y of around
Camp Reynolds - World War II Army Cam

 
 REMEMBRANCES - Page 7

George H Eastlake and son George Junior helped in construction of the camp between 1942 in 1943 and Richard Eastlake helped them tearing down some of the barracks in 1946 or 1947.

Dale Eastlake had a garage that was formally a fire station on Edgewood Drive and
My sister Vie worked at the Telephone Switchboard at the camp. Taylor and Lewis Hillman worked at a PX, these memories are from 1943 to 1944.
- Mrs. Eastlake - Local Resident

While I was in the Army I was stationed in Germany in 1970 where I met a World War II German POW in Bamberg Germany. I was out looking to have a pair of jeans made and went into a sewing shop that was long and narrow. I didn't see anyone and was looking around for a sales person. While waiting for someone I noticed that there was an arch behind one of the displays and I looked through the arch into another room. I saw a 4' x 8' piece of plywood covered with US soldier's patches. Eventually the owner come out and we started to talk and I asked the owner about how he got the patches. The owner explained that he was a German POW captured early in the war and was sent to a POW Camp in the United States where he got the patches from soldiers. I asked where in the US he said it was in some little place in Pennsylvania. Being from Mercer, PA and aware of the Camp Reynolds I asked him what was the name of the camp and he said Camp Reynolds. I thought that was pretty neat to be in Germany and run into a World War II POW  that was stationed at Camp Reynolds back in 1944 to 1946.

- Tom Waddell - Mercer Resident

My grandmother who lived in Youngstown, Ohio had daughters that used to Camp Reynolds for Dances. My grandmother didn't like the idea of them being around soldiers and told them to stay away from those "Dam" soldiers.
- Grandson

A friends dad would take soldiers to bars and then would pick them up at closing time. He charged a couple of dollars for gas money for a car load.
- Former Area Resident

I remember our family going to Greenville to the Keck and Young grocery store to get meat. While in town  my father would pass out envelopes with his address on them to soldiers and servicemen and asked if they would send him a military patch. He received over 150 patches. One patch was from a German officer.

Once I was lost as a little girl and remember that a soldier helped me find her parents.

There was sugar rationing during much of the war and we couldn't get sugar to make cookies but a family we knew who owned a restaurant could make cookies because they could get sugar through their restaurant.

I also remember that the barracks Thiel College bought after the camp had closed were used for married couples housing.
- Myrna Kamerer Hefty - Former Greenville Resident

This story details how most of the Luciani family worked at Camp Reynolds, either during the time it was active or afterwards.
 Aunt Sara worked in the Administration building and knew which soldiers were about to be shipped out. Wanting to give them a good meal before they left, she would invite some to Grandma’s house for Sunday dinner. When there were several of them at a particular meal, my Grandma would tell her children to just say they weren’t hungry for the spaghetti in order to ensure that there was enough for the guests. However, when it came time for dessert and to be sure there was enough again, she would say to the kids “Those who no eata the spaghetti, no getta the dessert”. Of course, the kids were always fed something later. This has been a funny memory for the family ever since.
Aunt Antoinette worked selling war bonds throughout the Camp. Both she and Aunt Ann served as hostesses at the USO facility in Riverside Park as well.
Aunt Ann later worked as Bob Parker’s secretary at Pymatuning Telephone Co. and at the Westinghouse office in Reynolds Development.
Uncle Joe, the youngest of the family, worked at the entrance of the camp as a shoe shine boy.
My father, Tony, initially worked on the highway as a flagman and got to know a Colonel from Camp Reynolds who he waived through everyday. It was through this Colonel that he acquired the job with the company that erected the Camp buildings and later worked for one of the companies that tore it down. During the deconstruction, he was able to purchase a building for $10.00 which became the start of my grandfather’s house (his father-in-law). The structure was hauled on a flatbed truck up to Meadville!
Asking how they were able to get down to Camp Reynolds from Greenville, I was told that the Camp was the major employer at that time and many people drove there daily. There was also a bus, which had been converted from a car carrier, that went down every day as well. You could hitch a ride either way.
- Lin Luciani Murrin, granddaughter and Greenville Resident.

When the camp buildings were being sold off after the camp was closed the Amphitheater was moved to Farrell High School's football field.
- Area Resident

I remember when jeeps and other military equipment came to West Middlesex by railroad and from there the equipment was trucked to the camp on back roads.
I also remember that there would be specials announcements on the radio when a Prisoner of War had escaped.
- Area Resident

I remember on Sundays the old St. Joseph's Church in Sharon would be full of soldiers
- Sharon Resident

I remember as a young boy I would run down to the railroad station in Sharon PA when I heard a train coming so I could watch the troop trains go by as they were headed to embarkation points.
- Sharon Resident

I remember that Fred Bennett Jr., who owned property where the camp was to be built had Bennett's Evergreen Nursery and when the government took his property that he moved his evergreen trees to Sharon.
- Area Resident

My parents lived in Mercer while I was in elementary school. I remember Army trucks coming through Mercer headed to Camp Reynolds. The Army MPs would block off the intersections so the trucks would not have any interruption. It seemed like an endless line of trucks especially to a young boy.
- Bob Stone, Greenville Resident

As a young girl I remember seeing German POWs marched through Fredonia on Liberty Street. I would sit on the curb and watch them pass by.
- Fredonia Resident

Two of my Aunts who lived in Sandy Lake, PA used to go to the dances at Camp Reynolds. Both of them meet their future husbands there.
- Sandy Lake Resident

As a young boy I would visit my grandparents, Urban and Martha McCann who lived in a farm house located on Cossitt Road, Transfer, PA just off of Route 18. While sitting on the front porch with my brother and cousin I remember seeing campfires at the Army camp . This would have been in 1945 or 1946.
 - Newt Reash, Grandson

I remember as a young girl in Stoneboro. PA  that former Army barracks from Camp Reynolds were used for some of our elementary classrooms.
 - Stoneboro PA Resident

I remember a lady who worked in a kitchen at one of the camp's Commissary's that recalled that there were POWs who also helped in the kitchen
- Area Resident