The 1/211th Field Artillery Battalion
A Call to Active Duty 1961

The 212th is once again part of the 3rd U.S. Army
Page 5
The Berlin Wall, Crisis in Cuba, these were all reasons for a call up of troops, namely the 1/211th Artillery Battalion, stationed in New Bedford, Massachusetts. We had 30 days before we were to move out of the armory and take up new quarters in Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Personnel records had to be brought up to date, physicals by the 114 Medical Unit in the Commonwealth Armory in Boston, Check and double check of all issued equipment and personal equipment and finally the big day came. The truck convoy moved out of the Tarklnhill Road service area, and on to Route 6. Part of the battalion would move the vehicles and the rest would fly out by commercial airline later in the week.The truck convoy took the easy route down the Connecticut Turnpike and on to its first overnight stop at Ft. Dix New York. The next morning, on to the New Jersey Turnpike and on to our next overnight at Ft. Meade in Maryland. Out early the next morning onto route 301 and finally our last leg of the trip into Ft. Bragg. Our advanced party welcomed us into what was to be our new home for the next 10 months, to buildings that had already been assigned to each battery. The area we moved into had certainly deteriorated over the past 20 years since they were built. Cracks in the exterior walls where you could put your hand through, roofs that leaked, and furnaces that didn't work. The rest of the troops arrived the next day and now it was time to set up house keeping for real. Of course some of us (like me) were also interested in bringing our families to Ft. Bragg and that meant looking into housing on the post. Most of the regular army unit had been dispatched to Europe and that left plenty of housing available. Ft. Bragg is the servicman's dream as a post to be stationed at for there were all kinds of clubs and facilities available. In fact each area had its own beer hall, or as we used to call it,"The Ward 5 Club".

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