My father, Pat Noble, was drafted on 7 Jan 1943 at the age of nineteen. He had a choice to enter the service immediately or take a one week furlough to settle family affairs. He chose the latter option. He wanted to take his mother, Kathryn L (Carr) Noble, up to see her father, George N Carr, but arrangements couldn't be made. Instead, Pat went with his father and brother John up to New York City for a few days.
They stayed at the Barbizon Plaza Hotel at 106 Central Park South. Robert J Noble showed them all around Manhattan, mainly on foot, mostly around Central Park, but also to the Battery and a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Robert knew lots of stores, etc. Robert was with his kids the whole time and they never saw any relatives. Robert suggested that they cut the trip short for the sake of Pat's mother, who would want to spend time with her son before he left for the service.
Training
Pat went to the induction center at Camp Lee, a staging area near Petersburg, VA. He went by troop train to Miami Beach, FL, where he spent about three weeks in training. At the end of this brief boot camp, Pat received his assignment to join a military police unit training north of Charleston, SC. He travelled by troop train to a base called Ten Mile, located about ten miles between Charleston and Summerville, SC. The site is now Charleston Airport.
The new arrivals from Miami were supposed to be grouped with a unit shipping out immediately, but at the last minute they were attached to the 1124th Military Police (Army Air Corps) instead and remained at Ten Mile for an additional three and a half months of much needed training.
Pat and four others shared a tent at Ten Mile: Don Dupree (Milwaukee, WI), Ted Glover (Clifton Forge, VA), Eli Rafal (Norfolk, VA) and J J Burns (Milwaukee, WI). Burns was about forty yrs old, the owner of a Buick dealership where Don had worked in Milwaukee (or a Buick dealership associated with the one where Don worked). Don Dupree had been in Miami when Pat was there, but they didn't become acquainted until Ten Mile.
Don introduced my father by mail to his younger sister, Elaine Mary Dupree, and they corresponded throughout the war. The relationship warmed and they married promptly upon Pat's return.
Transportation to the Pacific Theater
The 1124th received orders to the Pacific Theater, where they would guard air bases associated with General Douglas McArthur's operations against the Japanese. McArthur had been forced from the Philippines and was regrouping in Australia. Pat's unit left South Carolina by troop train and assembled at California's Camp Stoneman.
A river boat took them to San Francisco Bay, where they boarded the troop ship SS Matsonia (former S S Malolo). En route to Australia they landed in Auckland, New Zealand, where they stayed a couple of days. The local economy wasn't prepared for all the relatively "wealthy" American troops, who ordered up 16 cent steak and egg breakfasts and similar bargains.
Australia
Upon its arrival, the 1124th was assigned for a few weeks at Amberly Field at Ipswich, which is located about forty miles WSW of Brisbane, a major city Australia's east coast. Pat's unit was transferred to Eagle Farm air base at Brisbane, where he was stationed about a year and a half to two years.
While stationed in Brisbane, Pat became well acquainted with the Edgar family: Harry "Pop" Edgar and wife Cass, their son Henry and his wife Doss, and Henry's daughter Gayl. Pat also had his first sinus surgery there.
Pat then spent a year at Garbutt Field in Townsville, Australia. The Edgars came north to visit him while he was stationed in Townsville.(Pop Edgar, then his son Henry, both died not long after Pat left Australia.)
New Guinea
General McArthur and the Allies conducted the New Guinea campaign from Australia. Sometime in the spring of 1945, after the Battle of Biak, Pat was flown from Australia to Biak, a large island in the Schouten Islands off the northern coast of New Guinea to serve the last few months of the war. He joined his friends Ted Glover and Eli Rafal, who were already there.
During Pat's stay, a Japanese plane dropped five or six bombs on the three airstrips there and killed about two hundred fifty persons. Japanese soldiers living in the nearby hills would regularly come and steal food at the base.
Going Home
Pat, Eli, and Ted boarded a ship for home, stopping briefly [but not disembarking from the ship] at Finschhafen en route to San Francisco. An assignment to provide military police services in Tokyo was in the offing towards the end of the war, but they received their discharges instead. They caught a train east to Fort Bragg, NC, where they left the service. They caught a train together to Norfolk. Pat arrived home 28 December 1945.
Pat walked home, used his door key to enter the house, seeing his mother cooking at the stove in the kitchen for the first time in three years.
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