The 1/211th Field Artillery Battalion
Page 3
Camp Drum is now the location of our summer encampments and a good many to come. The year is 1952 and except for those 2 weeks at Camp Edwards and Ft Devens Camp Drum was to become our usual place for training. Camp Drum has gone through a number of name changes for when we first went there it was called, Pine Camp. Later it was named Camp Drum and is now named Ft.Drum. It is an excellent camp because of its size. In Camp Edwards it was impossible to use more than charge 3 in a howitzer or you would have landed the round out of the range area and on someones lawn in Sandwich. At Drum, you could use all the 7 charges and it would never have left the range area. As an Armor training site, there were tank trails throughout the camp, and Engineers could work on the roads, repair tank trails,build bridges over the Black river, and the Infantry could use any number of locations for training. There were some cold days spent at Camp Drum, for the unit would usually go there in May or June. One trip to Camp Drum was most memorable, for we left the New Bedford Armory at 6 AM, and our overnight destination was a farmers field half way. The problem was that when we got to the overnight bivouac area the grounds were so wet that the first Mess truck sunk up to the axels and had to be towed out. Imaging if you can,,, 250 vehicles on the New York Thruway, 5 batteries expecting to be able to pull into the area, have chow and get a nights sleep after pitching pup tents. The field was about three miles off the thruway, and by the time things were figured out the traffic on this 2 lane road was getting rather congested. The decision was made, feed the troops sandwiches using two of the mess sections and send the rest on to Camp Drum where they could prepare to feed the troops as they arrived. Of course one other problem was to turn around the the vehicles and get them all back onto the thruway, so they could continue the rest of the trip. Captain Delaney was in charge of the three jeeps who were considered road guards or convoy control vehicles. Sgt Shea, Sgt Howland and myself Sgt Whitlow, made up the convoy control party, and our purpose was to see that the convoy took the right route, and marked the locations for the "Papa Calls". It was a necessary stop after jostling around in the back of those trucks. I was out ranked when it came time to get off of Route 81 and take the road into Camp Drum, for it was me and my driver that got stuck waiting there in the dark until the last vehicle was in, that being the wrecker. Time 2:30 AM. We had been on the road almost 21 hours. It was almost time for breakfast and thats exactly what the mess section served us. A few hours sleep and then on a recon party to our first firing area. It was during one of our early camps at Drum that I had the opportunity to get a ride in one of the observation planes that went out of Wheeler Sack field, it was a small piper cub type plane and its top speed was about 100 miles an hour, but it gave you a view of the ground below and our battalions camoflague.
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