James T. Lingg - WWII - 18 January 1943
Page 1 Enlistment

Lyle Kammeyer, Douglas Pressenell and I got on a bus the morning of 18 January 1943, the day we were sworn into the Army. At the time we were inducted in, we also had the privilege of returning home to settle our private affairs, if we were accepted. I believe it was a 5 or 7 day delay, but it would cost against our leave eventually.

Doug decided he wanted to go home to get his things straightened out but Lyle wanted to go on so I decided I would go on too. We were all Privates. Lyle was appointed the Senior Private of five men and he was to get us all to Fort Douglas, Utah.

We were really fortunate. On the train we were given a sleeper, not just a sleeper but a small roomette plus two bunks. A boy named L., Lyle and I all rode in the little roomette. It was only an overnight trip so it wasn't a big deal, but it was a break.

At Fort Douglas, when we were issued our uniforms and given all our assignments, Lyle, L. and I all looked at our dog tags. The dog tags had letters stamped on them. Mine had a "P", "A" and the year of my birth. In my mind, I had that "A" all figured out. I was going to the Armored. Lyle said "No, you're not going to the Armored, that 'A' means something else, I don't know what." He was right, it meant I had blood type "A".

When we left Fort Douglas on the train, Lyle was on what looked like an antique, second class car. It had no sleepers at all and it was so old they had a big stove at each end of the car they stoked up to keep warm on the move. There was no steam heat in his unit at all and his car was attached, as I remember, right next to mine. Maybe there were a couple of cars in between. I don't think so.

The car I was on was a standard Pullman car. At night our bunks were made up just like anybody riding on the train. Poor old Lyle had to sit up and ride all night long with no way to lie down at all, they were packed in so heavy.

When the train stopped, I went back to tell Lyle good-bye because I was sure they were going to disconnect us and Lyle would go his way and I would go mine. Lyle said good-bye. I went forward to my own unit. We started out and after a considerable distance we stopped again. I thought I had better go back and make sure Lyle did get off back there. Lo and behold! Lyle was still with us. I told him "Hey, I love to see you, how far are you going to ride with us?" Lyle would say "You can't be coming back here and telling me good-bye all the time, it's embarrassing". For five or six more stops I managed to go back and tell Lyle "Well, this is it, probably good-bye now". Finally, we made a stop in them middle of the night and the train was separated.

Lyle went his way and I went mine. We didn't see each other again until after the war was over and we had returned to Moscow, Idaho. We wrote letters back and forth and kept in contact.

Lyle was the one person who told my Mother that she should not worry when I was missing in action, that I was probably over there in Paris, down in some Bistro, under one of the big hotels, probably drinking booze with the French and having a gay old time. He told her, "Don't you worry, he'll show up". He gave Mother a lot of support during that period, which I really appreciated. I think he was the only one who really felt like, "They can't do anything to Jim Lingg, he's too mean or 'ornery to get killed over there".

Lyle liked to work with aircraft and they assigned him to Kelly Field in Texas. Because I wanted to go to the Armored, I was assigned to Camp Hood, Texas, which was a school for the tank destroyer people. I had it in my mind I was going to drive a tank destroyer.

I took my Basic Training at Camp Hood, which was basically learning how to do "left turn", "right turn", "left face", "right face" and "about face". We learned how to salute and how to climb through barbed wire strung through muddy fields. More of an induction of what we were going to see later in life. And conditioning, we were constantly being conditioned.

We spent about three months down there, 13 weeks. I had about eight weeks Basic Training, nothing but soldiering, how to handle a rifle, how to shoot, how to bayonet. From there I had five weeks of driving a half-track and truck. I thought, "Well at least I'm back driving a truck or half-track". I didn't get into driving the tank destroyer.

After we completed our unit training, we were all sent in different directions by train. Most of us went to Shenango Personnel Replacement Depot, at Greenville, Pennsylvania. The name of this Depot was changed to Camp Reynolds September 21, 1943

On the trip north to Shenango, every time we went through a town, the M.P.s would come in and pull the shades or blinds so no one could see in and we would not see out. In Pittsburgh, PA one of our companions peeked out through the blind and yelled "Hey that’s my brother!" The same soldier had told us he lived only a few blocks from the station before we arrived. He went immediately to the door and told the M.P.s his brother was out there and they let him stand on the platform and talk with his brother until the train pulled out, which proved M.P.s can be nice people at times.

At Shenango, when we got off the train, at the first formation, they lined us up and said, very carefully, "There are no furloughs from here, if you want to see your parents, if you want to see your lover, or if you want to see anybody before you go overseas, you better go over the fence." They pointed out the area where the guards weren't too good and that's where we were to go over then fence if we wanted to take a furlough, but they said, "Whatever you do, don't stay over 30 days because after 30 days, you'll be a deserter". I didn't even think about going back home, my thoughts were to go on and get the war over with.

There was a guy taking care of one of the Officer's Barracks. He got his overseas orders so had to move out. When we fell out for formation one morning, the Sergeant in Charge wanted to know if anybody wanted to take care of the Officer's Quarters. Of course, nobody wanted to do that, so since I was one of the smallest guys in the outfit, he pointed to me and said, "come over here". I went and he said, "As of now, you are the 'Dog Robber', you are to take care of the Officer's Quarters, you clean the quarters and when they put their shoes down, you get them shined and fix them up. Other than that, your day is your own. You can do anything you want to and they pay you for it. If you don't like it you can probably get off of it by complaining, but I'll make your life so miserable you'll wish you hadn't." So I became the "Dog Robber" for a short period.

Then we received the orders to load up again. We went to the dentist, we sat there until 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon before they got to us to clean our teeth and fix what cavities we had. I had 5 cavities and I had an awfully sore mouth before I got on the train.

We went to Camp Patrick Henry near Newport News, Virginia. The only thing I remember about Newport News was the large mess halls. They had a mess hall so large it seemed like they were eating all day long and well into the night.