This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

On six afternoons, ship "radio" programs were "broadcast" over the PA system. Music was furnished for these programs and for the variety shows by the "Serpent Syncopators" and the "Mountaineers," two musical organizations hastily assembled after embarkation.
A library of 600 bound volumes, an adequate supply of council books and magazines appeased readers. Other diversionary activities were 1eathercraft, weaving and model plane assembling.
The trip was uneventful. Waters were rough, and seasickness was not absent. On the fourth day out, a B-29 aircraft swooped down low over the bow of our ship.
Speculation had the ship destined for every port on the West Coast at one time or another, and there was rumors that we would go through the Panama Canal. Storms were always just ahead or behind but never caught up with us.
On 29 November 1945, we enjoyed our second turkey Thanksgiving dinner on successive Thursdays on board the Marine Serpent. A general Thanksgiving Day service was held on the fantail of the ship.
No feature of the voyage was more popular that the "progress map" posted outside the Transport Services office and brought up to date each day.
We arrived at San Francisco, California on 11 December 1945, and subsequently moved on harbor boats to Camp Stoneman, California. Our Regiment was inactivated on 21 December 1945.
I was sent, by train, to Camp Shelby, Mississippi where I was finally separated from service on 23 December 1945. What a wonderful Christmas present to my family, relatives, friends, and to me, after spending five years in the military, two of them overseas. I thank Almighty God for sparing me through all the dangers and trials encountered while in the 31st Infantry "Dixie" Division.
-16-