341st Harbor Craft

David “Bud” Besser thought he’d be sent to Japan after getting into the European war late.

We walked halfway to the Rhine River, which is on the Belgian-German border. We were briefly in Patton’s Army, and we went through Luxembourg on the way to Germany and we went to the Rhine River just before the end of the war. I was 19 years old, I think, at the time. The teenagers were sent back to Paris. We went back to France and retrained because we were heading for Japan. Because it was the end of the European War, they took the guys who hadn’t been overseas too long and that included me because I had only been over eight months at the time; they were intending we go to Japan. At the time the United States dropped the two nuclear bombs. The war was over.

In Basic Training I did some bookkeeping training and instead of sending me to Japan I was sent to Berlin. I was among the first American troops in Berlin. It was sheer anarchy. It was the first time in six years they had ever been at peace and the Generals didn’t know what to do.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2019/11/12/niles-treasure-of-veterans-and-their-stories-loses-its-curator-but-marches-forward/

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From CGJ Orders: (Reeves file)

From CGJ Orders dated 13-Jul-44 (Bridgeford file): Ross, Jack J., WOJG

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