The First Year Kearns was Opened
The First 365 days of Camp Kearns
First hand information tells that the last official building to be complete was Headquarters, final inspection of that building was completed 30 minutes before the first Commander came to Kearns via Fort Douglas.
At first it was the local American-Japanese people who were building the Headquarters building #201 located on block two. Headquarters was a 3 wing building which housed the main offices it took to run the base. When it appeared that the job was not going to be finished on time, people who was on their way to the Japanese interment camps were offered jobs to help complete the structure on time. These were the American – Japanese people living on the west coast bound for Topaz. Most of the young men who were taken off those trains to help build the base and Headquarters later went on to become members of the 442 the only American Japanese unit during WWII.
The base was still under construction when the soldiers had started to embark on the base. For the first few months the barracks were still under construction many of the soldiers slept in tents until a barrack would open up.
On July 1, 1942; the first train load of men to come to Kearns on was from the Special Operations Unit with about 1400 – 1500 men getting off that train at Kearns. These were men that had some sort of a physical handicap and still wanted to serve their country but also would never be able to be combat ready. These men were sent to Kearns to open up the offices and get them supplied with the equipment needed at that time.
They were busy putting up tents when Fort Douglas people had arrived with food and to assist them in putting up the many tents that was needed for them and the following train load of men that was arriving the following day. The following morning before the new arrivals came in a convoy from Fort Douglas had arrived again with truckloads of food. No mess hall had been completed at that time so the first mess hall was an outdoor kitchen a mist the growing tent city.
The second train load of men arrived the following day. Their duties were to set up securities about the base, and other guard duties. They walked around the base and made sure the boundary fence was in place and secured. Guard stations were established in nine different area's of the Base. Top priorities were first and foremost the safety of those who were to be soon coming to Kearns for training.
The staff department of Kearns was being organized in accordance with a duty outline during this time also. During this time thousands of civilian personal had to be hired. People were hired to formerly embrace personnel as they embarked on the base and were instructed where to do and what to do first. Statistical, classification and transient, payroll, officer and records departments were also set up first thing.
In addition to those departments other department were also being organized at the same time such as; shipping and receiving, finance, and post exchange, postal service, special services which also includes Army Emergency relief, physical training bonds and allotments, insurance, and CPA rationing, the band, Chaplains section, legal section, Provost Marshal, photographic, registration and identification, officers’ mess, Red Cross, USO, and service clubs. Taking only two weeks the base was ready to be opened and was officially dedicated July 20, 1942.
By September of 1942 most of the living quarter blocks had been completed and men were starting to embark on Kearns. The Command at Kearns had already changed five different times. The time had come to get down to solider business.
New men continued to arrive faster than what the military had expected. Kearns was running out of space to house the men. The original Tent City had never been removed from the day it went up, but new Tent Cities were being erected, not in any one area but it intertwined through out the living quarters. In just a short time of Kearns opening, they were facing major problems, how to keep the men healthy a problem caused by the wind blowing the thick dust about.
Another small problem was the issue of keeping the men informed as to the news going on the base as things kept moving from one area to another. A printing shop was soon organized and the base started to print their own newspaper called the Kearns Post Review, free to anyone on base.
It was not until June 8, 1943 that the problem was about to be settled as it was reported in the Kearns Post Review on the front page.
June 8, 1943
Kearns Dust Problem is Settled
Dust will no longer be a discomforting problem at Kearns! It is settled for all time. The announcement came last week from Col. Converse R. Lewis, post commander. After consulting Capt. John T. Cassidy, assistant post police officer.
Pioneers at this post need little urging to tell of the dust storms last summer. How they spoiled their meals and interrupted their sleep. The source of the trouble was a 100-acre tract adjoining the post to the south. It was plowed three times last season for weed control and serious wind erosion resulted.
Tract Leased
A board of officers was appointed by Colonel Lewis to solve the problem and arrangements were made to lease the tract this year. This spring, under Capt. Cassidy’s direction it was planted in cereal barley. The barley grew but dry weather threatened to kill it off. Then last week the rains came. Now there is a “bumper crop” of barley assured and the grain will hold the topsoil in place.
Little did they know that the sand would still blow about? Sick rooms apart from the hospital went up through out the base. When the weather changed all the beds at the hospital were full with ill men with lung and eye problems. Trees were then planted and the dirt road was watered down every hour to thirty minutes trying to keep the dirt from blowing about.
There were some men that decided to take advantage of this great reward of the wind blown dust. When the hospital became overwhelmed and full of sick men, sick bay was then opened. Thus it created another major problem; men sick enough to be in the hospital were not allowed to be for the mere fact of no beds. Fourteen more overflow areas were then opened, housing those too sick for duty.
In the first week of June a memorandum went out to the entire base warning of the consequences that would arise to anyone caught faking sick. It again was posted in the weekly newspaper - The Kearns Post Review on page 12.
Malingering Violates AW 96
Men who would feign physical sickness to gain a discharge or to “goldbrick” probably are guilty of malingering and as such are subject to a trail by courts martial under the 96th Article of War, a recent post memorandum warned. All officers and non-commissioned officers were asked to watch for such men, and medical officers were asked to take special cognizance of suspected men, reporting them to post headquarters for initiation of investigations.
Some men “are not physically or mentally fit to serve their country as a soldier,” the memorandum stated, “and are to be pitied by capable soldiers. Those not to be pitied are the “goldbricks,” the intentional ‘sick book riders,’ and those men with no pride who exaggerate or feign physical or mental conditions in a completely selfish effort to disqualify themselves in the service of their country and in the eyes of decent fellow men.”
The Important Task of Training
The Second Air Force assumed jurisdiction of the station on October 1, 1943, the function of the Training Command installation, was to remain at Kearns temporarily, became the training of the overseas replacements. While an Overseas Replacement Training Center had been in operation during the Basic Training Center days, the training program of the organization was, more or less, a refresher course of basic training. It obviously would not meet the new requirements. There were not enough subjects to physically harden and mentally prepare men to the degree needed for combat duties.
Devising two new schedules of training, one for officers and the other for enlisted men, was the greatest problem which confronted the Plans and Training Department in the first weeks of operation as an Overseas Replacement Training Center. Many of the officers and key administrative personnel both enlisted and civilians had been transferred to the Second Air Force or to other stations in the Training Command. The task of mapping the new training schedules, applicable for training overseas replacements rested with only a few experienced officers and enlisted men.
However, the problem was met by conducting the training on a day-by-day basis and a trial and error method. Few directives were available on the required training for overseas replacements in early October and it was necessary for a great deal of research to be done before a formal schedule could be set up.
Nearly a month passed before the first schedule was completed on October 28. It was designed for enlisted men and provided for twenty-four days of training. The first two days of the program were devoted to processing. That phase of the Overseas Replacement Training Center‘s function will be treated in another chapter. In the remaining forty-six days a rigid physically hardening program was provided.
After setting up a training schedule for enlisted men, another problem confronted the Plans and Training department. Although the station covered more than 3 1/2 square miles in area, additional space was needed to carry on the new training. Two bivouac areas had to be found one for twenty-mile hikes and the second for overnight camps. After a short delay a suitable area was secured in a mountain canyon for the 20-mile hikes. An area within the station, station formerly used for temporally housing casual troops sent to Kearns for small arms training was converted into an overnight bivouac area. Since the primary mission o f the new Overseas Replacement Center was to physically harden men for combat duty, 86% of the program was conducted out of doors. The War Department and Army Air Forces requirements were 80%. Firing of small arms, hikes, marches, and calisthenics were the three most important subjects in the program. Marksmanship and actual firing of pieces on a 600-target rifle range were combined under the first schedule. Sixteen hours were devoted to instructions on the proper method of sighting and aiming and the nomenclature of the various pieces. Two and half-hours of allotted to firing the .22 caliber rifle and the .45 caliber the Thompson sub-machine gun and 16 hours to the .30 caliber carbine. Twenty rounds were fired with the .22 rifle, 25 rounds with the sub-machine gun and 120 rounds with the carbine.
Hikes and marches consumed 34 hours of the 189-hour schedule. On all such maneuvers conditions as near actual combat as possible were simulated. Where time permitted other phases of training was carried out during mid-day halts.
The original schedule set up a physical training course of 32 hours of supervised calisthenics and men were encouraged to participate in athletic games during off duty hours. The remainder of the schedule was devoted to refresher coursed in bayonet and grenade, chemical warfare, camouflage, entrenching methods, pack making, first aid, field sanitation, map reading, scouting and patrolling and lectures, parades and inspections.
During November changes in the original schedule were made at almost a daily rate. As new training methods and subjects were prescribed by higher headquarters they were added to the schedule. By mid- November the training program had been increased to forty-eight days. Changes continued to be made and further additions and the regrouping of subjects became necessary. By years send the Plans and Training department had set up a schedule which provided all essential subjects in the first twenty-four days of training. In that way men were available for shipment as qualified replacements at the end of four weeks of training.
In the new forty-eight day schedule inaugurated in November, there were seven days devoted to marches and overnight bivouacs. The overnight training caused the only serious setback in the program. Three of every four men in training were hospitalized because of respiratory infection due to exposure. This exposure was a result of the overnight bivouacs. (A very simple temporary camp that is set up and used by soldiers, a short stay, usually overnight, often with minimum equipment) Several requests were made by the director of training to temporarily eliminate the overnight outings because of cold and extreme damp weather. The requests were denied by the post surgeon, the only officer authorized to call off phases of training. It was not until facilities of the station hospital became taxed that overnight bivouacs were canceled for the winter
Under the revised schedule which became effective December 1, greater stress was placed on field tactics and problems. Whereas, field training had consumed only a minor part of the original schedule under the new program 196 hours were devoted to that type of training. In addition, 80 hours were taken up with hikes and marches. The same amount of time, thirty-five hours, was required for small arms instructions and firing on the range.
Much of the time on field tactics and problems were devoted to defense methods of encampments and air fields. On hikes and marches simulated air attacks and actual gas attacks were conducted. The gas used was either smoke or tear gas. Increasing the field training permitted a decrease in the number of hours required for calisthenics but maintained a continued high standard of physical hardness and fitness. Calisthenics were reduced to 41 hours in the new schedule.
Airplane recognition was a new subject added to the program as set up on December 1, with 15 hours being allotted for the course.
In the case of the original schedule and the one in effect at year’s end preliminary instructions first were given by means of lectures and War Department training films. Following the lectures and films, trainees put those instructions into practice during hikes, marches and on bivouacs.
Results of the hardening program were obtained by means of a physical fitness test conducted twice during the 48 days of training. Trainees were first given the test on the 6th day of the schedule and again on the final day. An improvement of better than 6 percent was recorded on the average rating. The initial test showed an average rating of 44.71 percent and the final test showed a 51.15 rating.
Schedule for Officer
While working out a training schedule for enlisted men it also was necessary to set up a schedule adaptable for preparing officers for combat duty.
The first schedule was set up November 5, 1943 was patterned after that of enlisted men and required 15 days to complete. The first 2 ½ days were devoted to processing, the remaining 13 to actual training. The program called for a 12 hour course on 3 weapons - .45 caliber pistols, the Thompson sub-machine gun and the .30 caliber carbine. Only 3 ½ hours were provided for sighting, aiming and nomenclature instruction. Actual firing of the 3 pieces was allotted to 8 ½ hours.
In carrying out the physical hardening mission of the Overseas Replacement Training Center, officers in training were required to devote 15 ½ hours to calisthenics, 26 hours to road marches and 11 hours to drill.
The remainder of the 135 hour schedule was devoted to chemical warfare, camouflage, entrenching methods, bayonet, scouting and patrolling, pack making and first aid.
The officers training schedule was changed three times during November and December. The schedule in effect at the close of 1943 was more streamlined and included more subjects that the original. Time allotted to processing was reduced to one day and more time was devoted to firing small arms. The time for instructions on sighing and aiming and nomenclature was unchanged, but actual firing time was increased to 12 ½ hours for the .45 caliber automatic pistol, the Thompson sub-machine gun and the .30 caliber carbine.
Calisthenics was reduced to 13 hours but a 3 hour course in judo was added to the hardening program. Road marches were removed from the program but drill and parades were increased to 15 hours, and field problems and tactics took up another 15 hours. A 2 hour course in malaria control was also added to the schedule.
For the most part it appears through our research that the year 1943 was perhaps one of the busiest times at the base. Kearns was now experiencing an exceedingly high turn over of men. This was due to a couple of factors.
It was well known among the ranks in the military as having the largest 600 target firing range, the best the country had to offer at that time. It was built of modern technology with lights, sirens and moving targets. And they were turning out the best trained men on the firing range, only 25% fail to qualify once the highest rate ever at Kearns. If the men failed to qualify it meant a lot to them, they had to start over and start over without pay. New programs were always being put implicated at Kearns to improve the chances of the men returning home.
The Kearns Post Review on June 8, 1943 its front-page headline was about the new Camouflage range.
Work on Camouflage Range Starts
Concealment of Feature of Training
Kearns is to have a new camouflage range, on which work is already under way. Major LeRoy D. MacMorris, in charge of camouflage training said last week: “In the not too distant future a new camouflage range will be opened here at Kearns. It is being built to protect your life and to help you come back from this war in one piece.”
Concern to Army
Emphasizing the importance of camouflage training not only to the individual but also to his fellow soldiers, Major MacMorris declared, “What you do with your camouflage training is of great concern to the army. Just one man showing himself carelessly on the top of a ridge might cause the enemy to open up with the high powered batteries that would wipe out your unit and many others.”
Preventive Medicine
He likened the training to preventive medicine-the care, which prevents trouble instead of trying to remedy its results. “Pay close attention to your camouflage training,” he said. “It’s the best preventive medicine you can take. And some day, we hope, you will say, “That’s the best medicine I ever took in my life,” The old camouflage area will continue to be used for lectures and demonstrations until the completion of the new.
Helps Foil Enemy
Principles taught by the camouflage section are applicable not only in self-protection but also in solving the enemy’s attempts at concealment and deception. Man has borrowed the art of disguise form nature for several hundred years, sometimes utilizing the same ideas of protective coloration through which birds, beasts and fish succeed in blending themselves into their backgrounds. American Indians used the principles of camouflage in their clothing and in painting themselves for hunting and fighting. And long ago military men found it advisable to clothe soldiers in uniforms of comparatively neutral colors, which reduces the chance of being spotted by the enemy.
By the end of June 1943 specialize training and basic training was in full force at Kearns. The headlines on the Kearns Post Review for June 22, 1943 front page read like a map to what’s what for the training efforts. A new eight-week course to airdrome training to the new camouflage training. Still truck loads and train loads of men were coming in each day and leaving as well full of young soldiers ready for combat duty.
Camouflage For Soldier Stress Individual In New Program
“Knowing is important, but doing is more important.”
That principal is being followed in the camouflage training on the post and will be followed in the camouflage training on this post and will be intensified when the new camouflage demonstration area is ready for use, said Maj. LeRoy D. MacMorris last week.
“We want the trainees to participate in camouflage work themselves,” he added.
“Our effort is to tie in camouflage with all other activities on the post. Men here are taught discipline, how to kill and how to protect themselves so they will live. Camouflage covers the first and third of these activities. It is not a thing apart
Emphasis on Individual
“Our emphasis is on the individual himself. Once a man becomes conscious of the need for taking care of himself, and learns to think of it every minute of the day, he will adapt himself to the need of protecting his equipment and his fellow soldiers,” he continued.
“Four things are taught. We show the trainees how to choose the best possible position for natural concealment, which in some locations is enough in itself. In more open terrain we show them how to supplement natural concealment with natural materials. We teach them how to supplement natural cover with artificial materials. And we show them the uses of dummies and decoys.”
Dummies and Decoys
“Dummies and decoys are very effective in protecting air fields,” said the camouflage officer. To deceive enemy observers and attackers as to the location of a field, two or three dummy fields may be set up three or four miles away.
“The real field is concealed to prevent day bombing, while the dummies are not particularly evident. Most of the dummy installations are made to prevent night bombing. Enemy planes are wary of attacking fields in daylight,” said Major MacMorris.
“They dummies have electrical installations simulating runways and other evidences of air field activities at night established right over farm lands. Sometimes planes simulate landing, then turn off their lights and disappear, while jeeps switch on landing lights and simulate the rest of the landing.
Make Enemy Waste Bombs
“Such methods have been very successful in making the enemy waste about half his bombs,” he added.
In battle areas, camouflage is used to protect field dressing stations and other relatively. Small medical stations, but in the rear larger hospitals are left unconcealed and plainly marked with red crosses.
“In North Africa the German and Italians refrained from bombing marked hospitals,” he related. They not only were obeying the rules of the Geneva Convention, but also were keeping in mind that they had hospitals of their own.
As yet we do not know how the Japanese are going to act. But aside from the moral aspects, there is no point in killing injured men, for removing them removes a supply problem. The more injured men an army has, the more energy it has to devote to caring for them.”
And with that the following plains were put into action. Kearns had not only became a "Soldier Factory" but they were turning top rated trained men out into the world of war.
Eight-Week Course Scheduled
All permanent party enlisted men will be given basic and advanced training over a period of eight weeks, starting in the near future; it was announced last week by Lt. Col. Ernest Groh, director of training. The training will be given two hours a day, three days a week.
Four Week Basic
The basic courses will cover a period of at least four weeks, including the following subjects: soldier without arms, steps and marching, soldier with arms, manual of the pistol, drill for foot troops, gas mask drill, uniform regulations, customs of the service and military courtesy. Subject to be covered in the advanced courses are drill platoon and company, formations of battalions and regiments, ceremonies, extended border drill and bayonet drill, insignia recognition, identification of aircraft and first aid.
Details Planned
Details as to the scheduling now are being worked out, said Colonel Groh. The training program is in addition to the firing of qualification courses on the rifle range announced previously.
Airdrome Defense Training
Men To Be Taught Protection Of Fields Lessons learned in the mountains of Tunisia, the jungles of New Guinea and other remote battlefronts are being driven home on the training of this post. A Prime example of the way in which combat information is being given to soldiers of this basic training center is a course in airdrome defense, for which new facilities are being constructed as a means of illustration the lessons of war. Demonstrations of all the procedures necessary to hold an advanced air base against enemy attack will be given in an area now under construction, it was announced by the post commander, Col. Converse R. Lewis.
An airfield built on a small scale showing gun emplacements, anti-aircraft defenses and machine guns, surrounded by stepped-seats resembling an arena, will be the scene for imparting battle reports received from all the fronts. Enemy tricks and tactics, learned in such engagements as the defense of Fall river air port in New Guinea during the Battle of Milne bay, the attack and defense of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, the landings in Tunisia and Attu, will be taught the trainees. The course was established by 2nd. Lt. Franklin Shore who is being assisted by Staff Sgt. Don Mitchell Jr. in charge of the lectures. “the trainees need to know as much battle information as we can give them,” said Lieutenant Shore. “ For example, we provide them with a lesson learned at one point in the southwest Pacific. The combat report shows that the Japs were simulating rifle fire by striking two bamboo sticks together. Their intention was to make the American boys expand their ammunitions and reveal their gun positions.”
In airdrome defense there are three key points to remember said the lieutenant: “Be quick, be thorough and protect your runways.” Quickness and thoroughness are necessary in engaging enemy planes or paratroopers as far away from the field as possible, he explained. Runways must be protected so that planes and emergency reinforcements will not be paralyzed. The course also teaches the trainees the various elements of security for personnel, transportation, ground equipment and communications.
Part of the training was the disquietude for the gas chambers, which each recruit was required to attend. The tear gas chamber was a small room that recruits would enter apprehensively. He would then be told to remove his gas mask as the room was filling of gas. When the gagging and yelling begin lasting for upwards to 30 seconds to 1 minute they were told to replace the gas mask. After having to sit in they’re upward to 5-10, minutes each man would emerge from the chamber with tears flowing down their faces. A lot of times many of the Sergeants found humor in telling them that they were just exposed to the deadly mustard gas, or some other dangerous gas, which always added to the panic of things.
Kearns was known for the combat firing obstacle course, it was the hardest thing to pass, and if you couldn’t pass you repeated it until you did. Many men thought that they would never get out of Kearns because of this course. There were only two of these built in the whole country, developed by Col. Walter F. Siegmund in 1943 and built at Kearns just before he returned to Kearns as the Commanding Officer of Camp Kearns. Today only the tall embankment is that surrounded the obstacle course can be seen, and few people living in Kearns know what it is.
First hand information tells that the last official building to be complete was Headquarters, final inspection of that building was completed 30 minutes before the first Commander came to Kearns via Fort Douglas.
At first it was the local American-Japanese people who were building the Headquarters building #201 located on block two. Headquarters was a 3 wing building which housed the main offices it took to run the base. When it appeared that the job was not going to be finished on time, people who was on their way to the Japanese interment camps were offered jobs to help complete the structure on time. These were the American – Japanese people living on the west coast bound for Topaz. Most of the young men who were taken off those trains to help build the base and Headquarters later went on to become members of the 442 the only American Japanese unit during WWII.
The base was still under construction when the soldiers had started to embark on the base. For the first few months the barracks were still under construction many of the soldiers slept in tents until a barrack would open up.
On July 1, 1942; the first train load of men to come to Kearns on was from the Special Operations Unit with about 1400 – 1500 men getting off that train at Kearns. These were men that had some sort of a physical handicap and still wanted to serve their country but also would never be able to be combat ready. These men were sent to Kearns to open up the offices and get them supplied with the equipment needed at that time.
They were busy putting up tents when Fort Douglas people had arrived with food and to assist them in putting up the many tents that was needed for them and the following train load of men that was arriving the following day. The following morning before the new arrivals came in a convoy from Fort Douglas had arrived again with truckloads of food. No mess hall had been completed at that time so the first mess hall was an outdoor kitchen a mist the growing tent city.
The second train load of men arrived the following day. Their duties were to set up securities about the base, and other guard duties. They walked around the base and made sure the boundary fence was in place and secured. Guard stations were established in nine different area's of the Base. Top priorities were first and foremost the safety of those who were to be soon coming to Kearns for training.
The staff department of Kearns was being organized in accordance with a duty outline during this time also. During this time thousands of civilian personal had to be hired. People were hired to formerly embrace personnel as they embarked on the base and were instructed where to do and what to do first. Statistical, classification and transient, payroll, officer and records departments were also set up first thing.
In addition to those departments other department were also being organized at the same time such as; shipping and receiving, finance, and post exchange, postal service, special services which also includes Army Emergency relief, physical training bonds and allotments, insurance, and CPA rationing, the band, Chaplains section, legal section, Provost Marshal, photographic, registration and identification, officers’ mess, Red Cross, USO, and service clubs. Taking only two weeks the base was ready to be opened and was officially dedicated July 20, 1942.
By September of 1942 most of the living quarter blocks had been completed and men were starting to embark on Kearns. The Command at Kearns had already changed five different times. The time had come to get down to solider business.
New men continued to arrive faster than what the military had expected. Kearns was running out of space to house the men. The original Tent City had never been removed from the day it went up, but new Tent Cities were being erected, not in any one area but it intertwined through out the living quarters. In just a short time of Kearns opening, they were facing major problems, how to keep the men healthy a problem caused by the wind blowing the thick dust about.
Another small problem was the issue of keeping the men informed as to the news going on the base as things kept moving from one area to another. A printing shop was soon organized and the base started to print their own newspaper called the Kearns Post Review, free to anyone on base.
It was not until June 8, 1943 that the problem was about to be settled as it was reported in the Kearns Post Review on the front page.
June 8, 1943
Kearns Dust Problem is Settled
Dust will no longer be a discomforting problem at Kearns! It is settled for all time. The announcement came last week from Col. Converse R. Lewis, post commander. After consulting Capt. John T. Cassidy, assistant post police officer.
Pioneers at this post need little urging to tell of the dust storms last summer. How they spoiled their meals and interrupted their sleep. The source of the trouble was a 100-acre tract adjoining the post to the south. It was plowed three times last season for weed control and serious wind erosion resulted.
Tract Leased
A board of officers was appointed by Colonel Lewis to solve the problem and arrangements were made to lease the tract this year. This spring, under Capt. Cassidy’s direction it was planted in cereal barley. The barley grew but dry weather threatened to kill it off. Then last week the rains came. Now there is a “bumper crop” of barley assured and the grain will hold the topsoil in place.
Little did they know that the sand would still blow about? Sick rooms apart from the hospital went up through out the base. When the weather changed all the beds at the hospital were full with ill men with lung and eye problems. Trees were then planted and the dirt road was watered down every hour to thirty minutes trying to keep the dirt from blowing about.
There were some men that decided to take advantage of this great reward of the wind blown dust. When the hospital became overwhelmed and full of sick men, sick bay was then opened. Thus it created another major problem; men sick enough to be in the hospital were not allowed to be for the mere fact of no beds. Fourteen more overflow areas were then opened, housing those too sick for duty.
In the first week of June a memorandum went out to the entire base warning of the consequences that would arise to anyone caught faking sick. It again was posted in the weekly newspaper - The Kearns Post Review on page 12.
Malingering Violates AW 96
Men who would feign physical sickness to gain a discharge or to “goldbrick” probably are guilty of malingering and as such are subject to a trail by courts martial under the 96th Article of War, a recent post memorandum warned. All officers and non-commissioned officers were asked to watch for such men, and medical officers were asked to take special cognizance of suspected men, reporting them to post headquarters for initiation of investigations.
Some men “are not physically or mentally fit to serve their country as a soldier,” the memorandum stated, “and are to be pitied by capable soldiers. Those not to be pitied are the “goldbricks,” the intentional ‘sick book riders,’ and those men with no pride who exaggerate or feign physical or mental conditions in a completely selfish effort to disqualify themselves in the service of their country and in the eyes of decent fellow men.”
The Important Task of Training
The Second Air Force assumed jurisdiction of the station on October 1, 1943, the function of the Training Command installation, was to remain at Kearns temporarily, became the training of the overseas replacements. While an Overseas Replacement Training Center had been in operation during the Basic Training Center days, the training program of the organization was, more or less, a refresher course of basic training. It obviously would not meet the new requirements. There were not enough subjects to physically harden and mentally prepare men to the degree needed for combat duties.
Devising two new schedules of training, one for officers and the other for enlisted men, was the greatest problem which confronted the Plans and Training Department in the first weeks of operation as an Overseas Replacement Training Center. Many of the officers and key administrative personnel both enlisted and civilians had been transferred to the Second Air Force or to other stations in the Training Command. The task of mapping the new training schedules, applicable for training overseas replacements rested with only a few experienced officers and enlisted men.
However, the problem was met by conducting the training on a day-by-day basis and a trial and error method. Few directives were available on the required training for overseas replacements in early October and it was necessary for a great deal of research to be done before a formal schedule could be set up.
Nearly a month passed before the first schedule was completed on October 28. It was designed for enlisted men and provided for twenty-four days of training. The first two days of the program were devoted to processing. That phase of the Overseas Replacement Training Center‘s function will be treated in another chapter. In the remaining forty-six days a rigid physically hardening program was provided.
After setting up a training schedule for enlisted men, another problem confronted the Plans and Training department. Although the station covered more than 3 1/2 square miles in area, additional space was needed to carry on the new training. Two bivouac areas had to be found one for twenty-mile hikes and the second for overnight camps. After a short delay a suitable area was secured in a mountain canyon for the 20-mile hikes. An area within the station, station formerly used for temporally housing casual troops sent to Kearns for small arms training was converted into an overnight bivouac area. Since the primary mission o f the new Overseas Replacement Center was to physically harden men for combat duty, 86% of the program was conducted out of doors. The War Department and Army Air Forces requirements were 80%. Firing of small arms, hikes, marches, and calisthenics were the three most important subjects in the program. Marksmanship and actual firing of pieces on a 600-target rifle range were combined under the first schedule. Sixteen hours were devoted to instructions on the proper method of sighting and aiming and the nomenclature of the various pieces. Two and half-hours of allotted to firing the .22 caliber rifle and the .45 caliber the Thompson sub-machine gun and 16 hours to the .30 caliber carbine. Twenty rounds were fired with the .22 rifle, 25 rounds with the sub-machine gun and 120 rounds with the carbine.
Hikes and marches consumed 34 hours of the 189-hour schedule. On all such maneuvers conditions as near actual combat as possible were simulated. Where time permitted other phases of training was carried out during mid-day halts.
The original schedule set up a physical training course of 32 hours of supervised calisthenics and men were encouraged to participate in athletic games during off duty hours. The remainder of the schedule was devoted to refresher coursed in bayonet and grenade, chemical warfare, camouflage, entrenching methods, pack making, first aid, field sanitation, map reading, scouting and patrolling and lectures, parades and inspections.
During November changes in the original schedule were made at almost a daily rate. As new training methods and subjects were prescribed by higher headquarters they were added to the schedule. By mid- November the training program had been increased to forty-eight days. Changes continued to be made and further additions and the regrouping of subjects became necessary. By years send the Plans and Training department had set up a schedule which provided all essential subjects in the first twenty-four days of training. In that way men were available for shipment as qualified replacements at the end of four weeks of training.
In the new forty-eight day schedule inaugurated in November, there were seven days devoted to marches and overnight bivouacs. The overnight training caused the only serious setback in the program. Three of every four men in training were hospitalized because of respiratory infection due to exposure. This exposure was a result of the overnight bivouacs. (A very simple temporary camp that is set up and used by soldiers, a short stay, usually overnight, often with minimum equipment) Several requests were made by the director of training to temporarily eliminate the overnight outings because of cold and extreme damp weather. The requests were denied by the post surgeon, the only officer authorized to call off phases of training. It was not until facilities of the station hospital became taxed that overnight bivouacs were canceled for the winter
Under the revised schedule which became effective December 1, greater stress was placed on field tactics and problems. Whereas, field training had consumed only a minor part of the original schedule under the new program 196 hours were devoted to that type of training. In addition, 80 hours were taken up with hikes and marches. The same amount of time, thirty-five hours, was required for small arms instructions and firing on the range.
Much of the time on field tactics and problems were devoted to defense methods of encampments and air fields. On hikes and marches simulated air attacks and actual gas attacks were conducted. The gas used was either smoke or tear gas. Increasing the field training permitted a decrease in the number of hours required for calisthenics but maintained a continued high standard of physical hardness and fitness. Calisthenics were reduced to 41 hours in the new schedule.
Airplane recognition was a new subject added to the program as set up on December 1, with 15 hours being allotted for the course.
In the case of the original schedule and the one in effect at year’s end preliminary instructions first were given by means of lectures and War Department training films. Following the lectures and films, trainees put those instructions into practice during hikes, marches and on bivouacs.
Results of the hardening program were obtained by means of a physical fitness test conducted twice during the 48 days of training. Trainees were first given the test on the 6th day of the schedule and again on the final day. An improvement of better than 6 percent was recorded on the average rating. The initial test showed an average rating of 44.71 percent and the final test showed a 51.15 rating.
Schedule for Officer
While working out a training schedule for enlisted men it also was necessary to set up a schedule adaptable for preparing officers for combat duty.
The first schedule was set up November 5, 1943 was patterned after that of enlisted men and required 15 days to complete. The first 2 ½ days were devoted to processing, the remaining 13 to actual training. The program called for a 12 hour course on 3 weapons - .45 caliber pistols, the Thompson sub-machine gun and the .30 caliber carbine. Only 3 ½ hours were provided for sighting, aiming and nomenclature instruction. Actual firing of the 3 pieces was allotted to 8 ½ hours.
In carrying out the physical hardening mission of the Overseas Replacement Training Center, officers in training were required to devote 15 ½ hours to calisthenics, 26 hours to road marches and 11 hours to drill.
The remainder of the 135 hour schedule was devoted to chemical warfare, camouflage, entrenching methods, bayonet, scouting and patrolling, pack making and first aid.
The officers training schedule was changed three times during November and December. The schedule in effect at the close of 1943 was more streamlined and included more subjects that the original. Time allotted to processing was reduced to one day and more time was devoted to firing small arms. The time for instructions on sighing and aiming and nomenclature was unchanged, but actual firing time was increased to 12 ½ hours for the .45 caliber automatic pistol, the Thompson sub-machine gun and the .30 caliber carbine.
Calisthenics was reduced to 13 hours but a 3 hour course in judo was added to the hardening program. Road marches were removed from the program but drill and parades were increased to 15 hours, and field problems and tactics took up another 15 hours. A 2 hour course in malaria control was also added to the schedule.
For the most part it appears through our research that the year 1943 was perhaps one of the busiest times at the base. Kearns was now experiencing an exceedingly high turn over of men. This was due to a couple of factors.
- The men that had already been in the military prior to Pearl Harbor were now in combat and had been since December 8, 1942.
- Basic training camps were now in place and men were being trained by the thousands,
- Replacements had to be trained and deployed.
It was well known among the ranks in the military as having the largest 600 target firing range, the best the country had to offer at that time. It was built of modern technology with lights, sirens and moving targets. And they were turning out the best trained men on the firing range, only 25% fail to qualify once the highest rate ever at Kearns. If the men failed to qualify it meant a lot to them, they had to start over and start over without pay. New programs were always being put implicated at Kearns to improve the chances of the men returning home.
The Kearns Post Review on June 8, 1943 its front-page headline was about the new Camouflage range.
Work on Camouflage Range Starts
Concealment of Feature of Training
Kearns is to have a new camouflage range, on which work is already under way. Major LeRoy D. MacMorris, in charge of camouflage training said last week: “In the not too distant future a new camouflage range will be opened here at Kearns. It is being built to protect your life and to help you come back from this war in one piece.”
Concern to Army
Emphasizing the importance of camouflage training not only to the individual but also to his fellow soldiers, Major MacMorris declared, “What you do with your camouflage training is of great concern to the army. Just one man showing himself carelessly on the top of a ridge might cause the enemy to open up with the high powered batteries that would wipe out your unit and many others.”
Preventive Medicine
He likened the training to preventive medicine-the care, which prevents trouble instead of trying to remedy its results. “Pay close attention to your camouflage training,” he said. “It’s the best preventive medicine you can take. And some day, we hope, you will say, “That’s the best medicine I ever took in my life,” The old camouflage area will continue to be used for lectures and demonstrations until the completion of the new.
Helps Foil Enemy
Principles taught by the camouflage section are applicable not only in self-protection but also in solving the enemy’s attempts at concealment and deception. Man has borrowed the art of disguise form nature for several hundred years, sometimes utilizing the same ideas of protective coloration through which birds, beasts and fish succeed in blending themselves into their backgrounds. American Indians used the principles of camouflage in their clothing and in painting themselves for hunting and fighting. And long ago military men found it advisable to clothe soldiers in uniforms of comparatively neutral colors, which reduces the chance of being spotted by the enemy.
By the end of June 1943 specialize training and basic training was in full force at Kearns. The headlines on the Kearns Post Review for June 22, 1943 front page read like a map to what’s what for the training efforts. A new eight-week course to airdrome training to the new camouflage training. Still truck loads and train loads of men were coming in each day and leaving as well full of young soldiers ready for combat duty.
Camouflage For Soldier Stress Individual In New Program
“Knowing is important, but doing is more important.”
That principal is being followed in the camouflage training on the post and will be followed in the camouflage training on this post and will be intensified when the new camouflage demonstration area is ready for use, said Maj. LeRoy D. MacMorris last week.
“We want the trainees to participate in camouflage work themselves,” he added.
“Our effort is to tie in camouflage with all other activities on the post. Men here are taught discipline, how to kill and how to protect themselves so they will live. Camouflage covers the first and third of these activities. It is not a thing apart
Emphasis on Individual
“Our emphasis is on the individual himself. Once a man becomes conscious of the need for taking care of himself, and learns to think of it every minute of the day, he will adapt himself to the need of protecting his equipment and his fellow soldiers,” he continued.
“Four things are taught. We show the trainees how to choose the best possible position for natural concealment, which in some locations is enough in itself. In more open terrain we show them how to supplement natural concealment with natural materials. We teach them how to supplement natural cover with artificial materials. And we show them the uses of dummies and decoys.”
Dummies and Decoys
“Dummies and decoys are very effective in protecting air fields,” said the camouflage officer. To deceive enemy observers and attackers as to the location of a field, two or three dummy fields may be set up three or four miles away.
“The real field is concealed to prevent day bombing, while the dummies are not particularly evident. Most of the dummy installations are made to prevent night bombing. Enemy planes are wary of attacking fields in daylight,” said Major MacMorris.
“They dummies have electrical installations simulating runways and other evidences of air field activities at night established right over farm lands. Sometimes planes simulate landing, then turn off their lights and disappear, while jeeps switch on landing lights and simulate the rest of the landing.
Make Enemy Waste Bombs
“Such methods have been very successful in making the enemy waste about half his bombs,” he added.
In battle areas, camouflage is used to protect field dressing stations and other relatively. Small medical stations, but in the rear larger hospitals are left unconcealed and plainly marked with red crosses.
“In North Africa the German and Italians refrained from bombing marked hospitals,” he related. They not only were obeying the rules of the Geneva Convention, but also were keeping in mind that they had hospitals of their own.
As yet we do not know how the Japanese are going to act. But aside from the moral aspects, there is no point in killing injured men, for removing them removes a supply problem. The more injured men an army has, the more energy it has to devote to caring for them.”
And with that the following plains were put into action. Kearns had not only became a "Soldier Factory" but they were turning top rated trained men out into the world of war.
Eight-Week Course Scheduled
All permanent party enlisted men will be given basic and advanced training over a period of eight weeks, starting in the near future; it was announced last week by Lt. Col. Ernest Groh, director of training. The training will be given two hours a day, three days a week.
Four Week Basic
The basic courses will cover a period of at least four weeks, including the following subjects: soldier without arms, steps and marching, soldier with arms, manual of the pistol, drill for foot troops, gas mask drill, uniform regulations, customs of the service and military courtesy. Subject to be covered in the advanced courses are drill platoon and company, formations of battalions and regiments, ceremonies, extended border drill and bayonet drill, insignia recognition, identification of aircraft and first aid.
Details Planned
Details as to the scheduling now are being worked out, said Colonel Groh. The training program is in addition to the firing of qualification courses on the rifle range announced previously.
Airdrome Defense Training
Men To Be Taught Protection Of Fields Lessons learned in the mountains of Tunisia, the jungles of New Guinea and other remote battlefronts are being driven home on the training of this post. A Prime example of the way in which combat information is being given to soldiers of this basic training center is a course in airdrome defense, for which new facilities are being constructed as a means of illustration the lessons of war. Demonstrations of all the procedures necessary to hold an advanced air base against enemy attack will be given in an area now under construction, it was announced by the post commander, Col. Converse R. Lewis.
An airfield built on a small scale showing gun emplacements, anti-aircraft defenses and machine guns, surrounded by stepped-seats resembling an arena, will be the scene for imparting battle reports received from all the fronts. Enemy tricks and tactics, learned in such engagements as the defense of Fall river air port in New Guinea during the Battle of Milne bay, the attack and defense of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, the landings in Tunisia and Attu, will be taught the trainees. The course was established by 2nd. Lt. Franklin Shore who is being assisted by Staff Sgt. Don Mitchell Jr. in charge of the lectures. “the trainees need to know as much battle information as we can give them,” said Lieutenant Shore. “ For example, we provide them with a lesson learned at one point in the southwest Pacific. The combat report shows that the Japs were simulating rifle fire by striking two bamboo sticks together. Their intention was to make the American boys expand their ammunitions and reveal their gun positions.”
In airdrome defense there are three key points to remember said the lieutenant: “Be quick, be thorough and protect your runways.” Quickness and thoroughness are necessary in engaging enemy planes or paratroopers as far away from the field as possible, he explained. Runways must be protected so that planes and emergency reinforcements will not be paralyzed. The course also teaches the trainees the various elements of security for personnel, transportation, ground equipment and communications.
Part of the training was the disquietude for the gas chambers, which each recruit was required to attend. The tear gas chamber was a small room that recruits would enter apprehensively. He would then be told to remove his gas mask as the room was filling of gas. When the gagging and yelling begin lasting for upwards to 30 seconds to 1 minute they were told to replace the gas mask. After having to sit in they’re upward to 5-10, minutes each man would emerge from the chamber with tears flowing down their faces. A lot of times many of the Sergeants found humor in telling them that they were just exposed to the deadly mustard gas, or some other dangerous gas, which always added to the panic of things.
Kearns was known for the combat firing obstacle course, it was the hardest thing to pass, and if you couldn’t pass you repeated it until you did. Many men thought that they would never get out of Kearns because of this course. There were only two of these built in the whole country, developed by Col. Walter F. Siegmund in 1943 and built at Kearns just before he returned to Kearns as the Commanding Officer of Camp Kearns. Today only the tall embankment is that surrounded the obstacle course can be seen, and few people living in Kearns know what it is.