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Some of these memories have been included in the new audio tape, All Who Sail in Her, narrated by H.R.H. Prince Michael of Kent and produced and compiled by BBC announcer, James Montgomery. on June 16, 1944. Even though it's been more than half a century since I boarded the Queen Mary for the first time, the passage of time has done little to dim the memories of such an auspicious occasion. After leaving High School in Kansas City, Missouri, at 16 years of age, I had a strong desire to become a baseball announcer.This ambition was fostered by a well-known local announcer who advised me to attend the University of Missouri and major in radio journalism. I had just completed my sophomore year at the university when I began my training to be a combat engineer in 1944. We were hustled aboard a troop train after midnight on June 12, 1944 for a three-day trip from Kansas City to New York. After arriving around noon on the 15th, we were billeted in a large warehouse. At eleven p.m. the same day, we were instructed to assemble a full field pack plus duffel bag for a "short hike". That hike turned out to be the most exciting of my young, inexperienced life. At 2:00 a.m., the morning of June 16th, we were led up a long, enclosed gangway. As we approached the top, we saw a dull gray side of what looked like an ordinary troop ship. "It was 0200 hours when we were told to assemble our gear and be ready to go and then we were taken up a long, enclosed gangway. We couldn't see above or to either side, just straight ahead and back and as we approached the top, we saw a dull gray side of what looked like an ordinary troopship. You can understand how I and the rest of the men felt when we actually arrived and as we entered the ship, we came into the Promenade Deck area - the ornate columns and the gorgeous decorations - I'm telling you, to me it was like arriving in Paradise, Heaven or the Land of Oz..." "It was then the word spread rapidly; 'Hey, we're on the Queen Mary, the Gray Ghost'. I was so overwhelmed I couldn't believe it. It was absolutely astonishing to be taken out of this cold, empty, black warehouse to the gangway and all of a sudden the door opens and you have arrived—you're on board this Queen—oh, it was unbelievable!" "I was amazed that they kept a lot of the actual decorations. Much of the ship was overhauled for the G.I.s and carrying the troops, but they still had a lot of ornate fixtures and a lot of the materials and decorations they had for people who'd paid a lot of money to go back and forth across the ocean on the Queens".
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