James T. Lingg - WWII
Page 2 - Enroute to North Africa

On June 6, 1943, they decided it was time to go overseas, so we loaded onto the train and rode the rails down to the docks in Newport News. We weren't allowed to have our shades up. We were completely blocked in, we couldn't be seen.

I rode the Miss America which was renamed the West Point during the war days. As we started up the gangplank, they called the last name and we answered with our first name and middle initial. It would sound like "Lingg" and I would answer "James T." then walk up the plank. We had a physical just before we went up the gangplank. I had a hernia, a small one that had apparently opened up during my training at Camp Hood, Texas. They wanted to keep me stateside. I told them "No, no", so they let me go on overseas.

We left on the 7^th of June. It was a ship that traveled without a convoy. It was a very fast ship and changed its direction about every 5 or 10 minutes so it was constantly moving back and forth. The West Point was a luxury liner that had been converted and I was fortunate enough to be well above the water line on one of the main decks in one of the staterooms. Our stateroom had a latrine and a shower. For the troops to have something like this was outstanding. Our bunks were, I believe, only three high in this stateroom. We had two meals per day on board this ship. We had a breakfast at 9:15 a.m. and then a late afternoon meal at 5:15 p.m.

We had a large canteen and it was well stocked. We spent what little money we had in those days buying the goodies that were necessary to keep existing, like candy bars, Hershey’s. You name it and we'd buy it, anything to put in our mouths. Hershey bars were about 30¢ to 40¢ a box of 24 bars. Cigarettes were 50¢ a carton. We had all sorts of cookies for about 5¢ (plain) to 50¢ (fancy) per package.

We spent a lot of time walking around the deck and we also had a certain amount of controlled P. T. (Physical Training) that we were doing on the decks so time went by rather fast. Being aboard a rather fast ship like the West Point, we were in North Africa in no time at all. That was probably the best ship ride I ever had except for the time later when my dependents were able to ride with me.