Lloyd and Pauline Bunting, 1945
Pauline Bunting, 1945
Lloyd H Bunting Jr, 2005
Getting married
In this story I have not yet mentioned my first R&R to Sydney where the first Australian girl I met was at the Trocadero Dance Hall: a WAAAF, ACW Pauline Prentice who, after 8 months, became my wife on 23rd March 1945.
Pauline and I celebrated "VJ" day in Brisbane and some months waiting for my transport home. A honeymoon really.
Daily I went off, like a civvy commuter, to work in the cemetery, digging graves and relocating U.S. coffins from up North. Then returning home to the wife. So normal. So normal.
Back to the mainland
Transport to the U.S. became congested but I got a 3 weeks ride, again as a tourist, on a Victory cargo ship from Brisbane to San Diego, arriving on 12 November 1945.
I was then sent to Angel Island (again) and then travelled by train (for 4 days) to Fort Dix in New Jersey.
Finally, on Thanksgiving Day, 24 November 1945, I was given some money and a train ticket and discharged from the US Army Air Corps.
[Lloyd's honorable discharge certificate is here]
Going home
I caught a train to White Plains, New York and rang my mother, who nearly wrecked the car getting to the station to collect me.
There would be time to celebrate this homecoming, but first there were other important matters to attend to; so within minutes of my arrival home, I had changed into civilian clothes and accompanied my parents and sister Nancy to a football match. Sad Sack's Homecoming
Epilog
(Written by Lloyd H Bunting III)
Pauline Bunting travelled to New York via San Francisco in 1946 on the Monterey.
Back to Yale
As a member of a fast-moving squadron in the Pacific, Lloyd spent his ground time in forward air bases, rarely near any towns. He sent most of his pay back to his sister. When Lloyd and Pauline arrived in USA they found that the money they had sent home for safe keeping, and on which they planned to build their post-war future, had been spent by Lloyd's sister. They found it impossible to stay in Lloyd's parents' house at White Plains NY, and lived in rented premises until Lloyd was able to move to accommodation arranged by Yale for returning students.
Yale married students' accommodation: Quonset huts on Whitney Avenue
On their return to Yale University Lloyd and Pauline lived in Quonset huts set up as married quarters for returning students.
Lloyd Jr at Yale visited by his parents from White Plains, NY
Leaving USA for Australia
In August 1947 Lloyd and his wife flew to Australia (United Airlines, NY to San Francisco, then Pan American Airways to Sydney). They left USA without advising Lloyd's parents of their departure, and arrived in Sydney almost penniless, supported by Lloyd's GI Bill pension. Lloyd worked in a factory (assembling refrigerators) at night, and continued his architecture studies during the day at Sydney University.
Australia, Papua and back to Australia
Lloyd finished his architecture degree at Sydney University and joined an architectural firm. Lloyd's firm submitted a shortlisted design for the Olympic Games facilities at Melbourne, held in 1956.
In 1955 Lloyd and his family moved to Port Moresby (just 10 years after VJ Day). Lloyd designed hospitals and other public buildings in Papua/New Guinea.
In 1961 Lloyd and his family moved back to Australia - specifically Springwood (Winmalee) in Sydney's Blue Mountains. Lloyd continued to design banks and major government buildings. He was also a project manager of some of those projects.
Lloyd returned to Hawaii for a remembrance event on the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack. He was accompanied by his daughter Anne.
Appreciation:
Lloyd Bunting, representing the American Legion, speaking at a ceremony in Sydney Australia.
The end of the story
Lloyd Bunting died on 17 August 2007.
