Posted on 03/01/2020 5:03:05 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska
I was at Ft. Leonard Wood for 3 weeks in Jan. ‘76 for ‘Minuteman’ training for we prior-service guys (I was in ‘69-’72). It was 3 weeks of drill and ceremony, PT and the rifle range. Cold, cold, cold, great place to forget.
Sacred to the memory of MG Leonard Wood, awarded MOH for bravery against the Apaches, Commanding General of a “Wing” (3 Regiments) in the S-A War & Governor General of the Philippines.
Yours, TMN78247
We need to swap somehow. We need your dry and you need our wet. LOL
"I was drafted into the US Army on February 5, 1943. The physical exam, etc. was done at the old Pacific Electric RR building located at 5th and Main in Los Angeles. After all that was completed, I went to the Arlington Reception Center near Riverside, California. I believe that I was there for only a couple of days, issued uniforms, et al, when I was called into the office and told that I would be in charge of a Troop movement. When I was given an envelope containing meal tickets and transportation vouchers, I found that the Troop movement consisted of one, (me).
The orders sent me to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, via Fort Worth, Dallas, and Tulsa, of which I remember very little. I do remember that whenever we stopped, I would ask the conductor how long we would be there and I would take off. One of the non-coms with the other troops on the train would run me down only to find that I did not belong to its unit. They must have chased me five miles total on the whole trip. They too were going to Leonard Wood, but had come from the San Francisco area. My duffel bag did not get there when I did so I was without an overcoat, which was greatly needed in the Ozarks in Missouri, considering I had been working in the California Desert. We came into the Fort through the back gate and to this day I have no idea what the front gate looks like. I was put on the top floor of a two story wooden barracks along with 39 other new recruits or draftees as the case may be. Thus started my Basic Training in the Combat Engineers.
Many funny things took place during those Basic Days. We wore rubber overshoes over our combat boots most of the time. On one of the early days as our Platoon leader was inspecting the troops, he looked at the feet of the soldier on my right, then stepped in front of me, then back to the soldier on my right. The young Mexican kid from Monterey, California had the overshoes on the wrong feet making the angle of the feet look rather peculiar. We went on about a 15-mile march one day and the normal plan was to take a ten-minute break every hour. At our first break this same Mexican kid complained about his feet hurting. The sergeant had him take off his boots. It turned out that he was only wearing the overshoes with no boots. He had blisters on both top and bottom of his feet. He did get a ride back to the barracks however.
One day during an inspection, the platoon leader, who was a Mexican Lieutenant, about 6'1" tall, stopped in front of me. The normal routine was to come to Inspection Arms with the rifle held at an approximate 45-degree angle with the bolt open. When the inspecting officer reached for your rifle you let go and it was his problem. On this occasion I was ready for him to reach for the rifle. When his shoulder twitched as though he was grabbing for my rifle, I let it drop. He grabbed for it and in doing so hit himself alongside the head with this nine pounds of steel, knocking himself backwards into the squad behind him and knocking a soldier in that rank down. At least two of the members of the platoon burst out laughing. The Lt picked himself up threw the rifle back at me, which I caught, and started chewing out the two or three that laughed. It seems that when I got to Fort Leonard Wood, they did not have a nametag for me. This Lt always asked me my name in no uncertain terms, until the above event happened. After that he never asked me my name again.
The exit doors to our barracks were rather peculiar in that the screen door opened in and the outside door opened out. We had just been released to our barracks and were upstairs, all 40 of us, when we received word to make a complete change of uniform, and fall out into formation, NOW!!! The first one down the stairs did not get the screen door open and the 39 behind him pushed him and both doors down the 6 or 8 steps to the ground. There were 39 sets of footprints on this poor fellow. As I recall, he did get a couple of days in the hospital to recover from this event.
During the eight weeks I was there, we were taught knot tying, bridge construction, demolition, road building and combat training (rifle drill, weapons firing, close order drill, long tactical marches, etc.). During the knot tying training, I drove the sergeant nuts. Having spent many years in the Boy Scouts, I could tie most of the knots behind my back, which I proceeded to do whenever I was asked for a certain knot This really made his day, I’m sure."
What an excellent story and so well written by your dad! He had quite an adventure there! LOL!
I WISH!!
Good evening, radu...hope you got some drying time today before you get MORE rain.
It’s snowing here and supposed to keep going all night. It IS beautiful to watch coming down.
An interesting look into the past through your dad’s words. Neat that he kept notes about some of his time in the service. Those are treasures.
I WISH TOO!!!
Thanks Kathy, great diary by your Dad, very interesting to read!
Yes, it was dry and fairly warm today and has been windy the past two days. That helps with drying.
But the rain’s closing in fast tonight.
Your snow IS pretty to watch on the airport cam ..... from MNAY miles away. LOL
It’ll be a mess going to work in the morning though. :-(
Howdy, PRO!
Have you had a good weekend? Still enjoying those nice temps. We’ve been cold here for a few days but it warmed up nicely today.
You are most welcome.
My basic training camp.
Good weekend and weather here, sunny and cold in the mornings but nice and warmish in the afternoons.
I'm actually working tomorrow morning because of a delayed delivery last Friday but will be back home around 9 AM.
Kittehs behavin'?
I will call the dealer first thing in the morning. Maybe I might be able to get it in Monday, but we will see. My guess is I will need to stop and "air-up" every night before I can get it in.
Just finished shoveling 2+" off the deck and feeding a couple hundred ducks. 🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆
Da kittehs are in a bit of a snit these days. A new cat has been hanging around and they get wound up when they see him through the windows. They can relax. He's not coming inside. He's apparently spending most of his time at Hubby's cousin's farm next door, hanging out with his cat.
I remembered I hadn't loaded the pix from yesterday's fun at the museum so just did it. It was great to be up there again. I wanted to dive into a crate of uniforms and other fabric items but instead had to help inventory a ton of Technical Manuals. Two crates of them. Hubby and his cousin sorted through one crate, weeding out duplicates, in this pic.
We'd been working a while when I stopped to take the pix. Booth crates were full to the rim when we started.
This shot shows the cases the books were placed in after they'd been logged.
All those cases are full now. We need to get more cases as there are still 4 more crates of TMs, Field Manuals, and various other manuals. At least those are still in Tupelo so next time we're up there, I'm divin' into my crate! LOL
As I was putting the thread together I remembered that part of my Dad’s remembrances started at Fort Leonard Wood. I wanted to share...some of it is pretty funny.
Glad the air hadn’t all leaked out again. Also glad you were able to get the dead battery recharged. You should start it every day to help keep it up since cold kills batteries. If you already do and it still conked out, it might be time for a new one. Ka-CHING.
I’m surprised it was only a couple of inches you had to shovel off the deck. The snow’s been coming down pretty hard from what I’ve seen on the airport and city cams.
It sounds like no ducks are in hiding these days. LOL!!!
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