Mediterranean Algiers Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 19, 1943, Algiers, Algiers Saturday june 19, 1943the stars and stripes weekly Page i troop train ride a North african style looking at the country from a Boxcar Side Slit by a sgt. Halmi g. Martin stars and stripes staff writer it did t look like grand Central station. The rickety boxcars were packed tight with tired look my soldiers dressed in fatigues carrying Lull held packs. Shabby Little Arad kids were trying to smile their Way into some american cigarettes and Bonbons. And in front of the last car a cute French girl kept kissing a sergeant and crying. Everybody pretended not to notice. The High toned tiny train whistle screeched out loud and everything started to lurch Forward slowly. Grabbing a Lam kiss the sergeant Tore himself away and hopped into the last Boxcar. So did i. He was a sad looking kid. This sergeant. For a Tow minutes i was afraid he was going to bust out and bawl. He kept waving at the Little French girl Een alter the to Ain rounded the Bend and he could t see her anymore. Then he just sat there his Lect dangling out of the car staring in the distance. And no it about it Cju Ezrd toe it her and the funny p that nobody Gripe i. In Lait. Pvt. Adrian Mccammon looked Happy enough to pass out cigars to everybody. I Walt going slowly nuts staying in that one place for a straight stretch of seven months he confided to me with a twinkle in his eyes. A a i m used to moving around a Mac had been in the marines for ii it ars and had gone from Cuba to Haiti to Panama to Pearl Harbor to Shanghai. Quot but after this show is Over. Mac said then in through travelling. I want to go Back to my Darling Deputy sheriff and get some of this civilian macs Darling Deputy sheriff is his wife who Lias held that Job for the past ii years and can out shoot Hun with a 45. The sergeant explains nobody in the car said anything much. The boys broke up into Little knots some stretched out on the floor using their pack As pillows. Others opened up their comic books and magazines. One Guy took out a Palt k of cards and started playing solitaire. Finally the sergeant came Back into a Corner of the Tai where i was. It did t take him Long to Start talking he wanted to talk to somebody. His girl Friend was a French nurse named Clemence Ramon and sgt. Frank Devlin had met her when he first landed Here in november. Now they were engaged. I Haven t Given her an engagement ring because it has t come Over from the states he said. But 4 e folks wrote me the other Day that ifs on its yes lie was going to Many her As soon As the War was Over and then take her Back to Glenside. A. She was going to learn English and lie was going to finish his accounting course at St Joseph s College in Philly. Looking around the Bleak looking Boxcar. I remembered a troop train ride i took balk in the states just about 14 months ago. I remember How i griped because the coach car was a Little Dusty because the seats weren t soft enough because somebody was always Iii the toilet and because the water at the end of the car was t ice cold. North african troop trains were different. All we had was a cracked up dirty floor. With everybody k Nock Rummy in the Coiner the game of solitaire had developed into a Knock Rummy game. I acted As official kibitzer Tor awhile and commented on the fact that there was no Money anywhere in evidence. Pvt Joe Sandor explained that they All keep careful count and pay off on payday. Joe used to be a steel worker in Gary ind. I used to be a steel worker said a Guy next to me who had been helping me Kibitz. Quot my names he said shaking my hand As if he still had some of that steel in his Farmers ledge it-5 George Mccullough was a machinist in a steel factory for 16 years before he joined up with the ordnance Section of the army. Then the army released him because he was overage and married seven months later when War came they called him up again. Like George most of the soldiers in Thi port battalion outfit were older men and 40 percent of them were married. Takes sgt Gus Eggart. For example. Gus is married has two kids used to own a Chain of grocery stores in Miami and Jacksonville. Before that he played professional baseball Tor the Atlanta crackers and Thi Houston buffaloes. Now he a sweating out a commission. They were glad to get going wailing whistle the train was pushing along slowly and every so often the steady Clickett clacking was punctuated by the Walling screech of the whistle. But after a few hours of it. Like everybody else i seamed to absorb the sound and didst hear the noise anymore unless i actually listened for it. The scenery kept changing constantly. The Flat. Sandy stretches. Developed curves and Hills and the Brick red dust merged quickly into Lush Green tall Corn and Small tightly clumped forests would crop out of nowhere and quit often wed come across a Little Ai a town whose buildings looked As ii they had been freshly scrubbed. When the train approached a Long Bridge Laid out across a Gorg it. But. Salvatore a Lasso of Brooklyn. Yelled out Quot look that Brooklyn and everybody laughed. Familiar places but. Really they All Felt that Way. Holed up in a a it it Tor the past seven months working ail hours unloading and loading ships Day and night they were now suing North Africa for the first time. And everybody seemed to tee something that reminded him of someplace Back Home. Tall Corn and Rich Black dirt reminded one Soldier of his farm in Iowa a Model a style arabian architect in de Home looked almost like one Guy s Home in san Bernandino. Cal. A new Hampshire boy saw his own Garden in a Small ground plot that had a circular fringe of Flowers. In one of the boxcars a Bunch of the boys were Busy heckling sgt. Robert Bellrichard. The Story was that Bob worked in a spam factory in Austin mum. Lor eight years before he came into the army. Quot i worked in every one of their 53 departments Quot said Bob proudly. What tickled the boys was the Christmas package Bob got from Home a Nice Large Box of spam. That was during the time when the outfit had spam for breakfast. Spam for dinner and spam for suppertime. Bob a still stubborn Quot i like spam Quot or said. Panties buyer there was a Good looking mustachioed t-5 named Joseph Hal Perin. Who informed me that he was also a perpetual gag Lor the boys in his Section. Joe. Who migrated daily from Greenwich Village to Broadway used to be a buyer of expensive ladies undergarments still that sold for ten dollars and fifty cents per panty. Quot a my friends used to envy said smiling Joe. Because these wholesale underwear houses used to have Beautiful girls Model around in their shanties for me then Joe sighed deeply and pointed to his fatigues his Lough hands and his Field pack. Quot now look at me Quot of said. To a Joe was telling me about some of the other stevedores i met them later. There was a std. Thomas Mills whose dad was a professor of English at notre Dame and president of the Knute Roe Kne foundation. And Tom huns it who had graduated from not in Dana Magna it urn laude. Coming in from the open door and i started talking to one of the famous by Oner Brothers everybody in the outfit knew them reelected them and liked them. T-5 Alex is 33 and brother pfc. Harry is 45 both enlisted the same Day. Went overseas 23 Days later. Alex is a mild mannered quiet Little Guy with a Good word for everybody and always smiling. I talked about his wife and kids Harry was in the last War and Harry a son was with the marines in Guadalcanal wounded twice. Both Harry and Alex were in the Hospital themselves for several months from injuries received in line of duty and just got out in time to make the trip. Of them Hospital cases practically half the out i i t had n in the Hospital at one time or another. This port battalion Broder Brothers then there was set Jim son. Who was a professor of Istre in Pittsfield. Mass. Years and who just turned \ French soldiers said Bon voyage9 Dav Alchemy i or 13 Down a commission. I just didst want to teach said Tom. Both Tom and Jim Are Section Bosses of rough Tough gangs of men. There was a Nice Cool Bleeze business is far from Safe. I met one Guy who still had a cast on his leg and two More whose arms were broken but they All had insisted on leaving the to pit a1 As Sekiji As they heard that their outfit had been alerted. This is our outfit said plot. Alfred Champagne tic Guy with the cast on his leg we la n together for a Long time we just dido t want to get left Champagne is a lit tic to on. N. H. Boy and his broken armed Friend a in pvt Franklin one., of Hager Ston. My. And pfc. Audrey i Oane of Covington Tkv. While i was talking to them another Guy hobbled Over with a fractured knee. I name a sgt. Eddie Flynn. Of new York City. There a few others Roo. A delicious a rations when anybody got hungry Flynn opened up a can of cold c rations. It s remarkable How delicious cold c rations can taste if you re Hun Gry enough. I had two plus half a Candy bar. I wonder what language we re going to have to learn next a queried t-4 Alvin Rubin in be tween spoonfuls of c rations. Some of the boys offered their opinions and Al Shook his head mysteriously and said a you never know. A Al used to work in a a to room of the Boston Glo i More or brother gently he opened of bin a hand laundry charging i prices and he kept on washing until he Paul off some of his heavier poker debts. A the privates got a big Kuk out of the fact that a sergeant was washing their dirty laundry Quot said Al laughing at himself. It was getting late and the Sun slipped Down through the Sideslip of the car throwing shadows Over who was having a Nice snooze for himself. A Nueku a the outfit Mascot was part Scottie. Part Dachshund Ana part undetermined. To bring him along a sgt. William Wayland had to sweat out some unofficial permission which made everybody very Happy especially we were parked next to some station towards evening when a Hospital train pulled up alongside us and stopped for a few minutes. The boys All rushed to the window of their train asking How Joyn doing Bud a and emptying their pockets of All their cigarettes and i Candy. The whole thing happen#<1 fast but you done to forget scenes like that a Pappy tells How later. I dropped in the officer s car for a few minutes and spoke to Ca of. Harold Slade it the boys Call him Pappy executive officer of tile outfit under it. Col. Richard Flynn of Portland Cap Slade told me How they activated the outfit Back in june 16. Pim a year ago starting out wit ii 30 freshly recruited experienced longshoremen everyone Che in the outfit received Preiti Ninny in auction at fort Dix and Staten Island before they were shipped overseas. Quot now they re just As Good As and pot battalion in the army a said Slade. The i Engineer and fireman in in the cab we Ere visited too. I lie Engineer was Long Lanka of. R a Stephens of b Aho and the fireman was pie. All pictures on this Pate Are tars and stripes photos by a pfc t. Ralph g. Martin. Woodrow Smith of Saugus. Mass. Aho visiting like me. Was capt. Char in h. Boyd outfit adjutant. Later i went Back into on Quot of the boxcars and w rapped rum of int a borrowed Blanket trying to keep warm in the chilled wind. Pm t. Owen Mcgeen of Turkov n. C. Was strumming his guitar whining out soft hillbilly turns when i fell asleep. I woke tip just a Little b tie Lawn just in time to drop off at the town i was headed for i puked in my things and hopped off quietly because they were still huddled together still sleeping. I Sib done to know where they Wolf going
