William Livingston, Enrollee, Company 1195, Camp S-54, Hadden, CT & PFC, 1st Marine Division, USMC, Guadalcanal, WWII

Biography of William Livingston

Enrollee, Company 1195, Camp S-54, Hadden, CT

PFC, 1st Marine Division, USMC, Guadalcanal, WWII

I was a member of 1195th Co. CCC Hadden, Connecticut. The year was 1938, we were paid $30.00 per month....$22.00 was sent to your home, they took out $.50 cents for your laundry, $5.00 for a PX book for the PX that sold candy, smokes, etc, and gave you $2.50 in cash...it was the best thing FDR ever did...it took us kids off the streets and did a lot to make men out of boys. The food was very good, we worked outside in the woods, cutting down dead trees, fighting fires, building roads, etc.

Bill Livingston 11195th Co CCC Hadden, Connecticut, 1938

The captain of our outfit had a German name. He was regular Army. We wore army uniforms without the brass buttons, and fell in for roll call every morning but Saturday and Sunday. They had a CCC truck take us to a local town, Middletown, Connetticutt, on Saturday Night. On Friday nights we had boxing, three rounds...1 full carton cigs. if you won, ½ carton if you lost.

Also every Friday we had either the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Corps, and US Marine Corps give us a pitch to join up...I picked the US Marines. When I first went into the Marines my pay was $21.00 a month. We were paid more in the CCC and the food was a hell of a lot better.

In the Marines I saw four years of service with two and a half years overseas with the 1st Marine Div...and saw action from Guadalcanal on up, about half the men that I was with in the Marines were in the CCC.

I have talked to a lot of World War II vets, and they all had the same story about the GI helmet. The outside cover (steel) of the GI helmet had a lot of good uses.

1) Bailing Water out of your foxhole after heavy rain.

2) Using as a Potty. You would not leave your fox hole at night - some trigger happy marine would blow your head off. Cooking Coffee and other food in it.

3) Carrying Water in it. I was in a .30 caliber water cooled machine gun outfit. We were always running out of water. Washing and Shaving. used as a sink.

4) Last, not not all - we dug out fox holes with it, it could dig faster than the short spade they gave you. I had talked to Army men from the ETO and men from the Southwest Pacific. They all said the same thing. The GI helmet was the best thing going for us in World War II. Yet, it could not stop a bullet or shrapnel from going through it. But it did have a lot of good use and helped win the war.

PFC Bill Livingston, USMC 12-18-41 to 12-24-45 2 ½ years overseas

The photograph above is me, PFC Bill Livingston just back from 2 ½ years of blood shit and more shit....Take a good look at the photo and you can tell I was happy to get back in action. (I was hit three times). I got out of the war in one piece. A Lot of my buddies were not so lucky.

After the war I went to the Univeristy of Massachussetts unde the PL 16 for Disabled Veterans. After that I spent my life as a Golf Course Superintendent. On January 8th 2004 I was 83 years old.

CCC Song

The Coffee that they give you they say is mighty fine,

Its Good for cuts and bruises as good as Iodine.

Now you take a trip to the shit house and its nice and cozey thair,

The wind blows up your asshole and tickles your curly hair

Now the Payroll that they give you they say is might fine,

They pay you $30,00 and fine you twenty nine.

I dont want any more of the CCC,

Gee I want to Go Home!!!!!!!!!!

----- Bill Livingston

LINKS

BACK TO James F. Justin Civilian Conservation Corps Museum Biographies