← The 49th Engineers & George's path
New York — Port of Embarkation
New York Harbor, USA
George's letters from here: Nov 1943 (2)
By November 1943 the 49th Engineers had left Colorado for the East Coast and the New York Port of Embarkation — the great staging point through which most U.S. troops bound for Europe passed. A letter postmarked here in mid-November 1943 catches George on the edge of leaving: a year of training behind him, the Atlantic and the war ahead.
For a man who had grown up in New Jersey, just across the river, it was a last brush with home before a long time away — he writes of hoping to get back to see the family before he shipped, and not quite managing it.