VJ Day

I was in Kemnitz, Germany. I was in South Hampton, loading the Queen Mary when the Japanese surrendered. Another thing on VJ day, puzzled. I never saw so many fireworks over the harbor, over the bay than that night. Where those GI’s got all of the fireworks, I’ll never know. They weren’t fireworks – they were machine gun shells! And everything of that nature. The sky was all lit up. But where these GI’s – we called them GI’s, government issued, enlisted men/personnel.

Where they got all the ammunition, I’ll never know. But I stood on the decks of Queen Mary and the whole sky lit up with machine gun fire. They were celebrating the dropping of the atomic bomb. That’s what they were doing.

We were married in Columbus, Georgia and the Supply Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, a GI, I guess it was my last day at work; I was a Captain at the time. He said, ‘The Captain will have a need for some linens.’ And he had scrounged linens. He took bed sheets and cut them in half. And he turned in two halves and got two whole sheets! He scrounged that way. These GI’s will do that! So he gave me two solid sheets, which he had gotten from the supply, you know. They are full of those things!

So where they got all the ammunition to light up the harbor, I will never know.