By: Milt Montague

It was the middle of World War 2. It was 1943, I had been drafted into the army, completed basic training and ended up in Brooklyn, New York at a small Catholic College just 15 minutes from where my family lived! The school was taken over by the United States Army to train qualified soldiers to become engineers for the army, but the teachers were all priests.

I was assigned an upper bunk and met my bunkmate Morry Kaplan. We were two lonely boys away from home for the first time in our lives. We talked and realized how similar our backgrounds were. He was raised in Chicago and I in New York and we both thought alike. So it was easy for us to became fast friends. Then I called my mother to pick us up at the school. After a sumptuous meal, my mother was an excellent cook, she returned us to the school.

After a few months of this heaven, the army abruptly decided to close the schools, as they needed more troops for the war in Europe We were separated although both sent to Louisiana for maneuvers and then to Camp Breckenridge in Kentucky near Evansville, Indiana for more…….training. After a few months they were using our unit for replacements in the retaking of France. Morry and I were reunited in Camp Kilmer, New Jersey while waiting for orders to go to Europe to fight. While there we explored the campgrounds, found a hole in the fence in back of the hospital. This led to a small road where we got a lift into the railroad station and then into New York. We were able to get home for dinner as the camp is close to New York. I drove back to the camp every night and parked the car on a dirt road near “our hole”.

Back home in Brooklyn, my mother invited Morry,s mother to stay with us and be able to see her son. This was the last time I saw Morry until……

One day, 70 years later, I got a phone call,
“Is this my old buddy, Milty ?