http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.00186/transcript?ID=sr0001

Steve Soudakoff:

A: Fort Ritchie, Maryland. Volick (ph) is very much connected with Fort Ritchie. That was in high school where I had my training. And I think in March of 1943 a number of us were taken to Hagerstown, Maryland, to the District Court of--I forgot the name of the county. And we were lined up: "Everybody off the truck, inside, sit down." We all sat down on these seats. The judge came in: "Everybody rise, raise your right hands." We raised our right hands and took the oath of citizenship; right. And: "Congratulations, you're now citizens of the United States." That was applied to the military. That's how I became a citizen. Chinese immigration laws, no such thing. Ah, yeah. Before World War II members of the yellow race could not become citizens of the United States unless they happened to have been born in this country because that was there in the Constitution. So Chinese could not immigrate to these United States. But according to American laws of immigration, you are considered to be a citizen of the country in which you are born. Now, my parents came in on the Russian quota, which was very easy because Russia is a large country, the quota was large, but nobody could leave Russia. So therefore it was easy, very--so there was plenty of--you didn't have to wait or anything like that. Of course, they were also supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, where my father worked. So he came in, and he and--my mother and my father were under the Russian quota. But how about my sister and me? What were we listed as on the papers? We were listed as nonChinese.

Steve Soudakoff:

A: And I was given a train ticket and we went by train from Camp Roberts to Chicago. And in Chicago--no trains ever go through Chicago. You have to switch trains. You have to go from one station to another. And during the war Chicago was great for servicemen. All the museums and all the transportation was free, and you could go around town and see things. And we got into Chicago in the morning, and the train for Blue Ridge, Maryland, wasn't leaving until that afternoon. And there was another serviceman there, an Italian. And he was also headed for this Blue Ridge, Maryland. And he was an Italian lawyer. He was older than I was. And I told him that--I asked him if he was also going to this mountain infantry school. He said: "Mountain infantry school?" He said: "I'm going to MI." I said: "Well, so am I." He said: "That's not mountain infantry; that's military intelligence." And that's when I found out what MI stood for, in Chicago. And he and I got along very nicely. We took the capital train from Chicago which went to Washington, and we got off at Cumberland, Maryland. And we took the Western Maryland Railroad from there to Hagerstown--oh, no, not to Hagerstown, to Waynesboro, Maryland, and Blue Ridge, Blue Ridge, Maryland. And it was a wonderful train. The smoke came in through all the windows. It was a coal-burning train. By the time we got to Blue Ridge, we were covered with soot. But anyway, we got there. And that's when we got into the program in western Maryland--that's how we got to MI school. People had to wait for an interview to see if they were qualified for the next class. They had to know the language. And I was assigned to the Russian--I didn't know what I was assigned to. And then everybody got interviewed in the barracks that I was assigned to. And the barracks were just built. There was no heat. It was in February. It was cold. And there were a lot of empty bunks. So what I did, I took one of the mattresses off of the empty bunks and put it on top of mine and slept between the two mattresses. I remember that very definitely. And everybody would get interviewed. And I never was called. So the next class was already--well, about to--the list for the next class was about to come out, and it came out and there was my name. And then later on, finally I found out that in my class, in my Russian section, everybody had been interviewed except me. So how I got--ever assigned to that thing I don't know to this day. But I never got interviewed. I don't know on what basis they decided that I was qualified. But anyway, I never got interviewed. And we went through, I think, three months of military intelligence training, basic military intelligence, which included order of battle and IPW, interrogation of prisoners of war, and training--regular MI training. And the first thing we were given was this book that had been written by the commanding officer of the camp, Colonel Banfield. Later on he was General Banfield. But when I was there he was still Colonel Banfield. And his book was known as the S-2 in Action. And we all had to read S-2 in Action, the first thing we had to do. And one of the things that he complained of was that during peacetime--he had been an S-2 during World War I. And he complained that during peacetime nobody was interested in--the last thing they were interested in was in military intelligence. So it sort of went--it was forgotten about. And when World War II started, they started looking around for somebody who had some experience along those lines. And he was the one who was picked because he had written this book, S-2 in Action. So that's how we got into this whole thing. I had a section of people--everybody knew Russian in that section and knew it well. And we were supposed to go to Russia as liaison people. Well, they trained us for it, but the Russians wouldn't take us. That was against Stalin's policy.

Steve Soudakoff:

A: I was sent to Camp Crowder, Missouri, for that. So I went for Camp Crowder, Missouri, for the crypto training. And there they organized teams to go to various places. And I got assigned to this Chinese team. And one of the things we had to learn was how to type. And you had to learn how to type 30 words a minute. And I think they gave you three weeks to learn how to type 30 words a minute. And if you could finish it earlier, you could get whatever period you had before the time was up, you could get that many days leave. And I got a week's leave out of it. And a week was the maximum you could get, anyway. And I went to--well, nine days, actually, two weekends. And I went to California to visit my parents. That was the first time that I got to visit my parents. And it was right at Christmastime of '44--of'43, '43, Christmastime of '43. 1943, Christmastime. And then later on, a few months later, we were on our way to China.

Heidi Carlson:

Q: What unit were you assigned to in China?

Steve Soudakoff:

A: I was with the 24th Signal Service Detachment. And our job was to maintain communications and train Chinese. Well, my job was to--I had a shift--I was a shift chief. And I also had to train Chinese in cryptography and interpret for the man who was training them in radio communication.

Stephen Petrovich Soudakoff (1922)