MEMOIRS PART 21 - RETURN HOME

I left Bad Kissingen some time in early May of 1946 and headed for the port of embarkation at Le Havre, France. I have no recollection of the mode of transportation, the route, or the arrival. The only thing I can remember about the trip to Le Havre is that when I got there, I boarded the ship which was to take us across the Atlantic. There were about 200 enlisted men and about 20 officers in the group to which I was assigned. We were all on our way to the Army installation nearest our home address. Mine was Fort Douglas, near Salt Lake City.

A Lt. Colonel I had known in Bad Kissingen was in charge of the group and I was his first assistant. After we were all on board, accounted for, and assigned quarters, it was necessary to collect all the foreign money and exchange it for dollars. I was put in charge of this operation and all went as scheduled until we were handing out the dollars, when suddenly one of the men angrily and loudly proclaimed that he had been shortchanged.

It developed that this man had turned in several hundred of what he had described as shillings, and I had given him dollars at the current exchange rate of 20¢ per shilling. When I had taken him aside and calmed him down I found that the money he had turned in was in Austrian Schillings, which were worth about twice as much as British shillings. I gave him the extra dollars and he seemed mollified, but I suspect that he still thought I was trying to cheat him.

I do not remember anything about the ocean voyage or even the arrival in New York. I only know it was New York because I spent a few days there being processed for the train trip to Utah.

This was a troop train run by the Army's transportation specialists and there were several hundred men aboard, all en route to an Army discharge center. I remember little about the trip. We probably stopped many times to pick up and release men but my memory fails me.

Some time in late May 1946 we arrived in Salt Lake City, and I made my way to Fort Douglas. I stayed there a day or so before being processed for discharge.

At that time, the Army gave a promotion to all officers who had left held their rank for a year or more. So I was promoted to Lt. Col. effective May 27, 1946. I had accrued leave time of 113 days so in effect I was still in the army until September 15 1946, but relieved of all duties. The Army paid me the salary of a Lt. Col. during that time as well as a subsistence allowance for housing and meals. They also paid me the bonus of $500 per year for my first three years of service, as promised when I enlisted in 1941.

I called my parents when all this had been completed. They drove to Fort Douglas to pick me up, and we drove back to Grantsville.