The discomfort of the troopship was even worse than the troop train. We did the best we could with what was available, which was not much of any thing. Couple of days out the weather got hot. We started to wear tee-shirts and fatigues. The food was bad, we gagged on warm hot dogs, powered potatoes and the poor man's answer to meat, "Spam". Heavy security was understood, no lights were to appear through the port holds and hatches. Of course the smoking lamp was suppose to be out, but on deck at night you could see all kinds of "fireflys". Everyone was cupping a cigarette or pipe. Down below decks was better known as "Hell", hot was not the word. Tempers were also short, occasional fights would break out just to let off steam. Stripped to the waist, sweat poured off our bodies. If a guy wanted to write a letter or read he went in to the head, the light was a little better in there, the smell was not. Some of the guys did not have their sea legs yet, so they were still throwing up their cookies. There were crap games, poker games, even some checkers and chess games. Lots of guessing and bulling about where we were headed to.

We had lifeboat drills, just in case we were hit by something. We did calisthenics in the mornings and afternoons, to keep us from killing each other and to keep us in top form. We formed our own fun, with guys singing, playing an instrument, boxing and wrestling matches.

All good organizations have their spies, finks and tongue waggers, as to where we where headed. It took awhile to pinpoint a place called "New Guinea". Most of us had no idea where that was, we had a general thought that they were still fighting there. So ended the espionage on the ship.

After about three to five weeks, depending on the row boat you were on, we pulled into Oro Bay. Here we disembarked from our temporary home on the sea, over the side and into DUWKs (ducks). The ducks are an amphibious craft that would take us to our new temporary home. Cruising along we saw all kinds of equipment and supplies stacked up and ready to move where it was needed. Down the road a piece we came to our camp site, which of course had a weird sounding name, "Buna-Dobodura". We would be hearing more weird and wild names that would be hard to pronounce. We got out of the ducks and were for the first time in a long time on dry land. Some of the guys kissed the ground, some just spat on it. If we thought the hole of the ship was hot we had another guess coming. Sweat hit us and we were sopping wet in a short period of time. This was our home away from home, jungles, mountains, biting mosquitoes, wooly houses, and Fuzzy-Wuzzy natives. Like all good soldiers in the field we had to have a place to sleep so up went the canvas. Almost like the big top in a circus we put up the tents for our fun out of the sun.

We were about to learn that chow on the ship was not all that bad, though by hook or crook some fresh fruit and meat was obtained on occasions, some by negotiations, trading or midnight acquiescence. Other than that we learned a new word "C" and "K" rations. Work was the key word for everyone. The engineers built everything one could imagine, from mess halls to showers, out of materials that were readily available and some that were not. Streets were laid out, day rooms were built, 3.2 beer was acquired for the recreation of the troops. Hidden in the tall Kunai grass was a few stills, yes we had a couple of mountain boys who remembered their pappy's teachin. Pretty good stuff if I do say so myself.

Jump school was reopened, to train as many jumpers as we could get qualified. Just in case we had to make a mass divisional jump we needed as many men trained as paratroopers as we could get. Joe Swing wanted it to happen and it happened. Almost 75 percent of the entire division, officers as well as enlisted personnel, were qualified to jump. Other training schools, such as demolitions, heavy equipment operators, artillery spotters, special group training, even jeep drivers and truck drivers were trained. Also glider training classes were taught, we were going to be a very unique well trained division.

Sometime towards the end of August and into September we played more duck and gator games, better known as amphibious landings at Oro Bay. We also took jungle training, learning how to eat off the jungle and move in it. It was run by the Aussie's in another one of the weird name places, "Higatura". Lots of the boys got to go through it and it was a good school to say the least. Tarzan would have been proud of us, not to sure about Cheetah.

Artillery was blowing holes all over the place in practice, did a pretty good job of laying down barrages where we wanted them, not on us. More games included "Battalion Combat Team". To tell the truth we burned up a lot of ammo, destroyed lots of trees and grass in the area we were playing in.

General Joe had the engineers build a nice arena for the talent shows which included Division Bands, boxing shows, mistral shows, comics, singers and dancers. Some of these acts were better than a Broadway show. Also we had some of the top talent come to us through the USO. Jack Benny, Larry Adler, Lanny Ross, Martha Tilton, Jane Brunner and Carole Landis.

Around the early days of September rumors of a move became a reality. We started to break down all the goodies we had installed and pack them away in crates. We also started to load equipment, ammo, rations and vehicles into the hold of ships that were to take us to our first real action in combat. Sometime around the second week in October, 1944 we went on another cruise. This time it was for Leyte, and the fun and games were over. We were to travel on ships manned and operated by the Navy. These swabbies ate good and so did we, real food, milk, and service was great. Protection for us was by several destroyers, we had no problems to speak of, some minor alerts, nothing more.

A lot of thoughts were going on in each man, from praying, to can I do what I have been trained to do. Talk was about everything a person can think about, wives, girlfriends, family back home. We were ready to do what we came to do and do it in the way that the pride we had in our outfit and ourselves would allow us to show we were the best. We would prove this to be a fact and we would always be proud we did it far beyond anyone's expectations of us.