Reflections of My Life by JL Byars – page 9

Here is where we had our night driving practice with only small park lights.  It was quite an experience over country we knew nothing about.  It was easy to get lost, but there were two mountains called “Turtle” and “Old Woman” that kept us pretty well oriented.  These maneuvers probably did more to prepare us for ultimate combat than had all our previous training. 

While there, we were issued passes for a few days to go home for our last time (we thought).  It was impossible to get on a passenger train, since everyone was going home, so about six or eight of us caught a freight train.

We stayed on the train until we got to El Paso, Texas then we cleaned up and got on the highway and caught rides.  We were really lucky because we were soon picked up.  We had just arrived home when we got a call to rush back to camp because we were moving out back across to the East Coast.  So we took the next train back to the desert, loaded our equipment and supplies and headed east.

Somewhere about the middle of the trip we came back through Snyder, Texas.  I would like to have gotten off but the train did not stop there.   Our destination, we learned later, was Camp Pickett, Virginia.

We arrived in Camp Pickett, which is near Blackstone, Virginia in September 1942.  Originally our plans called for embarkment early in January.  It was about this time when it was discovered that there were more than one hundred spies in the Division (some of whom were majors and generals).  Had this not been found, we would not have made it to England.  All the time here we were training every day.  We were very tired of this, but it made us better soldiers and it paid off in the long run.  All of this training seemed so useless, but later we found out why we did all of this.

Our wives came to Camp Pickett for what we thought would be a week but it extended to a year. Doris and I lived off base in Kendridge, Virginia.  We rented a bedroom and shared a kitchen with Doyis and Neta, our close friends, next door.  We ate a lot of Kraft Dinners and rice and beans.  Doris and Neta worked at the Department of Agriculture office and the farmers thought they talked “slow and funny.”

We spent our first Christmas away from home in Kendridge.  Neta and Doris went into the woods and cut a tiny tree.  We pooled our quarters with the Maikells, Neislers, and Abernathys and had coffee and cookies for Christmas at our place.  We were a happy group and times like this we will always remember.