Sumter (LST 1181) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 91 text:

,T WAS THE EEST GF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST or TIMES .fC0LD sums up our 01701'.'Ill'Ull.-4 pi-eltv We were frozen in I'VoI'Iv.'1y. soakecl in Well' , Wind chilled in Spain, nunihed III ::5gnowed on in France. ll'll0ll1l'II,Q' else, med that no matter where you went, 3 . . ' . we le hat the 1.mgi1ag'e living and working C , ! x agglewcold and wet 119 always miserable. Bravo and the tracks got tight. working ' ta1Iks as Team hlech. Every- wge52jZyZ:igpUi5i'ng Norway. wa ving at ador- qnff crowds lwe got the Hnger a lot in Ger- man 1 Bravo en joved the greatest mobility In 3,12 gettalion I except that night at Sierra De Remlllhile Team lvlech maneuvered, froze, patrolled, and threw track in the mud, MSSG truckers drove long miles with bizarre road signs and no EXX ON maps, froze, and fueled, built facilities and fixed broken vehicles III the 1-gm. They hauled the IWREE and wa ter, and sometimes hot chow. In Denmark and Germany, MSSG drove several hundred miles to support operations, tracks jumped ship to another LST and sailed on the Kiel canal and Bravo took the famed Beer Train in to the fray. Libertyin Amsterdam Was, Well, interest- ing and there was great Window shopping. Portsmouth gave us a hint of restrictions to come and Almeria was great, if a bit quiet. Valencia was last call for alcoholn but, boy did we have fun. lt seems like everytime we Went to Italv it was just for a bit, We did a night raid once north of Rome, a waste of time on a snowy beach near Venice, an aborted liberty stop in Trieste and another night north of Rome, with a hasty backload. Then we played ping pong across the Med. Toulon. l t was there. So was Col. Grinch, and he sure enough stole Christmas, but Bra- vo got left alone in the field, and it did its best training of the floa t. The wash-down at Rota wasn 't so bad af- terlibertym Toulon, and after the East Med. Handicap, I Too slow, get back!'7 we were In all too great a hurry to care. fh 'Q1arv-'- ,U 7 n 4 1 . I: I I as M Xxkx - I .95 uh M..-si I . r s ..,. ,Q , is it N6 pw' . I MW , ' Sa i' nl I ,. S 5 . ' 5' . ' It was an omen - It rained all night and all day when we loaded at Radio Island in N.C. Norway was grea t! I t was beautiful and the people were friendl v and fascinated by the maneu- VCI' S. The kids were everywhere. They brought us food and smiles and left with camouflaged covers, green- In f c s n rank Insi ma from PFC to Ca t. 00PSL so Gunny says to Lt Kuckuk. Can Idrive it7 And Les says, Sure But then there pa' ted H e 3 d l E l ' p was this car and this ditch and, well . . . ditch 3, tanks 0. I iq V gg V.,- I4. I W W X . I . . 'I V ,.W 'e . . - - A f 1 . tif 1 , . t It . M ,ft T 87

Page 93 text:

'i O0- 'ffl I' by so we After some serious training we splashed and headed back t . o the Sumter. Becaus f f d '- 510175, We sat out Morocco and tried to amuse ourselves. eo Sur can I V gif wwf adv? stuffed ourselves, shot trap and got grease on our PT But mostly We just hung around in the troop holds. 'Q-meal ,vw wwsua 1 Sumter Marines had the best llberty record m the MARG, But Bravo stH1 got stuck in the Held for Christmas. r