Where Did He Go ?

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Jen & Todd,

I called Grandma. She found Grandpa's discharge papers. He was in Company B of the 815 Engineers. He departed the US on June 4, 1942 and landed in Glasgow, Scotland on June 9, 1942. These are the places listed on his discharge papers: Algeria, French Morocco, Tunisia, Sicily, Air Offensive Europe,
GO33WD45, Naples, Foggia, Rome, Arno, Northern Apennines, GO40WD45. He received the European African
Eastern Service Metal, 1 Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars, Good Conduct Metal....then grandma got to rambling....about her phone being out of order.
Joe told me that he had a friend whose brother was a pilot and since Daddy's outfit built runways he had access to the planes after the runways were completed. He and some of his buddies bribed this pilot to take them back to England for a day or two and on the way, they were stowaways on the plane, and were diverted to participate in the Anzio Invasion.
Mother, at one time had some things he brought home with him. One that I remember that he treasured was a silver letter opener with a copy of a statue on the end of it. The statue was of a little boy peeing. Leave it to PaPa!
He ran a road grader and was a mechanic for his Company as well as cook. Grandma has a picture of him when he overturned his grader and
Mt. Vesuvius is in the background. He was near Pompeii at the time. He broke his arm during the accident and it shows him with his arm in a cast.
I can remember him telling that his outfit would go in behind the lines and build the runways for the planes to land prior to a major invasion.
Love,
Mom