stories 11

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This is a true story about Sven, I know him well, leading up to an assignment to duty with the 126th Signal Service Co. in Fushimi Momoyama, Japan.

    Other ASAers may find a lot of similarity to their own experiences in this story. Let's begin Sven's story.

    In Minneapolis, Minnesota, July of 1948, at the Federal Building in downtown Minneapolis, Sven and three of his High School buddies entered the Army Recruiting office. The group had graduated in 1947 and as the saying goes, "The natives were getting restless."  The Desk Sergeant welcomed the four and after some exchange of information, informed the group that he had a special duty available if they were interested. He wetted the appetites of the young men by explaining  that it was sort of a cloak and dagger segment of the Army.

    The potential recruits glanced at each other and almost simultaneously uttered, "Yeah, we're interested."  Sven couldn't figure why each of them had to walk a straight line, heel to toe. He thought, "Maybe they want to see if we're sober." Quickly, the  Sergeant pulled a bunch of forms from his files. Each form, in triplicate, was about 12 feet long. "Fill these out completely gentlemen." said the Sergeant. Well, this was just too much for one of the four to take. He opted to join another part  of the Army.

    After all the filling out, Sven and two buddies got  the word to report to  the front of the Federal Building in a few  days to get bussed to the Milwaukee train station for a trip to basic training at Fort Knox, KY. The trip to a stopover in Chicago was uneventful. Sven was the only one in the group from Minneapolis assigned to the Army Security Agency. He had no knowledge of why the others had not been accepted at this point in time.

    The train pulled into Chicago about 7:00 PM. Some of the guys decided to go into the City during the layover. Sven and a few others decided to stay on the train and read. About 9:00 PM, the city travelers returned laughing loudly and telling of the happening. They had gone to a bar and had a few. Then, we'll call him Hector, got sick on a river bridge and lost his false teeth over the railing into the river below. Hector had a very low voice and mumbled a lot about losing his teeth. Some of the guys were in tears from laughing so hard.  It was time to hit the sack. The next morning the train pulled into Louisville.

    After  a bus trip to Fort Knox, the guys stood in line with their belongings, being assailed by

a mouthy Sergeant proclaiming ," You ladies are about to find out that you have a lot to learn." The tirade went on for about ten minutes. Then the guys hopped back on a bus and were taken to "C" company for their next home. Sven was still the only ASA connected guy in the company. He knew nothing of what to expect.

    Sven had been a drummer in High School  and in one meeting with some administrative people, it was suggested that the band was looking for members. When they found out that Sven was slated for the ASA, he was not allowed to sign up for the band. Hector, remember him? He was found asleep in a furnace room while he should have been elsewhere. He also got lost on an infiltration exercise one night. That exercise turned into a search party to find Hector. Some guy got beaten to a pulp and the perpetrators were found to be former gang members from Chicago. They were sent up to Leavenworth.

I won't dwell on all the happenings in basic, it would fill too many pages.

    Upon completing basic training, Sven was on a train heading for New Jersey. He was to report to Camp Wood To begin training as a radio intercept operator for the ASA. After getting to Red Bank, NJ, he got bussed to Camp Wood, a temporary camp of tarpaper covered, one level barracks. Each building held two rows of bunks  and two pot bellied wood stoves. It was September  and the temperatures were starting to go down.

     Not all the guys were assigned to the ASA. In Sven's barracks there were potential linemen, radio repairmen, photographers, repeater repairmen, etc., all having to do with communication.  The troops were itchy for a new  happening so a couple guys were selected to go into Red Bank and get Pizza for all who had chipped in. Sven had never tasted Pizza. It was at that time a fairly new concoction. Sven came from a largely Scandinavian culture. In fact, the avenue he had lived on was called Snoose Boulevard. The curbs were decorated with brown spittle from all the chewers. P'Tui!"Just a pinch between your cheek and gum," was the norm.

     Sven had vivid memories of the long, black coated older men putting a finger to the side of their nose and blowing a chartreuse stream. Some to the ground and the other down the front of their coats in the Winter.  Back to camp.  One afternoon, with the troops returning from classes, a water fight broke out in Sven's barracks. There were stirrup pump fire extinguishers at each end of the barracks. It was Winter and the stoves were almost red hot. Of course, the water hitting them changed the barracks into a steam room. Lots of cleaning bills were the result of the thoughtless drenching.

    Sven and two other Camp Wood inmates got kicked out of a Red Bank roller rink for going too fast. Sven was accustomed to a larger rink back home. Sven and another guy went to New York city. The two went to the top of the Empire State Building and ogled the women there as the skirts blew up and over their heads in the wind. Sven and the other guy parted because Sven was not interested in finding someone to shack up with. Sven stayed at the YMCA and went to many movies as well as taking a walk through the Bowery.

    Sven loved Opera so he bought a ticket to Rigoletto at the old Met building. That night, Sven found himself sitting next to a rather frumpy dowager and her young woman relative. They seemed to be uncomfortable sitting next to a uniform. Sven had a side balcony seat and at the time, 1949, he paid $7.00 plus for the seat. Leonard Warren sang the lead. The performance was excellent. The next day was check out time at the "Y". Another ride back to camp on an ancient passenger train smelling of bug spray was quite an experience.

    On another afternoon with a foot of snow on the ground, the guys in Sven's barracks, including Sven, stripped to their birthday suits and ran through the snow to the shower building  across the road. It was a great high stepping ballet. The trip back exhibited a bunch of steaming flesh, screaming fools.  The next Spring, Sven got moved to the main barracks at Fort Monmouth. He was nearing the end of his training and decided to try out for the battalion Track Meet. He had run High Hurdles in High School. Surprisingly he won second place, then he tried the High Jump. He ended up in the hospital with a Hernia after straining to get over the pole at 5'-6".. Sven did get to shake hands with the Commanding General as he was presented with a track medal on the Parade Field.

    The day after surgery, Sven was up doing some KP. Another Hernia recipient, a Lieutenant  from the CID, kept Sven laughing. That hastened the healing. Sven got  moved to a ward with 20 men  from various military services. One night they all decided to give the nurses a bad time by each making the noises of a different farm animal. The mooing, oinking, cackling and such brought the head nurse to tears and she had to get the O.D. to come in and give the ward the riot act.

    Out of the hospital, Sven found out that he could go to Mitchell field and get a hop home. Sven got to the field one night and snoozed on a park bench near the terminal. His flight would leave at 6:30 AM.  It was late Spring and fairly warm  The plane was a twin engine, C-45,

7 passenger. The pilot was a Captain and the Co-Pilot a Master Sgt. Another passenger, a hefty Lieutenant, sat across from Sven. Sven was directly behind the pilot. They circled out over the bay and headed for Indiana. Sven would need to take a train from there to Minneapolis. An hour into the flight, the pilot and co-pilot were sweating, flying on instruments  through a thunderstorm. The circular windshield wipers had no effect.

    It was a roller coaster ride with the plane suddenly dropping 500 ft. The Lieutenant was a nervous wreck. Sven asked the pilot, "What field will we land on?" The pilot said, "I've never landed there before, it's an old emergency landing strip used in WW2, all grass from what I hear."  When we got to the field, the pilot flew over once to eye the field. On landing, the plane hedgehopped three times before coming to a shuddering rest  near the small terminal building. It was the first time Sven had seen anyone kiss the ground. That was the first thing done by the Lieutenant on getting off the plane.    

Cont'd on stories 12.