“Operation Magic Carpet”
As 3rd Bomb Squadron personnel made their way back home, the largest group of them traveled aboard USS General Charles H. Muir to New York, arriving on November 1, 1945. The "CHINA BURMA INDIA" banner is visible on the deck, above the pilot boat. US Navy Photo.
The instrument of surrender that acknowledged Japan's complete capitulation to the Allies was signed by envoys acting for Emperor Hirohito aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. "VJ Day" was a reality at last. Orders to disband the Chinese-American Composite Wing were issued on September 19. . . but how would they all make their way back home?
Military personnel stationed in China and other parts of the CBI had already begun repositioning to allow them to return to the US as soon as the formal surrender took place. With the war officially over, many hundreds of thousands of the victors needed to be restored to their homes and loved ones. Although some returned by transport plane, most of these war-weary veterans came home by way of "Magic Carpet cruises," generally aboard US Navy ships used to transport the great throngs who were returning after the war.
Maj. Willam L. Curik, 1st Sgt. William T. Earley Jr., and T.Sgt. George Gruber, all "high pointers,” got underway from Karachi aboard USS General James H. McRae (AP-149) on September 24. This was the first of many ships to depart from Karachi over the next several months. Because enemy planes, ships, and submarines no longer posed a threat to Allied shipping, McRae passed through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar and then steamed directly west. These three 3rd Bomb Squadron men were among 200 Army officers and 2,658 enlisted personnel who passed through customs at New York on October 15. Earley and Gruber were attached to a group of China Theater veterans who went to the processing center at Ft. Dix to be discharged, and Curik was sent on his way to Fort Sam Houston at San Antonio, Texas.
Other members of the squadron traveled back to the US aboard USS General C. G. Morton (AP-138), which steamed from Karachi on September 30 and traveled through the Suez Canal and on to New York, arriving on October 22. The ship carried 261 returning US Army officers and 2,655 enlisted personnel, including Army nurses who received the doting attention of soldiers who had, in many cases, not enjoyed the company of an American female for a year or more. Equally notable among the passengers disembarking at Pier 88, Hudson River at 48th St., were sixteen “war dogs” accompanied by their soldier handlers. Trained to track down Japanese in the dense jungles of Burma, they additionally acted as sentries at ammunition dumps when not in combat. Occupying individual kennels on the top deck, they were joined by six “stow-away dogs of doubtful ancestry, all pets of soldiers” soon after leaving India. Capt. James C. Kelso Jr., scheduled for readjustment at Port Devers, Massachusetts, was one of Morton’s passengers listed as returning home from China, along with T.Sgt. Fred S. Stearns.
The greatest number from the 3rd squadron traveled home aboard USS General Charles H. Muir (AP-142). Navy records reported that 423 Army officers and 2,650 enlisted men boarded Muir at Prinsep Ghat, Calcutta, on October 3 and got underway the following day at 1503 "down Hoogley River.” Among the ship’s civilian passengers were famed cultural anthropologist Dr. Margaret Mead Bates and her husband. Muir made stops for refueling at Columbo, Ceylon, and at Port Said, Egypt, before steaming west and arriving at Pier 88, New York, at 0721 on November 1. Streamers with the legend “China, Burma, India” flapped in the breeze as Muir pulled into position and crowds waving “Welcome Home” banners greeted passengers at the pier. Hundreds of soldiers lined the rails and tossed Chinese, Indian, and Japanese money to those waiting below. Lts. Jerome G. Cantor, Thomas H. Edgerton, John F. Faherty, Willard G. Ilefeldt, Thomas A. Kilian, Robert L. Logan, and George P. Wood, T.Sgts. Jack Holmes, William Meikle, James R. Summerville, and Ewell F. Wilkerson, S.Sgts. William G. Duffin, Budd W. Evitts, B. F. Thomas Jr., Paul E. Haines, and Isadore F. Hoke, Sgt. Alfred T. Magyar, Cpls. Rae M. Delahoyde, James J. Morris Jr., Charles W. Richards, and Stanley B. Rickman, and Pfc. Raymond L. Outen Jr. were listed among veterans of the China Theater who passed through customs that day.
Al Magyar was one of four “North Jersey airmen” interviewed as they disembarked. “In contrast to the usual quiet composure of C-B-I veterans homeward bound, the Muir’s passengers cheered and cat-called as the navy transport was warped in to Pier 88, North River, shortly after 7 A. M. With flying caps askew and brown leather jackets covered with multicolored squadron’s insignia, North Jersey pilots told of their experiences with the Chinese American Composite Wing.” Although not a pilot, Magyar described the March 30 mission on which his plane “had its left engine shot out 200 feet over the bridge” before the crew bailed out and “were nine days on the way back to their base.”
A week after departure of Muir, 1st Lts. Frank P. Pulaski and Gerald J. Winter, T.Sgt. Isabel G. Mier, Sgt. Joseph P. Supsic, and Cpl. Russell J. Armbruster were among the 348 officers and 2,447 enlisted personnel (Army and Navy) who steamed out of Calcutta aboard USS General Charles C. Ballou (AP-157) on October 10. The passenger list included 245 US Army patients, forty-five female US Army nurses, and twenty-seven WACs. Ballou followed the same route and arrived in New York on November 6.
“Operation Magic Carpet” continued through the next several months, successfully completing its task of moving military personnel from the European, Pacific, and Asian theaters in September 1946. By that time, over eight million had been transported from battle zones around the world to North America. It proved to be the greatest mass movement of humanity ever attempted in history.
Want more information about “Operation Magic Carpet” and the lives of these and other squadron personnel serving in the China-Burma-India Theater? Find it in The Spray and Pray Squadron: 3rd Bomb Squadron, 1st Bomb Group, Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II.