Foster had started this in December of 1943 when he passed his draft physical in Harrisburg and asked to be assigned to the Marine Corps. That afternoon he was sent to the recruiting office in Philadelphia where he was discharged from his draft obligation, joined the Marine Reserve and began his 27 months duty. He was given a weeks leave and told to report to Paris Island, South Carolina for boot training where he and two other recruits over thirty were called "Pops." Surprisingly, he was in better shape than most of them, had no real trouble with the training and, even more surprising to him since he had never fired a rifle in his life, won an Expert Rifleman Badge "which had the big advantage of paying me and extra $5.00 a month."

After a two-week leave over Easter where "everybody got to see my new uniform" he was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps at Camp Lejuene and sent to school. For the next year he spent every day counting equipment, "everything from 155 MM Artillery pieces to springs for hand gun triggers." Here he was made a corporal, the rank he held the rest of his duty time. By now it was past VE Day and his next assignment was no real surprise since Marine Corps Commander, General Vandergrift, had made the statement that "everybody in the Corps is either in he Pacific or headed there" preparing for the invasion of Japan. He was placed aboard a troop train to San Diego where they boarded a Navy APA and headed for Pearl Harbor. He was in Honolulu on VJ Day. But the Marine Corps had been preparing for he invasion of Japan since Iwo Jima and Operation Olympic continued, aimed at a landing on the Island of Kyushu in the Japanese homeland. Foster and his group were flown to Hilo on the Island of Hawaii - his first airplane ride - where they were assigned to the Eighth Field Depot and Service Regiment supporting the 2nd and 5th Marine Divisions. Any chance that they would be pulled off of this work was ended by their Major and a couple of Colonels who "wanted the duty in Japan to show on their service records." They loaded two LSTs (Landing Ship Tank) ready for a combat landing and most of the men, except for Foster and a few others, were seasick during the two-week ride to Sasebo. They had no idea what to expect and the combat companies landed fully armed with guns loaded and at the ready, lined up in combat columns on either side of the street. They met no opposition. Foster says, "We soon learned that the people were sick and tired of the war and just wanted it over." The city had been fire bombed twice and was largely in ruins.

Now began six months of occupation duty. After assurance that there would be no armed resistance, the men with a lot of discharge points were assigned to the 5th Division and sent home. Low point men, including Foster, were assigned to the 2nd Division and prepared for long range occupation duty by moving into a Japanese Navy School where they stayed for the six months they spent at Sasebo. They got many reports of the preparations that had been made to repel an invasion and Foster says "thank heaven Harry Truman had enough sense to drop the bomb" because the casualties would have been huge on both sides. Foster was assigned to the Shipping and Receiving Section and worked as a dock master supervising the unloading of food and other supplies from ships and then loading them onto box cars for shipment throughout the island. This went on 24 hours a day, seven days a week with dock masters working 8 hour shifts every day ships were in port. But during their time off they were not permitted to leave Sasebo to inspect the nearby ruins at Nagasaki and were not supposed to fraternize with the Japanese civilians. This order was largely ignored, especially when it came to Itchy and Butch, two young teenagers who ran errands and did laundry. Within a few weeks, most of their stevedore crews were made up of Japanese civilians. Some crews were all men; others all women; others mixed. Foster relates, "When we had mixed crews, the men made the women do all the work while they stood around and watched." The dock masters reversed this procedure and "the men didn't like that at all."

By March he had enough points to get discharged and he and 25 others were put on board the USS Panamint, a communication ship, and headed for Pearl Harbor. "The trip was great because we were headed home" except for one rough day when they were served spaghetti which shortly became "a mess" all over the decks. The ship was Admiral Turner's temporary flagship and he wanted to see Iwo Jima so a detour allowed Foster to see that island. After one day for refueling in Pearl Harbor they headed for Treasure Island, California. Here they boarded a train headed for Great Lakes Naval Training Station where he was discharged on April 9, 1946. He was 34 years old.

While at Great Lakes he called a friend to arrange for someone from Harpel's Studio to be at the railroad station with a camera to record his arrival back in Lebanon. He boarded the Broadway Limited in Chicago and two days later arrived in Harrisburg late at night. He called his friend and next morning the photographer was there when he arrived at the railroad station to a tremendous greeting from his wife and children. The only glitch in this welcome was that his son, who was only 2 when he left, didn't recognize him. Within a few days he went back to his old job at the foundry. Here his military experience was put to good use when he convinced the management that they should stop "dumping material on a pile and we palletized everything" as they had in Japan. He became the head of purchasing and procurement, the job he held until his retirement in 1976 after 48 years. He also returned to his long time connection with the Boy Scouts where he is still active. He became active in the Marine Corps League and is currently Chaplain for his chapter. In addition he has written four books about his experience including "The History of the Eighth Field Depot and Eighth Service Regiment" which he completed in 1989.

And what did Foster get out of all this experience? "Well, looking back, I probably wouldn't have left the family at the time but, it was an experience I could not have had any other way."

Written by Richard "Dick" Evans.

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