Last Stop USA

For 1.3 million World War II American soldiers, Piermont, NY was their last stop in the country before they sailed across the Atlantic to join the war in Europe. They were housed in nearby Camp Shanks, and on the day they left America to join the war, 40,000 men a month walked down the pier, and boarded either a ship to France or a ferry to New York on their way to England. For many, the walk down the Piermont pier was their final walk on American soil.
This striking monument features a statue of a helmeted GI in full uniform. He has a hand grenade and a shovel on his belt, and a sash with many pockets for equipment storage. His right hand is raised in a sign of farewell. His left hand is resting on a stone whose plaque bears the following inscription:
Last Stop U.S.A.
During World War Two, 40,000 U.S. troops per month, including many Piermont residents, passed this spot enroute to the end of Piermont Pier, the largest port of embarkation on the East Coast, where ships were waiting to transport them to military duty in war-​torn Europe. Many of these troops landed on the shores of France where the invasion began on June 6, 1944. Thus this area came to be known as «Last Stop U.S.A.»
After the war came to a victorious conclusion, some 533,869 men returned home to the U.S.A. first setting foot on their homeland at the end of that same Piermont Pier.
«Lest We Forget,» many of the men who embarked from Piermont never returned.
This plaque is dedicated to the honor of those who served and the sacred memory of those who never returned.
Dedicated 1994