I graduated from Watertown H.S. in May of 1941. Europe had been engaged in Hitler's war for almost 2 years and it was just a matter of time before we were involved. The Army Air Corp had a program going, where if you enlisted you could choose your school. Aug. 29 I enlisted at Fort Crook, Nebr. with the promise to attend the Photography Sch. at Lowry Field in Denver. My first week was spent at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. It consisted of orientation, applitude tests and the General Classification Test. You had to score at least 110 on that to be Officer material - I scored 141, but had no illusions of being an officer.
JEFFERSON BARRACKS
After a week I was sent to Jefferson Barracks at St. Louis for
Basic Training. My basic was a bit of a farce. It rained a good bit
of the time, so mine consisted of some close-order drill and lots of
lectures out of the rain. No obstacle course, no small arms training,
no 25 mile hikes - no nothing that would prepare you to do battle. I
did get into town a time or two, and even got to attend my first major
league baseball game , the Cards and Dodgers, if memory serves me right.
SAVANNAH ARMY AIR BASE
In mid Oct. there were no
openings at the School and I was assigned to Hq. Sq., 3rd Bomb. Gp.
Savannah Army Air Base. Having some typing skills I was
assigned to Group Operations as a Clerk
Typist, and informed that I was scheduled to attend School in January 1942.
Operations
was on the Hangar Line and this was all very new and interesting to
this Dakota Boy. Even got my first ride in an Airplane, 0-47 -
observation plane. Did get into Savannah couple times, but did not find
it that exciting. Did visit a yacht basin one day, why, I
will never know.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
In
December, they started putting out Christmas furloughs. Being a short timer, I had to take mine early, and only got 7 days. This was not enough
time to get to South Dakota, but I had a Sister working in D.C. and my old boy
hood pal, Erv Von Wald had moved there. On the evening of Dec. 6, I
arrived at the D.C. bus station and was met by my Sis and Erv. I
stayed with the Von Walds, and Sunday afternoon, Erv and I walked up to
the corner drug store for ice cream. They had the radio on and were
getting the bulletin that the Japs were attacking Pearl Harbor. That
nite I received a telegram to report back to base PDQ. Couldn't get a
bus out until Monday nite, so Erv gave me a whirlwind tour of our Nations
Capitol. We were standing outside the Capitol Building photographing
it when FDR was giving his "Day of Infamy" speech.
SAVANNAH TO OAKLAND
That
nite I boarded the bus and headed back to the base, so much for my
first furlough. The next five weeks were rather hectic ones. We
started packing up for a move, and the Christmas Holidays were a rather
somber time. Jan. 19 we boarded a troop train and headed West. We
spent a week in a huge warehouse in Oakland. Could get short passes to
get into town, and had some dock details helping to load equipment.
About 1:30 AM Jan. 31, '42 we boarded the USS Ancon. About
2:30 that afternoon we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge headed West.
Many of us thought the P.I.