Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

A: Oh no, never any place like that.
I$: So you stayed fairly well south?
A: Well they never got to Belgium that quick did they? You know I don't know that, I
don't know. I never got to Belgium though.
Q: You were credited with being in the Belgium campaign, so I think it was during that
time that you were in there.
A: Who? Me?
Q: Yes.
A: Where'd you see . . .
Q: Well that wouldn't have necessarily meant that you were in Belgium, hut you were in
France or someplace in that area when the Belgium campaign was going on. Let's see, I
thought I had listed here the three campaigns - yes, Normandy, Northern France, and Belgium
campaigns were the three campaigns . . .
A: Well then that - that's a credit to the engineers, to the company, that's a credit to the
company. And come to think, I think Harrison said they got there. But see - hell, I never
heard - it's funny because I talked to a fellow by the name of Broderick in the last two
years, a fellow I used to know very well, but he'd heen away. And he remarked about his
service. He was one of the first guys to go from Alton, he was a young bachelor, he was
young, single then, not a bachelor. He's
married now and has a family and
grandchildren. Rut he called those camps where they got to come home from cigarette
camps, like Marseille and . . . and I never heard that term in my life until after I moved
out to Godfrey! Never heard it! I never talked about the damned army. (chuckles)
Q: What did they mean by cigarette camps'!
A: Well they'd call, "Lucky Strike, you got to go to?"
Q: Oh I see.
A: Or Phillip Morris or Camel to come home. I mean that's where they sent the guys to
come home.
Q: These were code names.
A: Yes code names, sure. Yes that's right. Yes they called them - and I never heard that
term in my life. If I did, I don't remember it.
Q: Yes sir.
A: Well everybody wanted to get back home I guess. You can't blame them for that. And
of course you had to use the rumors you know that you - even when you were in the hospital,
they were going to pick you up and send you to Japan or something like that you know.
Q: Yes sir.
A: Of course that's - the army is a great place for rumors. I might have started some
of them myself!
Q: (chuckles) Yes sir. Well now, you were injured before the Battle of the Bulge then,
around in December or so.