[Excerpt]

On August 31, Colonel Hyman Weinberg and his crew of nineteen landed. These were to be our “permanent” supervisors now, appointed officially. The crew included: Commanding Officer; Lieutenant Colonel Hyman Weinberg, Executive Officer; Major J. A. Staiger, Assistant Executive Officer and Mess Officer; Captain G. R. Kranich, Adjutant; Sergeant A. S. Levy, Special Service; Captain Avery Ashwood, Transportation and Airdrome Officer; Lieutenant J. G. Griffin, Supply Officer; Lieutenant S. A. Farr and Intelligence and Communications Officer; Captain R. Brandt. The identifications were all listed on the bulletin board for us. Colonel Weinberg’s problem now was to get us out, but the Communist guerillas had blown up the railroads, one after the other, and now the Colonel had to negotiate with them and he was only partially successful.

[excerpt]

Captain Ashwood’s work was to orient the camp to what had been going on in the world during our stay in Weihsien. It was a big task because we were completely ignorant and couldn’t understand some things. Some of the internees even thought he was Communistic.

[excerpt]

One morning at 5:00 A.M. the camp was awakened with Bing Crosby’s crooning and although some were provoked at getting called that early, most of us enjoyed the music because it was so new to us as it came over the loud speaker. One of the officers on night duty had simply mixed switches and didn’t know he had the amplifiers on. Captain Ashwood asked the forces in Kunming for a jeep and some movies and we were very anxious for them, but by mistake they were shipped to Manchuria instead and we didn’t get them.

Soon after we faced another big decision. The officers wanted us to go back to our respective countries, but most of us did not want to go. The missionaries wanted to get back to their posts and the business people wanted to get back to their homes and get their property back, but at least there would be a ship going to the States and we were invited to repatriate. Should we? Father Ghyselinck suggested that I should take a piece of paper, make two columns. In one column I should put down all the reasons, I could think of for going and in the other column, all the reasons for not going. I went back to my room and started out writing.

[excerpt]

The next morning the ground was dry enough and the exodus was on. Three buses stood outside the gates at 7:30 A.M. waiting. They were marked “Greased Lightning”, “Dying Duck” and “Honking Horace”. We bade farewell to the rest of the internees, then out the gate and into the buses. It was a glorious ride, and for most of us the most enjoyable bus ride we would ever have in our lives. Arriving at the station, we saw the train, that train that had been such a headache to Colonel Weinberg, now it would finally be on its way. The second group was to leave in two weeks on the same train and the third group after that, at least we thought so then. The Colonel was to get a few more headaches before he got his flock all out because of damage to the tracks.

[further reading] ...
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/books/Servatia/Servatia(WEB).pdf

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