The 325th Combat Engineers

The Voyage Over

Finally it was time to be on the move. They were shipped up to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. They were given leave in shifts, ferried over to the docks, and put below decks until they were out in the ocean.

Carl Blanton got leave right before the unit shipped to New Jersey. There was supposed to be no leave, but his grandmother died. Lt. Bell let him go, trusting Carl's word that he'd be back by Wednesday. (Carl Blanton, 2003 Florida reunion).

"Yeah, he trusted you because he knew you ate better in the Army." (John P. Wallis, 2003 Florida reunion)

"What a night. My last night of liberty in the U.S. Sgt. Jones and I really took N.Y. City in this night. Norval Jones, a buddy of mine from the hills of West Virginia" (written on the back of the picture)

"One thing about the 100th Division, from the general on down. They were close knit. When we were going over I got a leave before going over. They let half the division go then the other half and then went overseas. Lots of the poor guys never got that. That was kind of rank." (T. C. Moore, 2001)

" We sailed. The next day when they let us come up out of the hold, I didn't know whether we were going to Japan or Alaska or where. All you could see was ships all you looked, only water. We didn't know where we were going. We made some guesses. They took away the mosquito bar and they took that away so we figured that it wasn't Japan. We didn't know why they taking them away though, to treat them or reissue them. We come out of the deck and see boats for miles and miles. Big ships, small ships, cruisers." (T. C. Moore, 2001)

"Blanton was the sickest I ever saw a guy. We didn't even get out of the harbor in New York. He upchucked all the way over. He's strong. The only thing that he could get down in seven or eight days was some lemon that somebody gave him, sucking on it. He was in bad shape. He could hardly walk." (T.C. Moore, 2001; picture from the Story of the Century)

25 October 1944, "Somewhere in France", "Had a nice trip across the ocean although there were several days I couldn't get off the horizontal. I had a beautiful inner spring mattress to sleep on. There is no motion quite like the roll of a ship. Bagley was pretty sick one night until Reidy and I dumped him out on his ear. Bagley made me official money changer for the boys, pain in the neck. Rate of exchange is $.02175 per franc. Enjoying every minute of my tour. Tell you about it some day." (Gordon Morse to Margaret Morse)

A year later, he remembered-- October 1945, "One year ago Saturday was getting off the boat and experienced first air raid. Had a rugged "March of Death" up out of the harbor with heavy packs to land in a muddy windswept field. Things looked black." (Gordon Morse to Margaret Morse)

Home	Combat Engineers	Men
Drafted	Fort Jackson	Fort Belvoir
Tennessee	Fort Bragg	Voyage Over

The 325th Combat Engineers

The Voyage Over

Next