During World War II, citizens in cities and towns across the United States sacrificed for the war effort and showed appreciation to those wearing military uniforms.
“You couldn’t walk into a restaurant and not get your food paid for,” said Bob Libby of Buxton. “At 17 or 18, it was pretty big stuff.”
It was big stuff especially when base military pay was only $50 a month, or $1.66 a day, when Libby enlisted. He signed up in the Coast Guard when he was 17 years old in 1942.
After Libby graduated from boot camp, the Coast Guard utilized his mechanical skills. They sent him to a special school to train on diesel engines.
Later, Libby was a crewmember of the troop transport ship USS Joseph T. Dickman, which had been converted for military use from a passenger liner.
He was assigned to the landing craft division on board the ship. In 1944, Libby was involved in two invasions – Normandy and Southern France.
In the states, service men and women in World War II depended on rail passenger cars for transportation. Trains carried them to duty stations, homeports of ships, or back to their homes on leave.
Libby recalled a rail service called the Pine Tree Special. Libby said the special would leave Union Station in Portland at 9 p.m. and arrive at 6 a.m. in Grand Central Station in New York City on the following morning.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
