"Camp Lejeune"  by F.E.(Jim)DeVine


March 26, 1998	
	I arrived at radar school at Camp Lejeune on August 28, 1943,
after a delay enroute wherin I spent my "leave" in Reading, Pa. I 
really do not recall where 'home' was then.  We stayed in the 
beautiful two story brick barracks on the port side of Holcomb Blvd.
as you face the administration building, and the school was behind 
the barracks.
	
       Radar was still classified as secret at the time, and as we 
progressed through the training we were told that if we flunked the 
course we would spend 10 days in the brig and then start all over 
again.  We could not get out of radar. We were also instructed that 
we could not be captured and the set surrendered to the Japs.  To 
that extent, we were to use the grenades and explosives to destroy 
the set, and then the radar officer was to shoot us and himself. 
That was something to look forward to.

	We were scheduled for 6 months of school, but apparently 
needed bodies in the Pacific.  We finished school on January 5, 1944,
and I was promoted to corporal.

        Jim DeVine, Reading, PA