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On October 13, 1945, USS General George O. Squier (AP-130), moored port side to berth #2, Upper Harbor, departed from Karachi, India, and set a course toward New York. Among its passengers were TSgts. James H. Mills and Robert N. Solyn. This was one of the hundreds of "Magic Carpet Cruises" that took American GIs back home at the end of World War II. US Navy photo

“I was soooo glad that war was over,” my father, TSgt. James H. Mills (called “Hank” by his friends), confided to me many years after its conclusion.

Overseas since February 1944, he had his fill of war, but his return to the “Zone of the Interior” was less straightforward than many of those who had gone home  before him (see “Operation Magic Carpet,” Oct. 6, 2024). His ASR point score calculated at seventy-seven had not allowed him to leave for home along with his 3rd Bomb Squadron's "old China hands.” He was issued a lapel button that indicated his status on September 2, 1945. As of early October, the reduction of the critical point score for enlisted male personnel was dropped to seventy and would be further reduced to sixty on November 1, the War Department announced.

After the cessation of hostilities, Hank had few duties to occupy his time as he waited for his turn to be on his way, so he spent some of it exploring the countryside. Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism formed the belief systems of the local population, and evidence from the distant past could be found throughout the area. A giant Buddha housed in a dilapidated wooden building stood at the eastern end of Liangshan Valley, and the village of Dazu beyond the mountains to the west featured more than 1,000 Buddha likenesses. "I was out, away from the orderly room, away from everything. I was just out. There was an old ruin where there had been a temple, and I found a brass coin about that big [indicating about 1.5 inches in diameter]. No telling how many thousand years old it was, and I had it. I don't know whatever happened to it.” The coin’s importance faded to insignificance by events that followed its discovery.

"I was out there, and someone from the orderly room came and found me and told me that the war is over and you have enough points to go home. You can wait and you'll be transferred to a fighter squadron that is gonna be sent back to the States as a unit in about three months, or you can strike out on your own.” He immediately returned to base and went to Maj. Jack M. Hamilton’s office. “I told him, 'Cut me some orders. I'm going home right now, one way or another.'” The papers were issued, and Hank took the first flight out that had space for him. Classified as a "casual,” he made his way across China and then across India, a process that took about two weeks, as he recalled.

He remembered seeing a stockpile of vehicles that were being transferred to the Chinese at one of the stops along his route: "Right at the end of the war I came across a place as far as you could see was brand new cars and trucks, and all that was left for them.” The Moran Vehicle Control Depot was used as the gathering point for all ordnance vehicles to be relinquished to the Chinese. Included were not only new vehicles but also combat vehicles used in the North and Central Burma campaigns, as well as veteran equipment recently retired from hard duty on the Stilwell Road. Official control of 14th Air Force planes and vehicles were turned over to the Chinese Air Force, although the aircraft and other equipment had been owned by the CAF all along because it was purchased with money loaned to Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government under Lend-Lease.          

GIs were warned against confiscating American goods and equipment from soldiers of the Chinese Army “unless specifically assigned to such detail.” Under the terms of Lend-Lease, the Chinese were entitled to items such as wrist watches, pocket watches, binoculars, compasses, flashlights, goggles, flexible-nozzle tubes for filling gasoline cans, and five-gallon drums for inflammable liquids, a statement from headquarters announced. "The American Army is in China to forge bonds of friendship," it declared. "This is being done. Don't destroy those bonds!"

Hank clearly remembered his journey and described it in an interview many years later:

The transport plane that I was on—I had just got into India—the plane had something wrong with the engine. We stopped at a little camp—a little air base a couple of hundred miles north of Calcutta, so I caught that flight out. And when I got to Calcutta, they told me, “You've made a mistake. There are twelve hundred men here that have got to get out before you do.” Well, I got out on the flight line. Didn't even spend the night there, and I caught a—a Yankee pilot was flying a transport back to India. That plane had nothing but engine mounts on it. An engine mount was a frame that they fastened a new engine—an aircraft engine onto to ship it. So I spent the night in the back end of that plane with those engine mounts. Took off—another cold trip—cold at night.

He continued to "hitchhike,” taking any flight that conveyed him closer to home. He made his way to Karachi, where he checked into Camp Malir, then known as Replacement Depot No. 1. He was one of thousands of GIs coming in from China, Burma, and India by plane and train to be staged and processed prior to their return to the US. “Men arriving as casuals are handled differently from those coming in as members of Category IV Units (units declared surplus and being returned to the States for deactivation and in which personnel will either be discharged or reassigned after receiving furlough),” according to a service publication. Casuals were processed almost immediately upon arrival. They were taken to a station where a thorough check was made of clothing and equipment to discover shortages. Their orders were checked, and points were verified. After filling in a simple form and being provided a PX card, the GIs were issued replacements for any missing items, "much the same as they were upon induction, except that an effort is made to give the men the size they indicate.”

Details were kept to a minimum for their brief stay, although casuals were asked to help out with guard duty. Activities available to fill the time as they waited were ping pong, miniature golf, beach picnics, “weinie” roasts, shopping tours, use of the library, canteen, and lounge, trivia quizzes, bingo, cards, and the company of Red Cross girls. "As ships arrive, G.I.'s are alerted and made ready for the trip to the docks and their last glimpse of India. Everything is being done to keep the men only three or four days at Malir before embarking for home."

On October 12, Hank was among servicemen crowded into trucks that took them to the docks, where they boarded USS General George O. Squier (AP-130), moored port side to berth #2, Upper Harbor. One of the other passengers heading home as a casual that day was TSgt. Robert N. Solyn, who had also traveled with Hank to Karachi aboard Mission Bay. Released from the 3rd squadron on September 12, Solyn had been transferred to the Replacement Depot at Karachi to await transportation.

The ship got underway the following morning with 331 Army officers, 2,992 Army enlisted men, one Navy enlisted man, and nineteen civilians, per its war diary. Among its passengers were aerial photographer/photo processers of the 2nd Photo Procurement Detachment, as well as seventeen Office of War Information personnel. The greatest number were “muleskinners” of the 31st, 33rd, 37th, 252nd, and 253rd Pack Troops assigned to Mars Task Force. These were men in charge of the animals that provided a lifeline to troops fighting in Burma by packing in supplies.

It was "just a troop transport is all I know about it," Hank admitted. He did not recall the name of the ship or its stops along the way, but Navy records report that Squier traversed the Suez Canal on October 20 and moored overnight at Port Said. Evidence of devastation caused by incessant enemy attacks in the vicinity of the Mediterranean, both from the sea and from the air, was still visible as Squier steamed along the north African coast. The ship passed through the Strait of Gibraltar on the evening of October 25 and headed west. Steaming past the Statue of Liberty as joyful GIs crowded the decks for their first glimpse of America in many months, it arrived at the Port of New York on November 2 and moored on the starboard side of Pier 88. Debarkation of all passengers was completed by 2005.

Discovery of stowaways of both the two- and four-legged varieties smuggled aboard by returning GIs was a relatively common occurrence, and this voyage was no exception. Arriving aboard Squier was “Susie,” a six-month-old monkey brought back from Burma by SSgt. Carl E. Mauldin, an A/F control tower operator. When interviewed, he explained that he had been tiger hunting when he heard a rustle in the brush and fired his rifle. The shot killed a pregnant monkey, and he performed a Caesarian operation with his jack knife to deliver the eight-pound infant. Mauldin said he was taking the animal home as a pet for his eleven-year-old son.

Men who intended to remain in the Army were routed to a reception center, where they were processed to continue their military careers. Those who did not were ordered to a separation center. Hank was sent for processing to Ft. Dix and then on to Camp Chaffee, where he was honorably discharged on November 13, 1945.

He had been recommended for promotion to master sergeant, but the war ended before the paperwork came through. Many of the veterans entered the reserves after their return, but Hank did not. “The day I got discharged, I had to go into one office, and somebody, I think it was a staff sergeant, tried to talk me into getting in the reserve. I said, ‘Nooo.’”

The sergeant reacted, “Man, if I had the kind of rating you've got—no way I'd not agree to go into the reserves.”

“I'm gonna tell you why,” Hank replied. “The reserves is a force of men that, any time this country wants you, they can reach out and get you. Is that right?”

“That's right. I don't blame you."

Hank was back home in southwest Arkansas in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family, and that was when I first met my father. He arrived before the fighter squadron (26th Fighter Squadron, 51st Fighter Group, 69th Composite Wing) to which he had been assigned. After his return, he saw an announcement in the local newspaper that stated the fighter squadron had arrived in the US, "and there I was, already home ahead of them.”

Read more about the return home of China veterans facilitated by “Operation Magic Carpet” in The Spray and Pray Squadron: 3rd Bomb Squadron, 1st Bomb Group, Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II.