Don't want to hijack the thread, but these stories of WWII "adopted orphans" always makes me recall the puzzlement of my dad's story of trying to return home with war trophies. He always told me that he had a half duffle of Lugers etc that he tried to bring home, but he and his entire unit finally dumped them before debarkation due to the constant hassle they were given over them. I never understood this after the constant stories I heard from other GI's.
A couple of years ago I finally found a clue on a genealogy site. I ran across a listing that showed him as a 1945 immigrant into New York! I found a flight manifest showing his name, rank, serial number (all correct) along with names of his service mates I recognized. He was drafted in July 1940 in the first peacetime draft, due to muster out Dec 15, 1940. He actually was discharged in late 1945. Due to his age and experience, he was placed in a group called the Persian Gulf Command. They included about 300 men, and their commander reported directly to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. No line command at all. This was due to the political nightmare of the operation with the Russians, US, and British all jockeying for postwar position and the tenuous stability of the Shah's relatively new monarchy. They were tasked with operating the suppley rail system to move lend lease supples to Russia. He served in Persia until near the end of the war and spent the last few months in a holding pattern in Marseilles. My only conclusion was that the entire command consisted of only a few plane loads of people. They were not attached to any Army or Division and so not included in the return plans of anyone. The simple solution was apparently to fly them home into a civilian airport where they were required to go through customs. That was likely the issue leading to the disposal of all the war trophies. He always told me he hated flying, but he never mentioned this occasion, which was probably the only flight in his life. One of the great regrets of my life was that I never found out in time that after his death in 1980, the Russian govenrment created a series of Presidential medals which were presented to the members of the Command at a White House ceremony. They were given to the survivors and their families but many were not informed because the records of most army veterans of the period were destroyed in the massive fire at the records center in St Louis.
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