00:00:02.470 - 00:00:23.049

Well, we were in the personnel office in the headquarters, the personnel office, uh ranking non commissioned officer was Harry Cavalier in the headquarters with George Caruso. Think a pretty routine in both these offices except around the first of the month when it was payday. It was

00:00:23.059 - 00:00:39.569

a case of getting the payrolls and orders signed and paying the listed men at the headquarters office. Things were usually quiet until there was any moves. Then it was hectic and we had to work day and night, particularly when we're on the move such as from

00:00:39.580 - 00:00:55.520

Fort Bragg to camp shanks from Camp Shanks. We went to Fort Devins for Fort Devins. We went back to Camp Kilmer and from there, we went on the boat to England and on the boat, it was also hectic because our office was assigned to the stern

00:00:55.529 - 00:01:12.650

where the propellers were. And every time that boat took a zig and A Z E, we can start to get seasick to George Russo finally gave her something to quiet our stomachs. Now we got to England. Things got more or less routine until we moved from

00:01:12.660 - 00:01:29.319

campsite to campsite. Then they were more hectic when we started to redeploy the men to various units and then we gave them all back together into one unit again for our return to the States. Then we got to the States. It was another hectic thing. So

00:01:29.330 - 00:01:46.779

we all disbanded and went our separate ways 1946 after we were all discharged from the service, half a dozen of us enlisted men got together in a hotel room in New York City. And we went out, we had a nice time amongst ourselves and we said,

00:01:46.790 - 00:02:02.419

gee it'd be nice if we had a reunion of all the enlisted men. But our big problem was getting the names. We contacted Marvin Nussbaum who had been working in, in, in the headquarters of his first sergeant's office and he had quite a few names. So

00:02:02.430 - 00:02:20.690

we compiled a roster and we contacted the members. And in 1947 we had our first reunion in Union City, New Jersey and we had premier 100 men turn out from. Then we went on each year holding reunions mostly in the New York City, New Jersey area.

00:02:20.699 - 00:02:39.770

Frank Holt was the one who was instrumental in putting on these reunions till he went to Georgie was transferred there in about 20 years ago. And I took it on myself then to keep things moving. And Red mcmanus helped me and we started putting on a

00:02:39.779 - 00:03:03.039

reunion in Washington, Pennsylvania in Washington, Rachel, Martin Loftus helped us. We had a very large turnout in Washington in the 19 sixties. And this reunion now is our 34th annual reunion, which is surprising because it's 35 years since World War Two ended. And we've had a

00:03:03.050 - 00:03:22.789

reunion for every year for 34 years. We hope to continue to have many more of the reunions, even though many of our members have passed away. We have a list of all the members and we also have a list of all the ones that have deceased

00:03:24.059 - 00:03:43.710

and we have more than 110 members have passed away. And each year the list grows, we hope to continue as long as we can in England, we were busy. It was not without, without his lighter moments. One day after wars were being made, the headquarters personnel

00:03:43.720 - 00:04:02.990

crew and the other members of T 40 decided to have their own award ceremony, but I won't tell you what was on the medals that were awarded. You will see for yourself the award ceremony coming up. I can remember this particular day in Malvern England when

00:04:03.000 - 00:04:25.750

we were going from one unit to the other officers quarters and enlisted men quarters were separated from the hospital by a dirt road about a quarter of a mile to a half a mile long. This one particular day I was going down to the hospital and

00:04:26.549 - 00:04:51.799

I met Major Leo Alexander coming the other way. He was pumping up the hill and I was going down the hill and Major Alexander seemed to be a, a man that went for military courtesy. So, uh I wondered whether I should throw him a salute and

00:04:51.809 - 00:05:06.660

I said, yes, this would be the time to do it. So I threw him a real military salute and he had a package in his left hand and was pumping up the hill and he saluted me with his right hand. And needless to say he had

00:05:06.670 - 00:05:25.010

to do that by taking his hands off the handle bars. And I went on my merry way, but he wound up in a ditch after many sessions of close order drill with the nurses at Fort Bragg. I figured that there was no problem when I was

00:05:25.019 - 00:05:42.019

told at Fort Devins that we were going to have a formal retreat and I thought that the nurses would probably be ready to take their part. But to my chagrin when uh we had a couple of practices up there, I found that they had more or

00:05:42.029 - 00:06:00.839

less forgotten all that I had taught them at, at Fort Bragg. So I had to call them together. And one day I was up on a garbage rack down there and told them that they were spending more time worrying about their date last night or how

00:06:00.850 - 00:06:19.279

they were going to pin their hair up today rather than keeping their mind on what was going on. But uh after a couple more sessions up at Fort Bragg at Fort Devins, I should say, I think that you can see by the formal retreat that we

00:06:19.290 - 00:06:43.910

finally stood at Fort Devins that they really did themselves proud. At the 65th. We had many, many bad moments, but it also had its lighter moments. I can recall many, many evenings at the Sergeant's Club when we had some alcohol that was supplied by the pharmacy.

00:06:44.959 - 00:07:15.709

And Sergeant Horgas supplied the grape juice and we concocted a drink which we, uh, called Purple Jesus. And we'd sit around drinking the various, this drink out of our canteen cups. And we had our stunning moments that were, uh, occasions when, uh, we have a few

00:07:15.720 - 00:07:36.440

drinks. And I can recall one night when Happy Nut announced that he had to go to the latrine after he'd had one or two of these, uh, canteen cups full of purple Jesus. And, uh, he got up and took one step towards the door and fell

00:07:36.450 - 00:07:43.980

flat on his face. That is the results of drinking purple Jesus.