America in WWII - (Page 9) agreed when we promised to finish school as soon as our one-year enlistment was over. We were both scrawny and I can remember eating a whole lot of bananas to meet the weight requirement. Our enlistment began on March 23, 1941, at Ft. McClellan in Anniston, Alabama. There we were given physicals and took several tests. The results must have given the army the idea we’d be good at clearing mine fields and building bridges because they sent us on to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, for basic training at the Engineer Replacement Training Center. On July 3, 1941, both Mel and I were assigned to Company A of the 85th Engineer Heavy Ponton Battalion. We had found a home in the army for the next four years as the bombing of Pearl Harbor gave Uncle Sam other ideas about our plans for a one-year enlistment. The 85th Engineers were activated only one month prior to our being assigned to the battalion, and were we ever an odd mix of soldiers. There was a sprinkling of fellas from all over the States, but for the most part we were made up of boys from New York and Alabama. It took a while before we could understand each other. But when we did, we grew accustomed to hearing words like “damn Yankees” and “dumb Rebels” used in conjunction with a few other expletives. In spite of our differences in heritage we eventually developed friendships that lasted a lifetime. To this day I get a kick out of reminding my fellow engineers from above the Mason-Dixon how we used to run rings around them on hikes and the obstacle course. I suppose farm work better prepared your endurance for that sort of thing than did factory work…. For Mel and me, engineer training would be extensive. For the better part of the first two years we worked on marksmanship, truck driving, and engineering topics which focused on both tactical and technical training…. Due to shortages of equipment in 1941, we were issued .45-caliber revolvers and later ’03 Springfield rifles which were limited in number and had to be supplemented by wooden imitation rifles. The M1 Carbine we would carry on the battlefield would not be issued to us until sometime in 1942. Even though I had grown up a country boy, I was a terrible marksman and almost didn’t qualify on the rifle range. And did my Yankee buddies get even with me for all the ribbing I’d given them on the obstacle course. I suppose I had that coming…. After completing the basics we focused on bridge building. Heavy ponton battalions were so named because of their specialized training in the building of bridges using metal ponton boats. We hauled the ponton boats to the bridge sites on Mack truck and trailer combinations. Each of us was responsible for the maintenance of our trucks, and we gave them names which were stenciled on the doors. Mine was affectionately called the Impatient Virgin, and before war’s end that ole truck carried me across North Africa, up the boot of Italy, over most of France, and all the way across Germany to Austria. At bridge sites we would use cranes to lift the ponton from the truck into the river. Four boats would be connected together to form bridge sections using beams called balks, and then on top of the balks were placed wooden boards called chesses. The bridge sections would then be floated into place to form the completed bridge span which was stabilized by anchors along its entire length. Our first bridge was built on the Ouachita River in Arkansas during the 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers. We then traveled to South Carolina to continue our training in the First Army maneuvers where we bridged the Pee Dee River several times. I can remember bombers flying over our bridges and dropping sacks of flour to imitate bombs. While I was glad it wasn’t the real thing, I wouldn’t have wanted to be hit by one of those sacks of flour either! Afterward we returned to Belvoir for even more training…. On April 2, 1942, the battalion was relocated to Plattsburg Barracks, New York, where bridge training continued. From Plattsburg we again traveled to North and South Carolina for more maneuvers. My brother Mel nearly missed these maneuvers as he became our company’s second serious casualty by slipping on the concrete steps of the barracks and fracturing his skull. A humorous event occurred while he was hospitalized. A girl I had been dating was misinformed and thought it was I hospitalized. Mel sure was surprised when awakened by OCTOBER 2007 AMERICA IN WWII 9
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.