The Return Home
As the ship reached the halfway point across the Atlantic, something else happened. A second bomb was dropped on Japan at Nagasaki.
Finally, the Japanese were forced to surrender!
The Marine Devil was the very first troop ship to arrive in Boston Harbor after the Japanese surrender. The city was jumping with joy and eager to welcome the first returning veterans.
John remembers several things distinctly from that day. The fireboats in the harbor were spraying their welcome jets into the air,
And, there was a Broadway type show being performed with singing and dancing on the top deck of an aircraft carrier right there in the bay for the soldiers to see as they sailed in.
His strongest memory, though, was the item the Red Cross handed him as he left the ship – an ice cold glass of American milk !! *
*Drinking milk during the war was forbidden because it is so easily poisoned.
Photo credits: Unless otherwise indicated, all photos on this site
are from the private collection of John C. Crews.
Certain photos are reproduced courtesy of the Franklin Roosevelt Library.
Official Army photos by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. are reproduced
from the original booklets and materials.
The photo of the "Marine Devil" ship is courtesy of Bruce T. Doll, www.imagesofvision.com.
All graphics, photographs, and text on this site are ©2020, David P. Crews, unless otherwise noted.
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