by
Dan Shine, as told by his father Daniel Shine
copyright 2000
October 5, 1944
It was a hollow feeling that the soldier carried in his chest as the passenger train made its way westward from New York to Terre Haute, Indiana. The steam locomotive chugged rythmically through the long, lonely night and in his sadness, he drifted in and out of a dreamless and melancholy sleep.
Somewhere behind the Private was his home in Connecticut. He was destined for Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky. If he lived to return to the States, the opportunity to return home would not come again until the war was over. Private Daniel R. "Bob" Shine looked across the aisle at a sleepign GI. For that man the war was most certainly over, and he was on his way home--minus one leg. Shine wondered what kind of action that soldier had seen, and just how he had lost his leg, but he knew he'd never be able to ask.
Shine closed his eyes and he could once more see the faces of his mother and father as he had left them. They were such gentle people; reluctant to part, they had followed him to the door. His mother Gertrude had tried to remain strong, but occasionally a tear would well up in her eye and roll slowly down her cheek. His father Dan had been an aviator with the famous "Hat in the Ring" squadron in WWI, and althought he had mainly see that war from the air, he had no misconceptions about what lay ahead for his son on the ground. Dan Shine had been in a quiet and somber mood for most of Bob's furlough; about the only thing he had said was that he wished his son had been in some branch of service other than the infantry. Both father and son knew deep down inside themselves that this was destined to be a rough assignment. As he had walked off toward the railroad station, Shine had turned and waved them one final farewell, as they sadly watched his departure from their porch.
Clickety clack, clickety clack, clickety clack...the soldier looked out through the dirty window into the darkness; he felt a tightness forming in his throat, and a sudden burning in his eyes.
Shine had scored high on his induction tests and the army had made him a part of the Army Specialists Training Program. While the others had gone off to fight, his initial months in the army had been spent in college classrooms. After the massive losses of D-Day and the initial fighting in France, the army had recognized a shortage of riflemen and the ASTP program had been cut. Shine, and thousands of other "whiz kids" had then put away their books and had begun to learn the tricks of survival in the field and in combat instead. They took marksmanship practice, bayonet drills, endless long marches and river crossings, and one day they were ready to go and fight. There was a brief furlough and a last look at home--for many of these youngsters, it would be the last time their families would ever see them.
As a generation, they had certainly known hard times and adversity. Shine's father had been fortunate indeed to have worked through most of the Great Depression, in a time when many men couldn't find jobs and wages to make ends meet. Now, on the verge of manhood, Shine and his contemporaries were called upon to defend the freedom of a people thousands of miles away.
While he was home, Shine had walked to the town rationing board to apply for extra food for his family. Food was rationed, shoes were rationed, even gas was sarce, but the family didn't own a car, so that didnt' matter anyway. The lion's share of all these commodities was allocated to the military. As Shine walked home from the rationing board, he has noticed that most homes has a blue star in the window, signifying a family member in the service. He stopped short in front of a friend's home and gazed in thoughful surprise at the gold star in the window--which indicated that shine's friend had made the surpreme sacrfice for his Country. For him the war was over, too.
There had been rumors of German submarine activity in Long Island Sound, and at the entrance to New York Harbor, so the lights in coastal towns were dimmed. This was intended to make it more difficult for the suspected submarine menace to strike at shipping. Automobile lights were also dimmed, by coating the upper half of the lens wiht black paint. house windows were always shaded when the lights were on, and "blackout" tests were run frequently by the Civil Defense organization.
Several times during his two week furlough, Shine had taken the train form New Haven to Hartford to visit his girl Muriel who was a nurse at Hartford hospital. There had been dinners, movies and long walks together. Now as he looked out of the dirty train window, he could imagine her sweet face looking back at him. Before their last parting, they had made promises to wait for each other, and marry after the war..."If I make it", he thought to himself.
Finally his two train rides were over, and Shine had returned to Camp Breckenridge. His brief days in civilian America were now just a memory. As he walked across the parade grounds towards his barracks, he could hear music drifting through the autumn night air. The tune was "It could happen to you". Just what was it that could--and would--happen to him in the days to come? For now, he could only wonder.
