J. Jacobsen, who also was from New Jersey . Not being too impressed, as the Germans had left the area weeks ago, RC had an inspiration. A good celebration would be to go to Switzerland and visit. First, he called a contact at the old Graff Co. embroider/plant in Union City, NJ and requested a $500 letter of credit be forwarded him, in care of a cousin of Mrs. Zeilwegers in Luzern at Bucheres Jewelers. Then off to Luzern he went where he purchased about 20 watches, including a Rolex. RC stayed over and the next day got back on the train with the watches up bothwrists and ankles. When, a the border, an Italian Customs Officer came in the compartment and asked politely, "you have only one watch, Lieutenant?”, whereas RC stood up and stared down on him and he hastily retreated saluting time and again.

Upon getting back to his Jeep in Milan , RC took off for camp to the company of Joel, where they examined his haul. By the way, Joel was a Sergeant on the beach in Anzio where he was given a direct commission; one very sharp and gutsy short Jewish character.

The next day, RC was off to Genoa in his Jeep to the world famed Galleria, sold the whole batch of watches, except for the Rolex, for $5,000 to a dealer in Italian lira. Back he went to the Livorno camp to Joel's amusement; then to the Army Post Office where a young Lieutenant Postmaster questioned where he got all that money. "I suppose you won a big crap game downtown?" he said. RC explained about the trip to Luzern and how he turned the $500 letter of credit into $5,000 Italian money. He claimed it sounded illegal/ but finally sold RC a$5/000 US Money Order where he was told the only one swindled was the Italian Customs and the hi with them.

Joel and RC had a great celebration by filling up on beer and throwing the empty bottles against the tents and hollering 'Air Raid, Air Raid'. Then they were sent to bed like two bad kids.

So, that's his memory of 'D" Day, so many years ago, and a real slick operation that was very profitable to Lt. Ray C. Smith.

Well, guess it's okay to explain another caper.

There was a beautiful green Fiat1500 convertible that was abandoned near camp and the locals more or less presented it to RC. It probably came up from Rome with a German Officer and they enjoyed making a present of it to an American.

We had a ball! until the Base Section Commandos, which was what we called the rear echelon, caught up with us in Livorno . RC was called into the office b\/s Major who asked if he was riding around in an Italian convertible. He said/ "yes I was and it was great." He read the law of the Army that states all material, vehicles, etc. that were left by the Germans belong to the US Government and ordered 'RC to have it in the Motor Pool by 8:00 AM the next day. RC went back to the Villa he was living in and told the Italian family about the situation. After a few phone calls / he drove it, up into the mountains with his Jeep following and sold it for $1,500 American money. The next day at 8:00 AM, he walked u to the Major's desk, smartly saluted and said he was sorry to report that the Fiat was stolen during the night, all the while looking him straight in the eye. He had nothing to say about it, but was red faced and pretty upset, seeing as how he wouldn't be driving it around.

RC sent home the $1,500 while knowing he would never look as good as he did in that car.

There were other deals, but of no reason to brag. What we can say is that when he shipped out, there was about 4,000,000 Italian lira stored in a paper bag that was questionable as to belonging to him or the Government or??? It added up to $4,000 U.S. and was a present to the Italian family who was so caring, they used 'it to buy back the family printing business that was taken over by the Government and they now have, probably, the top printing shop in Italy. God Bless them and there is a push button on RC's office desk that he pushes to connect him back home to his Italian family; we also visit each other every few years.

Fond, great memories are the perks to our everyday living.

Hope you haven't been bored, but it all seems so important today, June 6, any year, at 11:00 AM.