Rotation of personnel had been going on since Bougainville. Four or five from our company end of each month. Names pulled out of a hat. In mid-month, one of the four remaining original 6814 task force members came into the shop, a bit angry. He was loud about the fact that we were still overseas. Our Lieutenant came in and joined the conversation. He assured us that it was all a matter of chance, that he had seen the names pulled out of a hat at the end of each month lottery.

The irate fellow - Bill Reardon - let it be known in no uncertain terms that the thing was a hoax and crooked. Lt. Bernstein was equally vehement that it was on the up and up. So Bill sat down and wrote - six names. Handed it to the Lieutenant and said here's the ones who are on the April list. The Lieutenant said, "We'll see, but we've never had more than five men on a monthly list."

At the end of April, the six names were posted. The Lieutenant got Bill and me aside, apologized, told us he had asked for a transfer out of the company. Joe Ritz and Bill Reardon made the May list, two of three men.

We were hurried through a clothing and equipment check, told what to take and what to leave behind. (It was here that I left the Army issue Hamilton watch. The new section head got it, though he tried to convince me to keep it.) In a day and a half we were on board our transport.

We had about three hours before sailing. First order of business was to open our barracks bags for inspection. The corporal doing the check notified me that I was short three T-shirts, a couple pair of socks and "that bath towel looks pretty ratty." I got a stack of replacements.

Behind me was a medic sergeant. At his inspection he nervously mentioned that he had a signal corps compass, never issued to him but given as a gift by a soldier whose leg wound he had treated. The corporal doing the checking told him to put it in his pocket. "If you turn it in to me I'll go home with a compass." It was then that I wished I had kept the Hamilton.

On May 30, 1945 we steamed out of Cebu harbor. We had no escort and were alone in the Pacific, heading East. We stopped at Pearl Harbor but couldn't leave ship, though we were there two days. One of the ship's crew laughingly explained they were afraid we'd desert and stow away on a tub going back to "your beloved Philippines." We arrived at San Francisco on June 27. We got off the train in New Jersey and were trucked to Fort Dix. A day or two there and on July 9 I received my separation papers, one hundred dollars (part of my mustering out pay), and $22.90 travel pay.

My girlfriend had met me at Fort Dix on the first day. We had several hours together and I would have had ample opportunity to pass contraband (again the Hamilton watch) to her. On the last morning before discharge we were all taken into one room, told to strip naked and put any personal belongings into a box with our name on it. The box was carried to the next room and we followed it, still stripped. In the next room we received a complete set of clothes, top to bottom, with extras and were bid "Goodbye" after claiming our box contents.