After a few days Casablanca Harbor was operating under Allied hands and we went aboard a ship for transport to Norfolk, Virginia. They fed us a good steak dinner in Norfolk and reissued us basic uniforms as near complete as they could but no insignia or promotion strips and I didn't get a Pea Coat as they ran out before my turn. Of course our shipboard records and identification were lost with the ship sinking and they started duplicate records at Norfolk and made out leave papers for a 30 day survivor's leave.

I was a Petty Officer 3rd class at the time and when they were gathering information, I promoted myself to 2nd class on all of my records, Service, Health and Pay. (Easiest promotion I ever had) I had enough money to buy a train ticket as far as Chicago and when I arrived I found a USO type club and wired home (Washington State) for enough money for a train ticket.

While waiting for my Western Union money I ate some sandwiches, doughnuts and had a nice hot shower but I was in an improper, unpressed uniform that smelled of moth balls, no white hat, (flat hats were all that were left when I got mine) no coat and no identification. We were told to not disclose what ships we had been on as they were still making notification of next of kin for those that lost their lives.

I had quite a wait for my money and wanted to prowl around Chicago as I had never been there before. I tried to talk the gal that run the check room out of a pea coat that had been left there but she wouldn't let me borrow it, so more sandwiches and coffee. The next time I went by the check room there was a different lady on duty, I approached her with all of the particulars about the coat and she went into a room to get it for me. Soon some person tapped me on the shoulder and showed me his FBI Identification and said that he would like to have a little chat with me.

We went to a private room and he ask me where I was stationed, now this was kind of embarrassing as I no longer had an assignment and wasn't stationed anywhere. He was also curious about why I was not in the proper uniform and why was I trying to steal a navy coat. I tried to explain that my ship had been sunk and that they ran out of uniforms before I got all of mine. Of course he ask which ship was that and I told him I wasn't allowed to tell him. He wasn't satisfied with my answer and wanted to see some identification, which I didn't have, then he wondered why I was in Chicago and how I got there. I showed him my leave papers that had been post dated to start at 8 AM that day and had been issued in Norfolk, a days travel away. He didn't think I could travel that fast so I told him the Navy was being nice to me and let me off early, this also went over like a lead balloon. I felt like he had me at a disadvantage and I suggested that he call the Commanding Officer at Norfolk. He told me that was his intention and for me to stay put as it would be unhealthy to do otherwise.