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About Regimental mirror. (Fort Benning, Ga.) 1943-194? | View Entire Issue (March 9, 1944)
Thursday, March 9, 1944 SGT. ELMER GASKA, I) COMPANY. CHECKS TRIP tickets at his desk in the dispatcher’s office of the Academic Motor Pool. In the background is the control hoard by which Gaska can tell the whereabouts of every vehicle as signed to the pool. (Official U. S. Army Photo- The Infan try School! WAG Two, Company D Staff Automotive HQ Administrative and maintenance work necessary for the smooth functioning of the several committees of the Auto motive Section is performed by Headquarters, where twen ty enlisted men and WACs, from Company I) and WAC Two respectively, are now assigned. The chief clerk at headquar ters of the Section is M. Sgt Gerard L Millet, who enlisted in the I. S D 17 years ago and made master sergeant in August, 1942 A Louisianan by birth, Sgt. Millet makes his home in Columbus, Ga., where he lives with his wife. Another old-timer at Head quarters, M. Sgt. John L. Booth, heads the crew in charge of the buildings and grounds. Booth lias been in uniform for 22 years, with the Section since 1936, and was assigned as an assistant in structor in the twelfth week of the course before he was put in charge of policing the entire area of the school. Booth and his wife own their own home and farm in Phenix City MAKE CHARTS One of the most vital jobs at Headquarters, from the point of view of instruction in the courses offered by the section, is the work done in the draft ing rooms by T. Sgt. Ward Dozier, chief draftsman, and Sgt C. R. Bigley. They make all the charts which are bound into huge "books" and used in conferences by instructors to illustrate certain phases of motor mechanics. "Usually we work from standard maintenance man uals," says Sgt. Dozier, who designed service stations and bulk plants for Gulf Refining in New Orleans before he en tered the Army. "First we Second Front Yonks Learning To Swim London (CNS) —Every Amer ican soldier in the Allied armies which will storm the Second Front bridgeheads into Conti nental Europe is going to know how to swim—just in case he has to. The American Red Cross, act ing under Army direction, is giv ing courses in combat swimming, water safety and life saving at pools throughout England. Near ly 1,000 officers and men are learning each week such tactics as jumping into the water from a height of 25 feet, fully clothed and carrying pack, rifle and hel met—and then swimming 35 feet to a rubber dinghy. project the manual drawings on a screen, 'break them down’ and sketch them We color the various parts to help dis tinguish their functions " Sgt Bigley, who works with Do zier on the second floor of headquarters, was connected with the engineering depart ment of Mack Truck in Allen town, Pa , before the war REPAIR SHOPS Three shops under control of Headquarters are also charged with making instructional aids, in addition to doing limited re pair work The carpentry shop is headed by T. Sgt Johann Eb bers; the welding, machine ah 3 blacksmith shop is run by S. Sgt Everett L. Kingsbury, and Sgt. Leroy Miller is in charge of the paint shop. All of these integral units of the Section are provided with the necessary equipment by the supply office, where S. Sgt James W Bradford is the enlist ed chief. CPL. ELIZABETH R. ANDERSON, (at wheel) PERSONNEL CLERK OF THE AUTO motivc Section of The Infantry School, parks a three-quarter ton truck well enough to earn the praise of two crack automotive men, Sgt. Charles F. Quell, (left) chauffeur to the ( hies of Section, and M. Sgt. John L. Booth, in charge of the grounds. Cpl. Anderson, of WAC Two, in addition to her duties as a member of headquarters of the section, is understudy ing Sgt. Quell as chauffeur. (Official U. S. Army Photo—The Infantry School.) REGIMENTAL MIRROR AT WORK WITH THE ACADEMIC REGIMENT (8) D Company Men Maintain, Dispatch Academic Vehicles Besides training expert mechanics and motor officers for combat, the Automotive Section of The Infantry School operates the Academic Motor Pool, where a crack crew of 21 men from D Company maintains and dispatches all the vehicles used daily by the Academic Department. Three shifts keep the pool open all day and night to service the 11 general staff cars, the trucks used in the maneuver areas, and the vehicles needed for transportation for School problems—including Maj. Gen. C. H Bonesteel’s famous “wood en enclosed jeep’’, which the Commandant uses to visit out of i the way problem areas not ac- I cessible to the ordinary two wheel drive cars. At “Headquarters’ 1 of the pool M. Sgt. William A Shannon, ranking non-com, presides as shop foreman, working under Maj. James V. Cooney, motor of ficer, and W O Connie Kent, former enlisted Academic who is now the assistant motor officer. Control over all the vehicles assigned to the pool is maintain ed by use of a large dispatch board, kept by Sgt. Elmer Gaska. records clerk, who can tell by a glance at his board which cars and trucks are being serviced and which are “dispatched." When the vehicle's number disc is on the red side, the car is out; when the vehicle returns, the disc hangs on its blue side TWO NIGHT SHIFTS The day mechanics crew, headed by assistant shop fore man S Sgt. William G Evers, consists of nine men. The first night shift of three men, which reports at six p. m., is headed by Sgt. William J Smith, while the “dog watch”, which starts at one a. m., needs only two men. with Sgt Warren A. Kibler in charge. Routine work performed on all the vehicles includes daily and weekly checks, in addition to the School's traditional 1000 and 6000 mile maintenance services CONVOY VISITORS Typical of the many impor tant jobs which the pool is called upon to perform is the prepara tion of convoys for distinguished visitors. On April 15th of last year, for example, when Pres ident Roosevelt visited Benning, ONE YEAR AGO Officers and men of the regi ment donate $849 12 to Red Cross. Profs scramble to Second STR Leaders 31-26 and conse quently are knocked out of first place in Benning Confer ence race for second half title Inter - Regimental softball tournament gets underway with a 24 to 1 victory for Com pany A over Headquarters After a delay caused by cold weather. Coach Lt Herbert S. Miwre puts the regiment’s baseball players through pa Leaves His Home, Loses Overseas Pay Pvt Warren G. Wagers, now attached to B Company of the Academic Regiment, lost his overseas pay when he came to the States from Alaska, where he served with the Fourth In fantry Natural! The only interesting part of this story is that Wagers' home is in Fairbanks. Alas ka, and as far as he's con cerned. he’s overseas now! the Academic Motor Pool was put in charge of the convoy, with M Sgt Shannon at its head. Shannon has been with the Ar my for 16 years, 14 of which have been with Automotive, and he rose to Tech Sergeant back in the days when such ratings were scarce. OLDTIMER NOW W. <). Another old-timer at the pool is Mr Kent, who has been with the mechanized Army since 1934 and helped organize the first ar mored units as a cadre sergeant. He pinned on his warrant of ficer’s bar last May PAGE THREE M. SGT WILLIAM A. Shannon, shop foreman of the Academic Motor Pool. (Offici al U. S. Army Photo The In fantry School.) Co. Men More Confident After Infiltration By Sgt Ray C. Waters Sunday. March sth, was n n 1 letter day for a number ot the boys of B Company They ran. or I should say crawled the "in filtration course ” It came to them out of a lear blue sky when the notice was first posted on the bulletin btia' d Some men looked, saw the.: names and swallowed hard once or twice then began to asl. quo - tions about the ordeal Argu ments started at once as io hew high the machine gun budets would be shooting over thei. heads and to hear some te'l a bout it, the bullets would ae j * skimming their helmets. Natur ally stories flew around about the friend down in Texas who knew a guy that knew a guy who was crawling it and came upon a snake and jumped up. And the amount of dynamite that was go ing to be put in each charge to simulate artillery fire ran any where from a pound up to twen ty pounds, enough to blow the infiltration course off North America. When they assembl ed Sunday morning most of the exaggerated rumors had been “snafu-ed” and they were all confident and happy, that is most of them; a few had been out Sat urday night and looked a bit peaked. I had been through the ordeal two months ago so I did n’t get to go along and see how the boys did it. But when they came back they were a happy but dirty crew. Comments flew like soap suds off a K. P., I stood on the side lines and listened and I quote, “Nothing to it, like tak ing candy from a WAC”, “I thought someone said that was tough, why back home 1 was swiping apples in a guy’s orch ard one night and he came clos er with buck shot than those guys.” Another one said, "It re minded me of the opening day of deer hunting back home —a guy could get killed.” And so it went, everybody was satisfied and now feels more confident in himself. The gang that was to run it in the afternoon were dis appointed when it was postpon ed till further notice.
