Some Of My Army Experiences Spoken by Stephen Maiden

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Susie
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Some Of My Army Experiences Spoken by Stephen Maiden

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Army Supply Truck

Spoken by Stephen Maiden
Transcribed by Melanie Williams


Steve was born in Ohio in 1913. He had three brothers. His mother was a school teacher and his father worked in the steel mines. Steve has lived all over the world, and has many experiences to share.

I was in Baltimore Maryland, and was working in the General office for the Baltimore Railroad. As I recall, it was a Sunday morning when I first got the news on the radio that there was an attack on Pearl Harbor. I chose my own way to get into the army, and I chose something to do to with transportation since I had a little experience with it.

My mother had always wanted me to go to West Point, but she didn't have the right kind of political pull to get me in. I joined the army in Fort Snelling, Minnesota; where I had lived previously, and where my wife living. The basic training at that time had been made so easy because they wanted people to join quickly. After three months of training, I was sent to Brooklyn, where the Army was putting together a transportation unit, it was handled by the army engineers. They made a transportation core to take care of everything that had to do with ground transportation.

I joined in late December 1942, and I got to Europe in early January 1943, from then on, I was apart of the transportation organization.

I spent most of my time in Antwerp Belgium. My brother John went into the army as well, and wound up in the infirmary. He studied French, and was used to dealing with people in this population. On one mission, he got a caught by a piece of steel that went through one leg, from a booby trap. The steel cut the muscle, but not the bone, and it took him about five months to heal. I went to see him in England in the hospital.

I had just had an accident myself. I was 24, and I was bicycling down a road at night. I was going downhill, with no chance of stopping quickly, and the next thing I knew I went through a plate glass window. I didn't get cut up too badly. My brother asked me what happened to me, and I asked him the same question. My brother spent the war in the infirmary.

I spent the war in Antwerp shipping special supplies to places in Europe. I had to handle a wide variety of things, very often, no two things alike. This included changing the currency. I changed new money in France, Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands. In Germany, this meant changing the postage, since postage meant money. I handled the shipping of various things like whiskey, and special medicines that required refrigeration and other things that required special handling. In the organization that I worked with operating, the port of Antwerp they merged the organization with the one that specialized in the handling of American troops that were stationed in Scotland. I became a special cargo officer.

When the commanding officer the colonial, brought his son into our organization; his son, Junior, threatened to have me court marshaled on two different occasions for whatever reason he dreamed up I didn't like him, and didn't mind making this clear. The second time he threatened me; I took him to see his father, and thought that he would be reprimanded: This wasn't the case.

I was separated from my original organization, but was working for a similar one that was the oldest transportation company in Europe. I enjoyed my job, but I could never get promoted through a European company.

I stopped worrying about Hitler. I had faith that he would be taken care of. His day would soon be done. When you are doing something that is going to take care of the situation, there's no point to worry. I did what I could. I knew necessary actions were being taken towards the German regime. My philosophy was to improve what you can. I did that on a daily basis. I never looked at things on an emotional level. I never regretted my position in the army.

The day that counted was the day it became clear that most of the things that were wrong would be corrected. I saw how much structure and determination the U.S. and British had. In Morocco, Kasserine Pass was where the first American combat for the U.S. occurred.

While it cost quite a bit of lives, it was also a victory. This happened on the continent of North Africa. While this happened, I was in England. This battle was my first indication that Hitler was going to be beaten. Everything after this event took time and effort. The future victories proved to be very important.

Spoken by Stephen Maiden
Transcribed by Melanie Williams

Published by U.S. Legacies February 2004
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