This article is Mr. Montgomery’s continued musings from his return home from WWII; return-home-from-the-war-in-europe-1946.
Occasionally, I publish some of Mr. Montgomery’s musings edited only for grammatical errors. Here is another of his reflection of earlier times.
We have finally arrived in the US, and moved to a camp in New Jersey. I recall that it is known as Camp Kilmer (I hope I remembered the name correctly). 
We get reshuffled into different groups, answer more questions, fill more forms, are assured that we are being shipped home immediately, etc. We got replacement uniforms, including underwear, etc. The army must look its best as it departs to the wilds of civilization. The war is really over.
I recall that we only spent about 3 days at this camp, while we were being sorted into geographical groups to send us home. Finally, we were marched to a waiting railroad train – another troop train, this time with old pullman cars, and also a number of the special troop carrying cars.
They looked like reconditioned baggage cars or maybe freight cars. Tiered bunk beds, an Army mfg stove, and a few tables to sit around. There must have been about 12 or 15 cars in this train when we started. I think I have forgotten what accommodations we really had. We would stay on this train all the way out to Seattle and Ft. Lewis.
The train headed south, no speed this time, like our trip up the east coast in 1944. We really didn’t have anything to do, except watch the scenery pass by, or join in various card games, or reading paper back books. We headed South into Maryland and West Virginia. I remember passing through the town of Clarksburg, W.Va. They must have had a big sign for me to remember the place. And I don’t remember whether we made our own dinners, or had a dining car with us. This was a troop train, not a regular passenger train. What I do remember was that we headed all the way to St. Louis, Missouri.
The train came into St Louis main railway station. We were informed that the train would stay there for over an hour. It was being broken up into 2 trains. Part of the cars going to the south and California, and our part of the train would continue on to Seattle. I looked in a mirror to meet an apparition with about 3 days beard, and found the Station barber was open – for a rare barber shop shave and haircut. I remember taking up playing Blackjack or 21 for pennies. I think I either lost or gained about 50 cents during the whole trip.
We finally took off again across the plains into Billings, Montana, without stopping. We finally arrived at Tacoma, WA at some early hour at what I believe was the Milwaukee Railroad freight depot, and hung around there for an hour or so. The whole trip took a lot of stopping, backing and banging of cars clear across the country.
Finally we unloaded at Fort Lewis, where we went through the same old Army routine, filling more forms, discharge papers, medical exams, and finally GO! The army said goodbye, and most of us took off as quickly as possible heading for home. I think it was March 6, 1946.
….. Robert Montgomery (formerly 39459353)