THE BEGINNING

Chapter 4

troops and civilians bound for Greenock, Scotland, and after disembarking her passengers there, returned to Norfolk on September 25, 1943.

I actually found a picture of the USS General John Pope (AP-110) docked at B/S Pier 6 at the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation in Newport News, Virginia. This photo was taken immediately before her maiden voyage to Greenock, Scotland with my grandfather and his platoon on board before departing on September 5, 1943. Other pictures of the USS General John Pope show her leaving Europe to return to the United States and one photo shows her with freshly painted ocean camouflage.

After Germany surrendered in World War II, the USS General John Pope was decommissioned to return to transport service. Not long after, it was recommissioned back to military service by aiding in various conflicts in the Pacific including Japan, Ko - rea, and Vietnam until its final years while earning various awards and recognitions for her services.

The final years of the General John Pope began when she was placed out of commission once again on May 1, 1970, transferred to MARAD, and laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, California. She was struck from the Naval Register on October 26, 1990. On May 5, 2010, after resting nearly forty years at anchor in Suisun Bay, the General John Pope was towed to Pier 70 dry dock for hull cleaning at BAE Shipyards, in San Francisco Bay. On May 18, 2010, the last surviving P2-S2-R2 U.S. Army

Transport vessel of her type, the General John Pope departed San Francisco Bay for her final voyage to Texas. After a brief stop in San Pedro California, she made passage through the Panama Canal on June 15, 2010, continuing on to ESCO Marine in Brownsville, Texas where she arrived at her final destination for dismantling. The irony of the final destination for the ship that took my grandfather to Europe, returning home to Texas where he began his journey, is pretty crazy. Full circle I suppose.

After leaving Hampton Roads, my grandfather and his platoon arrived in Greenock, Scotland and then traveled to England for training and preparation. While in England they prepared for the historic Normandy invasion. My grandfather’s Detachment A was assigned to the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group and Larry’s father’s platoon was assigned to the 366th Fighter Group. Like Larry noted earlier, even though the 2487th Quartermaster Truck Company (Aviation) was split up, they were never too far from each other throughout the rest of the war. In fact, they were never more than five miles stationed from the front lines.

Now let’s get on to talking about Normandy because that was the whole purpose of this investigation.