2/43: Fort Devens, Ayer, Mass. for tests and assignment GCT 137 to U.S. Army Air Force. Shipped by train to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri for basic training.

2/43: Train to Hammer Field, Fresno, CA. Good duty - applied and became life guard at officers swimming pool (nurses!)  Applied for OCS and accepted in ASTP program (Army Specialized Training Program)

3/43: Shipped to Stamford U. in Palo Alto, interviewed and cleared for Oregon State College (now Oregon State Univ.) in Corvallis, Oregon for officers training as an engineer.  Good duty - 600 cadets and 2000 female students!

1/44: ASTP program discontinued because too many soldiers were sent to colleges.

2/44: Train to Buckley Field, Colo. near Denver.  Now a civilian air field with a different name?  Interesting sidelight:  On a week-end pass went on a train through the Moffatt Tunnel to Winter Park which then was just a hill with one ski tow - now one of the largest ski areas in Colorado.

4 or 5/44: Shipped to Chanute Field in Rantoul, Ill. to attend Cryptographic School.  Interesting sidelight here: my barracks was right beside the runway where B-17's shot landings day and night.  Chanute was a big B-17 base.

5/44: Completed school and went on first rest leave in 14-15 months of service.

6/44: Reported to Syracuse Army Air Force to join new Combat Cargo outfit.   Assigned to 349th Airdrome Sqd., 4th Combat Cargo Group as cryptographer.  Received rank available in TO (Table of Organization), one T/Sgt., one Sgt. and one Corporal.   Guess who was third to arrive?

6/44 - 1st Oct 44: Trained with outfit which had C-47's, 25 per squadron, 100 per group.

10/44 - 11/44: Group (100 planes) Baer Field, Ind. to Bowman Field, Ky. where we stayed a few weeks and swapped our C-47's for C-46's.

11/44 - 1/45: Flew on to W. Palm Beach, Florida and on to Cuba for 2 days.  On to Trinidad and to Natal, Brazil where we lost an engine; 3-4 days in Brazil and on to Ascension Island (half way from S. America and Africa).  Gold Coast of Africa to Nigeria and on to Aden, Arabia and last leg to Karachi, India on west coast, then on to Agra where the Taj Mahal is located.  We flew right over it, landed and spent night in Agra, but got into a poker game that night which in those days was more important than going down to see the Taj Mahal, so never did get to see it.

1/45 - 12/45: Whole outfit (4th Combat Cargo Group) flew to a place called Agartala somewhere in Northeast India.  Runway hacked out of jungle and covered with metal strips with holes in it. Monsoon season, airplane stuck in mud, rained constantly; we ate 'C' rations from mess kits.  Planes flew to eastern India and Burma border.  Moved from there to Chittagong, India which is way south on Bay of Bengal.  Flew supplies to Northern India on Burma border.

I think sometime in mid-'45 I was in the jeep accident with my T/Sgt. (driver) and another communications friend.  We had delivered a message to British 14th Army and on the way back ran into a big hole in the road (jeep was wide open).  I came to in an army ambulance and ended up in British hospital for a few days and finally all three of us were flown in a C-47 to the 142nd Army Hospital in Calcutta.  I had a broken arm, fractured skull and chipped vertebrae. In hospital a few weeks.  When discharged I found that our whole outfit had gone to Burma.  Not knowing where our outfit was, and they didn't know we were out, we stayed in Calcutta until our money ran out - about 4 - 5 days, seeing things, the burning ghats (dead are cremated on piles of wood), Shiek temples, riding rickshaws, and anything else we could think of.

Finally located our outfit again in Myitkyina Burma. The British 14^th and Merrills Marauders had cleaned out Japanese and we came in right after and flew into China (Kunming mostly) from there.  Burma Road went right through and ATC (Air Transport Command) brought in supplies to be airlifted over the "Hump" with our C-46's.

1/46: Back to Calcutta and finally assigned to a ship, U.S.S. Marine Robin that brought us home via great circle which is India through ' Straights of Malaca' (Hong Kong) up off Formosa and great circle south of Aleutians and finally into Columbia River to Vancouver, Wash.  Hit a terrible storm and entire trip was 28 days.  Got train to Devens, discharged February 1946.