First stop: Induction Center Ft. Wayne at Detroit, on to Camp Grant, Illinois, then Ft. Leonard Wood, Rolla, Missouri. Next: Westover Field, Chicopee Falls, Mass. where the supply Sgt. issued us winter clothes and immediately said, "Oh Lord! We're going to the tropics".
Luckily, before we left for Angel Island, Ft. McDowell and the Philippines, my mother and girl friend visited me. The next time I saw them was in October 1945; four years later at Mayo Army Hospital, Galesburg, Illinois where I was being debriefed and certified sane and treated for stomach ulcers and malnutrition.
My girl friend had waited for me and we have been married, happily for fifty-three years.
My father had kept the business going, so I had a job and was able to raise five children who have turned out to be fine adults. In turn they have produced eight grandchildren and two great grands. Now, we are 'ancients' 78 and 82 years. They spoil us in every way. Life is good; but the hard road from the Bataan Death March to Mukden is never forgotten.
June 1941 Drafted into service. Left behind, my close family, girl friend and a growing marine construction business with my father.
Smith "Bub" Merrill