Excerpts from Jason Mavrovitis' personal memoirs:

I was on the deck of a military transport ship docked in New Jersey. It was loading troops and cargo bound for Bremerhaven, Germany. I remembered the advice I had received from World War II veterans and tumbled down a gangway to find the hold I was assigned to and a top bunk at an air vent. I climbed up, and in, and claimed my territory.

Volunteering for kitchen duty was easy enough. Within minutes, I was in the ship’s kitchen wearing a gigantic white apron. I was a butcher’s helper, cutting meat, scrubbing chopping blocks, and doing whatever the cook wanted me to do. The chief cook was Greek, so I ate well when on duty, eight hours every other day.

Augsburg and Ansbach, Germany
(Once we arrived at Bremerhaven) a train was waiting for us within walking distance from the ship. We got on board and started our trip south toward a replacement center ("Repo Depot") close to the German-French border. The center, at Zweibruecken, was on a hill overlooking a beautiful, forested landscape. In seventy-two hours our clothing had been laundered and dry-cleaned, our hair cut, and our transit orders issued. We were taken to the rail station and sent off to our units.

The train ride gave me a sense of what Germany was like. The rail right-of-way bordered many well-kept homes whose flowered gardens were a surprise to see out of the train window; it was nothing like train travel in the U.S. After several hours, we stopped at a station, and my group was ordered off the train at Augsburg by the sergeant who accompanied us. It was a beautiful summer afternoon. The little square directly outside the station had a statue, a fountain, and flowers. We climbed aboard the trucks that were waiting.