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Camp Reynolds - World War II Army Cam
 
 REMEMBRANCES - Page 1
My dad Charles Edward Duell was stationed at Camp Reynolds and was shipped out to Germany from there.
My grandmother also worked at the camp.
- Cindy Robbins / Greenville Resident
Edwin J Smialkowski Philadelphia PA My dad (Philadelphia PA) was one of the first soldiers stationed at the camp; he arrived in the spring of 1943. One of his jobs he had over the 2 years while at the camp was to process incoming soldiers.
My dad also talked about the heavy snows that the western PA area received that was quite different from what Philadelphia received at that time.
One of the soldiers from Ohio that he knew of, his dad owned a nursery so he planted flowers around the barracks to make it look more homey.
During my dad’s stay at the camp, he met my mom Elizabeth Mathewson from Sharon at a USO dance held at the Buhl club. My grandmother Marie Mathewson helped out and my mom was a member of the USO and to this day she still has her USO pin.
When my dad left the camp, he headed over to India via Oran (CBI) for 2 years and one of the men stationed over there with him was actor Pat O’Brien.
Dad was discharged on March 14h 1946 at Fort Dix in New Jersey, his rank was Corporal. My parents were married July 5, 1947 in Sharon PA at St Joseph’s Church on State Street and after a honeymoon in NY they returned to Philadelphia. 
- Maryann Smialkowski (Daughter) / Philadelphia
As a young married couple we lived with my husband's (Fran Stuver) parents on West Main Hill in Greenville, PA. along with his sister Clara.  We used to rent a room to some of the soldiers wife's or girlfriends. Clara would also rent her room out occasionally.
Another memory is that of my brother Dave Bright, working at a Fire House on E Street in the camp.
- Jesse Stuver / Local Greenville Resident
I remember as a little girl of around 6 or 7 crying when my Uncle who lived with us was shipped out for Europe.
I also remember when he came home from the war, we were getting ready to go to school. He gave my brother and I gave us Hershey Chocolate Bars.
Another memory I have is my mother telling about renting a room to a soldiers wife who had a young child. After he was shipped out she cracked up. My mother which was a RN tried to help her the best she could but the lady was taken away. 
- Mary Kay Surrena / Local Hamburg Resident
My husband, Harry grew up on a farm in Transfer, PA. He started working during his junior year at Transfer High School. He quit school and later went to Erie to work where he learned the wielding trade (after the war he started a wielding business which is now operated by his son Jim). While in Erie he was drafted and he was able to switch from the Erie Recruiting Station to Greenville, PA Station. Before being called up he worked at the Steel Car in Greenville, PA long enough that they held his job for him when he returned from the war. After basics he was sent to Shenango Personnel Replacement Depot (later named to Camp Reynolds). On the train to the camp he had met up with three other guys from the Transfer area, Tom Morrison, Ceil Kane and F. Jordan. While traveling on the train the guys started to recognize the landscape and realized they were going to go through their hometown Transfer. As they were going through Transfer they started yelling as they went by the Post Office and the Postmaster came out and then called their families to let them know that they were going to stationed at the camp.
While stationed at the camp Harry was allowed to go down to his father's farm in Transfer and help with taking in the hay in his off time. Once while he was out in the field he saw a soldier coming down the driveway and thought it might be an MP but it was his friend Tom  Morrison coming to tell him that they were getting ready to out.
The guys were shipped out of Ft. Lewis Washington. They were transported overseas on converted freighters which Harry referred to as Banana boats. Harry was dropped off at the Allutions and Ceil n Jordan were dropped off at the next island and Tom was dropped off at Guadalcanal where he was killed in action.
Another memory I have at around that time was when word was received at the Transfer Post Office that Tom Morrison had been killed in action at Leyte. His sister Verlene was there and she took the notice and ran all the way home to tell her folks.
I also remember playing cards at the Cadman Farm which was located across the Shenango River from the camp. While we were playing I looked up to notice a soldier watching us play through a window, he left as soon he was noticed.
- Naomi Derr / Local Hamburg Resident
I remember as a young boy being in Greenville on a Friday night when the stores stayed open later and you could see soldiers everywhere. 
- Ron Clark / Local Greenville Residents
My husband Rudy worked for the White Rock Silica Sand Plant which was located across the road up on a hill from the former Greenville Country Club. We lived in a house next to the plant. From the view of our house we could see Camp Reynolds and it looked like a lake with the sun shining on all gray shingle roofs of the buildings of the camp.
When we would go to Sharon, PA we would see dozens of soldiers hitch-hiking, occasionally we would give some of them rides.
On one occasion Rudy went down to the camp with dynamite and caps to blast something while the hospital at the camp was being built.
Findley Barton from St. Petersburg worked building the camp as a electrician. He stayed with us during the week and go back home on the weekends.
When the camp's replacement depot element was moving to Indiantown Gap Military Installation we could see from our house the Army trucks with their headlights on coming through Greenville and coming down Rt. 58 by the Greenville Club Country Club. The string of trucks stretched for over a mile.
- Olive Clark & Son Ron / Local Greenville Residents
As a young boy of around 12 or 13 I remember selling local & nearby papers (The Record Argus, The Sharon Herald, Youngstown Vindicator and the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph) at the camp. A man from Youngstown would pickup us boys on Clarksville Street in Greenville and take us to the camp. My area was the 14, 15, and 16 block. While in the camp we were able to eat in the Mess Halls and go to the Movies at the Camp's Theaters.
- Ralph Giangiordano - Local Resident
My mother, Clara Mae (Snyder) Shipton worked at the Camp's Canvas & Webbing Repair Facility. She repaired leggings. She remembrances how muddy they were and often covered with blood.
- Shared by her Son
Angie Kerfoot from Burghill, OH worked at a Camp PX (Post Exchange).
- Shared by a Friend
I remember that my mother worked at the Webbing and Canvas repair Facility at Camp Reynolds. She remembers that when a machine broke down that a German POW would come and repair it.
Another memory that I have is that in my 4th, 5th and 6th Grade school years in Stoneboro, PA our school building was an Army barrack purchased from Camp Reynolds after it was closed.
- Joann Branch - Local Greenville, PA Resident
While at the Camp soldiers would be given a medical checkup including dental work before being sent over seas. Some of the servicemen needed false teeth. In a story related to me by my father was that some of the men would throw their false teeth away while on the train heading for a embarkation point. Thus they would be sent back. He said that some tried it a couple of times and eventually ended up in trouble.
- Local Greenville Resident
I lived on a farm down to the left of Colt road about a mile from the Army Camp. I remember one day my brother and I were riding the tractor as my dad was plowing. We got cold and we got off and ran for the barn. My brother ducked under the barbed wire fence but it caught me just below my right eye. My dad took me over to the Camp Check Point where a pretty WAC Officer that was on duty told the Private to get another jeep. She said she would hold the boy in her lap and the father to could set in the back. About the time we were ready to go. a Colonel showed up and told the WAC that she was having coffee with him. Another Private came and drove us to Greenville Hospital. It was a great memory for a boy around five years old.
Another memory I have is that dad helped tear down the camp. He worked in the Camp Hospital Area. He helped take down two of the big chimneys in the hospital area.
I also remember soldiers marching in columns of 4 going one way and 4 columns going the other way.
- Local Transfer Resident
I remember that my mother worked at the Webbing and Canvas repair Facility at Camp Reynolds. She remembers that when a machine broke down that a German POW would come and repair it.
Another memory that I have is that in my 4th, 5th and 6th Grade school years in Stoneboro, PA our school building was an Army barrack purchased from Camp Reynolds after it was closed.
- Paul Mitchell, Fredonia/Stoneboro PA
While I was attending Thiel College in Greenville, PA the camp was being built. I would go down to the camp and work on the weekends.
I remember that the camp had a Infiltration Course on the property next to ours. 
I also remember soldiers coming out on the weekends to visit, mainly to see my sisters. One of the soldiers was from Minnesota whose family had a farm, he enjoyed coming out and helping to put the hay away. There was also a soldier from Brooklyn New York, he was quite interesting.
- Dutch Reichard - Local Resident
As a young boy around 11 or 12 along with some of friends would hitch hike from Greenville, PA to Camp Reynolds to shine the shoes of the servicemen. After doing that for a while we recognized that there was an opportunity for a couple of other money making possibilities. When the new recruits came in all their clothes were in duffle bags the pants needed to be pressed. So we started to bring an iron and press the soldiers pants in their barracks. There were very few hangers so we started to sell clothes hangers to the soldiers. That was a good proposition because when the soldiers would leave we would gather the hangers back up and re-sell them to the next set of new recruits.
While we were at the camp we used to go to the movies, eat in the mess halls and buy candy & pop in the Post Exchanges (PX). A few times someone from the Provost Marshall's office would run us out of the camp.
A couple other things I remember, the first was that our family used to rent a room to some of the wives and girl friends of the soldiers. The other thing I remember is that my brother was at the camp the day of the Race Riot and had to go home through woods as all the roads were covered by the authoraties.

- Local Greenville, PA Resident
Kenneth Ivey from Susquehanna, PA was stationed at the camp. While there he was married and spent his honeymoon in the Riverview Hotel in nearby Greenville, PA.
- Shared by a Friend
I remember when my brother Harman was in High School he would play hooky and go up and worked at the camp was it was being built. Later he was drafted and went to Germany. He took training in the Signal Corps and infantry training at Camp Wheeler in GA.
- Bill Fennel, Local Resident
I remember my mom and dad renting rooms to two soldiers when I was around six years old. One them gave me a few pennies and I was so excited that I took off in a rush to get to the store and on the way I was hit by a car.
I also  remember everybody celebrating when the war ended.
- Don Smith, Former Sharon PA Resident
I remember as a young girl coming up to Camp Reynolds on a bus to dance with the servicemen. Some of them came to Sharon and I went to the movies with some of them.
- Sharon, PA Resident