maybe you`ve seen this about how the 540th lost their chineese cook in Operation Torch
it is mentioned on this page: WORLD WAR II PLUS 55 - NOVEMBER 8, 1942
http://www.usswashington.com/dl08no42d.htm
quoting from page:
Truscott, however, knows that his force of green troops has probably achieved all it can realistically accomplish, and perhaps more. He stumps back to his HQ at Blue Beach in the gathering dusk, to find only a flagpole and an exhausted radio operator. The radio man is out of touch with the ships offshore. The officers are lying around on the ground, asleep.
Cold, wet, miserable, frustrated, Truscott slumps down on a sand dune, watching lost troops pick their way through the sand and the dark, shouting curses and passwords ("George" is the password, "Patton" is the countersign) at each other. Truscott lights a cigarette to relieve the tension, violating his own orders, and sees other smokers doing the same.
As Truscott smokes, he sees a shadowy figure stumbling from man to man in the dark. The intruder stops in front of Truscott, and says in a thick accent, "Hey, gimme a cigarette."
Truscott does so, and the man says, "All wet. Gimme light too."
Truscott holds out his lighted cigarette and two officers wake up and aim their submachine guns into the stranger’s stomach, yelling "George!"
The intruder retorts, "George? Me no George! Me Thue P. Lee, cook, Company C, 540th Engineers! Best damn cook in the Army."
Truscott steals Lee to be his own cook…and then loses him later on to Patton. Nobody bothers to ask the 540th Engineers how they feel about losing their Chinese cook.
Larry
