Decorative pillow covers were a favorite choice of souvenirs among soldiers during World War II, and my grandmother received several from her two sons who served in the US military. This one came from the eldest of her three boys, (then) Cpl. James H. (“Hank”) Mills, who later became my father. The package was postmarked “Goldsboro, N.C.” In addition to providing technical training throughout the war, the base had a unit known as the Provisional Overseas Replacement Training Center, intended to prepare officers and enlisted men for overseas duty. Even as he sent his gift, he understood the probability that many months would pass before he saw any of his family again.

USS Mission Bay (CVE-59) and USS Wake Island (CVE-65) steamed from Staten Island on February 20, 1944, loaded with Army personnel and one hundred P-47 pursuit planes bound for the China-Burma-India Theater. Accompanied by destroyer escorts USS Trumpeter, USS Straub, and USS Gustafson, the convoy formed Task Force Group 27.2. At sea for a biblical “forty days and forty nights,” according to recollections of my father, then-Cpl. James H. (“Hank”) Mills, Mission Bay went down and around the coast to South America, crossed the Atlantic, and then steamed around the coast of Africa and up to the Arabian Sea. Men aboard the carriers were assigned to cramped quarters with little to keep them occupied other than to read, play cards, and sleep. The monotony was interrupted when the carriers crossed the equator, and a traditional line-crossing ceremony got under way to commemorate the occasion. Hank remembered stops for refueling and fresh provisions at Recife, Brazil, at Cape Town, South Africa, and at Cape Diego, Madagascar, before docking at Karachi, India (now part of Pakistan) on March 29.