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Hey y'all. Doing a bit of research for one of my buddies, Harold Whiting, a 157th Engineer.
http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/Har...roldWhiting.htm
Harold wrote to me yesterday with a request. Seems he is trying to get info regarding a Camp Roosevelt. We are trying to drum up connections of the Internet, but so far have not been successful. Still trying.
Did any of you vets ever go through a Camp Roosevelt in Europe (no not in the states - we are aware that there was one here)?
Here are a few excerpts from Harold this week:
Hi there young lady . need a answer some time , no hurry but i know when it was there but i do not knowwhere and have not found it on the list of camps in France ,On my way home from austria in 1945. I was dischared at camp (roosavelt ?) France can not find any info of the camp this will give you some thing to do. This is where i reinlisted for three years so i know it was there Hope all is well with you HWhiting
In the interim I wrote back and told him what I had and hadn't found yet, but had not given up. He wrote back this morning with a bit more info.
This camp was not a discharge camp it was for stopover of troops with points enough to return home in the late fall. I drove a truck from Austria half way back to this camp my discharge says camp roosevelt . There i got the good news; enlist and get 300 dollars. wow all at once got my money and parted and missed my first ship home wow that is how i got home in dec not oct. long story short memory. i remember the major chewing my but out because i was not on the truck that morning guess my head was alittle mesed up i walked in and forgot to salute well he said how lond did you inlist for i said three years his answer was you will learn to say sir and salute. my answer was YES SIR AND A SALUTE okay hwhiting
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"
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Seems Harold found the answer himself. Will post it here for others who might also be interested. 
Found the answer camp Roosevelt was in Saissons France .Went through my discharge papers from years ago and found that a Roland Hudson 1st lt. cav. had signed my discharge guess that answers my question Thanks HWhiting
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"
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Marion: Very interesting as I had never heard of a Camp Roosvelt in France so that is new to me. All the "cigarette camps" (about 8 or 10 of them) I knew about, having returned home from one. Camp Lucky Strike I think. Also a renlistment bonus of
$300.00 I never knew about, not that it would interest me to reinlist. Like most of us,
once was enough. But a very good post with information new to me.
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Harold's third letter to me. I have added some links so people could see where Soissons is, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soissons
http://www.ville-soissons.fr/
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/map...refid=701516605
The army had the wrong spelling the old atlas spell it Soissons that place is above Paris France FOUND IT ON THE MAP THAT I HAD PUT TOGETHER FROM THE SISTER ENG TO 157 THE 163 BOTH WERE IN THE 1109 ENG GROUP. USED THERE MAP TO FOLLOW THE 157 TRIP ACROSS FROM THE ENGLAND TO AUSTRIA OKAY HWHITING
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"
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Upon discharge after the war all GI'S & company grade officers were given $300. It was just a bonus not an incentive to re-up. AL
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Al: Something is lacking in his postings. Granted, we all got our $300.00 "mustering out
pay" , but it was in 3 $100.00 increments a month apart. And it had nothing to do with
his re-enlisting. I think I need more info on this.
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Marion: Very interesting as I had never heard of a Camp Roosvelt in France so that is new to me. All the "cigarette camps" (about 8 or 10 of them) I knew about, having returned home from one. Camp Lucky Strike I think. Also a renlistment bonus of
$300.00 I never knew about, not that it would interest me to reinlist. Like most of us,
once was enough. But a very good post with information new to me.
 Hey Joe,3rdinf, I never heard of any camps like that in Italy. When I was sent home on points, we rode from North Italy to Naples,14 days on boat to N.J. train to Ft. Leavenworth, Ks. Got discharged and was handed a check for $300 bucks and I said goodby to over 600 days combat. half of them on the mountains of Italy.
I mean NO DISRESPECT, just a personal thought just accured to me.--- I would have been nice if we had a flag for every mountain top we captured. rjr
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How true on the flags. Wish we put up a flag on each town, village and city we captured
in France and Germany also. Checked my discharge paper and yes, I was given $300.00 in "Mustering out pay" but only $100.00 with the other monthly payments of
$100.00 each to follow. Same is on my Dads and Brothers discharges. According to the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper clipping I found in Google this is the way it was supposed to be. Your sure were lucky. From the Stars and Stripes newspaper::
"Added to whatever we can save from our monthly pay will be the mustering out pay of 300 bucks dim in three monthly instalments beginning the day some officer hands us our discharge paper and says, "Soldier you're now a civilian."". On my papers it is under
"Pay Data" with travel ETC figures.. Give a look at your discharge and let me know.
And yes, it was a long slow trip from Germany to Le Harve France to the "cigarette camps" VIA 40 and 8 boxcars mainly when our points came up. Then about 2 weeks on a Victory ship holding about 700 of us returning G.I."s and then after arriving in Camp
Kilmer NJ we were out in about 3 days time.
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Joe remeber how the victory ship rolled up and down and sideways all at the same time !!! Especialy if you were at the HEAD, doing your thing. Camp Kilmer, N.J. Thanks for writing it, I had forgotten that name. You rode in the 40 and 8's. we rode 6 bi's. Stopped at a couple of bivouack areas on the way to Naples. I checked my dd214, yea 300 bucks, at a 100 per month less travel. Joe sure was a lonely Vets Day and Thanksgiving and with Xmass comming it will be quite a challenge. We are having some bad weather here. Started sleeting around noon today,(Wed.), it''s 7:40 pm and still sleeting, supposed to snow thursday. Went to store yesterdeay and got a bunch of frozen TV dinners, I'm set. Ketch me later,
Joe GodBless, Roque
If I was a drinking man I would have a coke. 
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Hey guys. Harold is going to send me a copy of his discharge papers. He has proof regarding the re-enlistment money distributed etc. Here's his letter!
Good evening this is fun. Tell all the boys i will be mailing a copy of my discharge to you soon.
Discharge reads no travel time allowance no time under aw 107 discharged convernence of gov, AR615-365&wd cir 310 , 1945 - total $300.00
This payment $300.00 total amount ,no travel time allowed . total paid $313.83 REgleason 2nd LT, fd. There is another place where it says paid reinlistment alowance of $50.00 It also says 11000 fr franc` Signed Camp Roosevelt, France Date 8 November 1945, David S Brody Major AGD .Y
Yes there was a difference by reinlisting overseas all money was paid and changed to franks from cash and spent. Wow still can see the place!
HWhiting
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"
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