RESERVE OFFICER TRAINING CORPS

This narrative of military activity began with the completion of ROTC training at Utah State Agricultural College on May 26,1933 and in the commission to 2nd Lieutenant in the Reserve Component of the Army of the United States.

During the ROTC training in 1932 I attended a six weeks training-camp at Fort Worden, near Port Townsend, Jefferson County, Washington. In this camp we had our first introduction to 12 inch seacoast mortar guns, 8 and 10 inch rifles with disappearing carriages and 155 calibre howitzer and seacoast rifles. As well, we were introduced to battery command and operation and firing target practice with actual live ammunition. During firing target practice, we all took our turns by one half day stretches in the small tug boat which towed targets up and down the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Towing targets in this little, boat which was built like a coffee saucer, was a severe test of seaworthiness. Anyone familiar with the Straits of Juan de Fuca knows the violent water turbulence generated there due to strong winds, tides and ocean swells. After 20 minutes out in the boat one was seasick and continuously sick for four hours of duty while in the tug boat. This was only duplicated in 1976, when I went deep sea fishing out of Newport, Oregon, in rough seas, and had four hours of sea sickness again.) Also there were some times a thrill or a fear, when amateurs firing the big guns applied a double correction for a bracket salvo or applied a correction in the wrong direction and brought salvos of shells right up the tow line towards the towing boat,

We were also introduced to machine gun fire upon a towed target, using live ammunition. Here, the plane towing the target flew crossing courses to the machine gunners. On one course, as the plane and target passed the firing position, the pilot changed course to circle back on another crossing course, Unfortunately, the naive gunners, after the target passed, did not cease firing, and the trajectory of the target and plane became one and a few bullets went through the plane. Needless to say the pilot cut loose the target and left for good.

During this summer camp, using the mine planter of the Army, we were taken on several cruises around the Puget Sound. We became familiar with Fort Casey and Fort Flagler and the Whidbey Island Naval Station. Also a one day visit was made to Victoria, B.C. on Vancouver Island. We were allowed shore leave and stayed until midnight to attend a public dance.

I remember the unusual arrangement of the public pubs at that time--'three entrances, one for single males, one for single females, and one for couples.

Travel to this summer camp (with the ROTC Colonel in his fancy Buick car) was my first trip into the Pacific Northwest. I vividly remember after the dry inland plains of Utah, Idaho and eastern Oregon, the beauty of the drive down the Columbia River Gorge and the drive up the Hoods Canal of the Olympic Peninsula to Port Towsend and Fort Worden.

These army posts, Worden, Flagler and Casey are now abandoned by the military and are State Parks. One can now view them as rather antiquated defense systems. The gunnery, living quarters and operational systems now seem rather primitive. However, every fifty years ago, the purpose for which they were installed and operated was real, it was the age of the Battleship power and aviation and air corps tactics had not yet demonstrated its real value to warfare. At that time the defenses of the Puget Sound area appeared very few and quite fast becoming obsolete.

Immediately upon graduation from College and upon receipt of an Army Reserve Commission, I began a series of correspondence courses as part of the requirements for training and promotion. Correspondence course complet­ion, attendance at summer camps and time in grade fulfilled the requirements for promotion in the Army Reserve Corps.

During the period 1933 to 1936 correspondence courses were completed in the 20-30 series. While I was on the farm at Springville, Utah during the winter of 1934, I had ample time to do considerable work on these courses. Also in this period two week summer camps were attended at Fort Winfield Scott, San Francisco, California. At these camps, experience and training were obtained in battery administration and gunnery practice on 12 inch mortars and 10 inch disappearing rifles.

It was at the first Winfield Scott training camp in the summer of ¹933, when I was operating a base-end station for triangulation and fire control of the 10 inch disappearing rifle battery, that contractors came and had us move our triangulation, spotting, and tracking station, in order to start blasting rock and moving earth for the southwest abutment to the Golden Gate Suspension Bridge.

I was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in the Army Reserve Corps, June 4, 1936 while living at Goldendale, Washington.

During the period 1937 to 1939, correspondence was continued on the 30-30 series. Summer camps were attended in 1937 at Fort Winfield Scott. At Fort Scott we had training with the Antiaircraft Artillery and during the years 1937 to ₁₉₃₉ was assigned to the 517th and 518th CA (AA) reserve units. Part of the time at San Francisco Bay, we operated out of Fort Funstan, on the ocean side of the Peninsula. The budding antiaircraft artillery was placed under the coast artillery. We were also introduced to firing the 14 inch naval rifles installed at Fort Barry off the northeast end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I was promoted to Captain, July 8,1940 while living in Yakima, Wash­ington and shortly after was ordered to active duty camp at Fort Worden, Washington. The reserve officers reported here for duty and immediately all regular army officers were ordered on leave status. The entire post (except for a skeleton key personnel cadre) was turned over to the reserve officers. On the first Sunday of our tour, I was assigned as Officer of the Day and as such was in charge of the post. During this duty I received a baptism of fire.

During the day the garbage dump caught fire, spread and set fire to the adjacent woods, and we had a severe fire to bring under control. Next, in one of the gun battery positions, in a powder and shell magazine, two stacks of 155 calibre ammunition collapsed together upon a man working there. He was badly crushed, requiring hospitalization. Many of the enlisted men were new recruits, and with very little training. I recall walking and inspecting guard posts at night, and being challenged by these young boys in quaking voices and with shaking hands on the rifles. They were using live ammunition in the guns and I did not feel very secure at approaching their stations in the dark. It was a tough lot for reserve duty, but that is how one learned and especially how one learned how to keep his cool.

 

ACTIVE DUTY - FORT STEVENS

Our family was living at Yakima, Washington in 1941. We were just beginning to arrange to purchase a new home in Yakima, when I was ordered to active duty with the military in the Army of the United States, to report to Fort Stevens, Oregon on May 5 ,1941.

The family made this move. I was placed on military leave status from USDA-SCS with whom I was employed at Yakima. My date of rank as Captain .began with this active duty tour as of May 5,194^.1. We settled in a rented apartment at Seaside, Oregon, 18 miles commuting distance from Fort Stevens, which is near Warrenton, Oregon. We were later to find a house to live in at Warrenton.

Warrenton, Gearhart and Seaside, Oregon are summer beach resort towns, and summer rent or lease of homes was a principal income. I recall Faye and I looked at an old ramshackle, dusty place at Gearhart, in the dune area, with a view to renting it. The owner said to me " I do not believe that you can afford this as you are only a Captain." She was right, the rent was $165.00 per month, I both could not and would not submit to such polite robbery. Some summer homes rented for $400.00 per month.

At Fort Stevens, Oregon, there were two regiments of artillery. The regular army, 18th CA and the 249th Oregon Nation Guard regiments were both there. There was rivalry and political opposition to see who would be the senior regiment and occupy the post, I was with the 18th CA, Eventually the politics swayed in favor of the 249th National Guard, and most of the 18th CA were shipped out to other units. Myself and one other battery Lieutenant were sent to the Philippine Islands and one other battery Lieutenant was sent to Fort Bragg to the Balloon Barrage School. Since the 249th National Guard became the principal regiment of the post, their commanding officer became post commander. One of the nice things he did for we officers, was once or twice a day to line us all up on the parade ground in front of all the enlisted men's barracks and have a sergeant instruct us in the manual of arms. This was one sure way to kill real mutual respect and morale between the officers and the enlisted men.

I was in command of Battery B, 18th CA. Immediately after assuming this command, I was given the assignment of installing a field location for 4-12 inch railway mortar guns and for firing a target practice in 30 days time.

In 1935, the residents of Washington and Oregon coastal areas had complained to congressmen that they had 150 miles of unprotected beaches and the nearest military protection was at Fort Vancouver, Washington, aside from Fort Stevens, Oregon, Fort Vancouver was 150 miles inland. The congressional answer was to send four 88 ton railway 12 inch mortars out an store them on a spur track at Fort Stevens, off the SP&S railroad line. These were the guns which I was supposed to move into a position in the Columbia River estuary tidelands (covered with sand dunes) and rig them to fire a target practice. There were eleven legal length sheets of paper, single spaced lists of ordnance equipment went with these guns. Small tools, large tools, track laying equipment, railway gauges, peavies, mauls, etc,

Battery B was a group of 160 enlisted men, selectees from Ohio, with some three months active duty training. There were many of the men in this early draft who had the theme "OHIO - over the hill in October". The battery barracks were constructed with the main barracks separated from the latrines by a service road which was roofed, connecting the barracks and the latrines.

In the latrines there was a row of toilets. The one on the end nearest the wall was partitioned off for the privacy of the officers. I did not use this courtesy of privacy since the stalled latrine was usually quite aromatic in the warm weather. Consequently, I was one day seated on one of the row of toilets, alone, minding my own business, when to my consternation, in the rear door of the latrine appeared a red haired "lady of the evening", who said "Hi soldier", upped dress, downed pants, seated herself two or three stools away, relieved herself, upped pants, downed dress and departed through the rear door again before I could get my composure back in sufficient strength to challenge her. I was glad that I did not wear false teeth. The floor was sometimes a little messy. I knew that these "ladies" were plying their trade on the post, but was really surprised to learn first hand that they were this open about it during the daytime hours.

There was a Private who was cleanup man at the mess table. This young man weighed in about 200 pounds when he came into camp, and in three weeks time was at 235 pounds. He was the last from the mess table, and cleaned all of the serving plates before he left the table. He was a terrific eater but a very poor soldier. In addition to eating, he was capable of consuming large quantities of beer or liquor and was usually soon hopelessly drunk. One night when I was Officer of the Day for the post, I checked the local pub at the edge of the post for disorderly conduct. Sure enough, there was the Private, slovenly drunk and causing trouble. I and two enlisted men got him into the command car and took him to the barracks at the post. When we got to the barracks, he did not want any help. He attempted to alight from the command car by himself. While getting out, he caught his toe on the fender of the command car and sailed out into space, landing on the concrete sidewalk on his stomach. It sounded like a watermelon falling on the floor. I did not think that he would get up, but he did, and walked straight into the building, as sober as a judge. This was a severe way to sober up a man, but with him it seemed to work.

The assignment to fire a target practice with the railway mortars was a difficult one. First of all, such railway guns require a railroad train, complete with engine, ammunition cars, gunnery control car, and a command post car. The guns were made to load from an adjoining railroad ammunition car, not from the ground. They required a railroad engine to move and maneuver the guns or service cars.

There were the four guns, each on its own railway carriage car, combined weight of 88 tons. These guns had not been fired since the initial proving ground shots at the Watervliet Arsenal where they were built. The only entries in the gun record books were the entries of the annual inspection of the air brakes on the gun carriages.

In order to fulfill this battery assignment, we had to build one half mile of railroad spur out into the sand dunes on the estuary of the Columbia River and departing off the main line of the Corps of Engineer's Columbia River South Jetty project. Once we had the spur line completed we were to locate the guns there, build platforms to facilitate loading the ammunition to the guns, camouflage the guns and build a fire control system for the guns. Also we had to calculate how to move those guns. The military would not pay $500.00 to hire an SP&S railroad engine to move the guns. The Corps of Engineers had no railway equipment-they were leasing service from the SP&S. In the end we were to use blood, sweat and tears.

We built the one half mile of railroad spur off the Corps of Engineer's Columbia River South Jetty project line. Ties, rails and hardware were "borrowed" from the Corps of Engineer's project line, Using rail peevies and 12 inch rope hawsers, and 168 men on those lines, we moved those guns about l 1/2 miles, one at a time, by hand power, and spotted them on our spur line for a target practice position. The real headache was the camouflage of the guns and the railroad line. After some trial and error we built 2 x 4 inch lumber frames, hinged to fold back and draped these frames with discarded fish net obtained from Astoria, Oregon. For fire control equipment, we used a Kloke plotting board of the 155 calibre guns, modified somewhat and created our own triangulation and tracking equipment.

This work was all accomplished and the target practice was fired within the 30 day time limit ordered. After firing the practice, we maintained the gunnery position in the sand dunes on the sand flats of the Columbia River estuary. This battery activity was maintained until some of us officers were transferred. The battery was turned over to one of the battery Lieutenants . I understand the guns were then placed back on the SP&S spur line and never fired or used again for any purpose.

The nearest war came to the unprotected beaches of Washington and Oregon was when a Japanese submarine surfaced off the mouth of the Columbia River and fired 2 or 3 rounds of 5 inch shells into the Fort Stevens Reservation, without any damage.

Aside from artillery practice, the battery had a regular program of infantry drill as well. Marches, forced marches (sometimes with gas masks on) and infantry drill about negotiating terrain and skirmish problems were parts of the program. Several years before I had been at the Warrenton Dune Area with the Soil Conservation Service. We were working with types of vegetation to stabilize the sand dunes. They were active and moving in on beach property and improvements. Now later, with military tactics, we were crawling over these same dunes on our bellies, trying our best to tear out the stabilizing plants which we had established some years earlier.

In August, 1941, I was ordered to the Philippine Islands. On August 15, I left Fort Stevens, took the family to Logan, Utah, established them with the wife's parents at 492 West 3rd North Street, and on August 22, proceeded back to the Pacific Northwest. At Ellensburg, Washington, I sold the automobile, then proceeded by bus to Vancouver Barracks, Vancouver, Washington. Here I drew a partial salary payment, and went by bus to Fort Stevens, Oregon.

It was necessary to check in all property, get clearance from the post, before posting for the Philippine Islands. They were having 4th Army maneuvers through the areas of Fort Clatsop and Fort Stevens. This did not help my trying to get clearance of property and from the post. I slept on the supply room floor for three nights, checking property.

The shortage of property was strange to myself and to the supply sergeant. Out of one half million dollars of property including the barracks, personnel and gunnery, we were short 19 pillows from the barracks and about $20,00 worth of small sized tools-screwdrivers, pliers, etc (lost in the process of railroading in the sand dunes). I asked the supply sergeant what could have happened to the 19 pillows. "Do you suppose the men took them out in the sand dunes for beach parties with the girls? The sergeant grinned and said "You sure don't need any pillows with the girls we find here."

Well, we found the pillows and I purchased the small tools at a hardware store and turned them in, and was cleared from the post. This ended a frustrating three months period of the most unreal army duty that I ever hoped to have.

FORT MILLS, CORREGIDOR, MANILA BAY, P.I.

On August 27th, I boarded the SP&S railroad for Portland, Oregon at 3PM, arrived at Portland at 7:30 PM and boarded a United Airlines Plane to San Francisco. I arrived there at 3:30 AM and registered at the Clift Hotel. I stayed there until the boat left for the Philippines. I had a chance to visit Lee and Norma, bought some clothes and collected some travel pay.

We boarded the USAT President Pierce at 4 PM on August 28th, 1941, cleared Golden Gate and then returned to the dock for repairs to the engines. We finely got under way at 9 PM. I remember the sad experience of leaving San Francisco Bay. It was a friendly sight to lose when we disappeared to sea.

The trip was uneventful to Honolulu, watching endless miles of open ocean. We arrived there September 2 at 5 AM. We docked at 8:30 AM and had shore leave until 5 PM the same day. A Captain, my cabin mate, and I spent the day touring some shops in the downtown area, then went out to Wiakikii beach and spent the afternoon in and around the Royal Hawaiian Hotel area. I was disappointed in the beach area. It was all in the name, the beach seemed small and kind of artificial compared to all of the publicity about it. I visited the SCS office, but found no one in that morning. We sailed at 7PM for the Philippines. The voyage was uneventful except for 72 hours sailing through a typhoon. The sea was rough and there was a heavy gale. For a landlubber, I did very well, never missing a meal, although one or two were doubtful for a while. During the voyage we had regular boat drill and the Military Police were in control. We had a good commissary, a library; and liberal privileges around the ship. We also had movies every night. My cabin mates were a Captain of the Air Corps and a 2nd Lt. of the 200th CA (AA) regiment from the New Mexico National Guard. In general, it was a successful crossing and was rather enjoyable. We were escorted the entire voyage by the United States Navy Cruiser Phoenix and did some infrequent zigzag courses,

Meals were served in the dining salon for the officers. We arrived

at Manila, P.I. early in the morning of September 16. We anchored off Corregidor until daylight, awaiting military clearance. We passed through the army mine fields in the north channel, off Corregidor. At that time the south channel was completely closed by navy mines. In passing Corregidor I took a very good look and wondered if I would do duty there.

We were met on board ship by welcome officer committees from the different service branches, and through a mistake of cablegrams sent while we were still at sea to Manila, eighteen of we officers were miss-sent to the Air Corps (AC) instead of the Coast Artillery Corps (CAC). The Air Corps officers took us to the Army and Navy Club in Manila and gave us a party. Afterward we went on out to Nichols Field. We were at Nichols Field for 2 or 3 days, interviewed by the Colonel in command and I was assigned to the Engineering Section and was to leave shortly for the Palawan Islands in the southern Islands for work in air field construction. On the third day, however, Fort Mills, Corregidor found themselves short some officers, the mistake was found and we were abruptly taken from the Air Corps and sent to Corregidor with the Coast Artillery Corps and assigned to the Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays. I was assigned to the 60th CA (AA). We were met at the north dock at Bottomside on Corregidor by the 60th CA adjutant, a Major, and taken to Topside where we were placed in quarters.

Corregidor had three physiographic, administrative and tactical levels ---Topside, Middleside and Bottomside. A Captain and I were given quarters with a Major of the Corps of Engineers. We immediately set to work establishing a livable place, locating servants and buying necessary household effects.

When next day we reported to Regimental Headquarters at Topside, I was assigned to command of G battery, 60th CA (AA) to succeed a 1st Lt. (regular army) who was due to leave for the United States at the end of a tour of duty in the Philippine Islands. I had this battery for about three weeks during which time the Lieutenant was on leave at the rest and rehabilitation center at Baguio before going home. Later his passage home was cancelled due to increasing war tension in the Pacific Area (all officers in the Pacific Area were frozen in position) and he took the battery back. I was given command of Battery H, succeeding a Captain who was assigned to the Philippine Any. In this three weeks time I had to check and assume responsibility for the property of two batteries. In Battery

H I found an awful shortage of property. I could not sign for the materials which were short and the Captain was not available to confer with, so I signed with a shortage list and sent the correspondence to follow him. Later, the war in the Pacific area postponed all of this sort of action and it never was reconciled. I found poorly disciplined NCO's and poor organization of work and duties. It was the way the peace time army "operated" so well displayed in the book "From Here to Eternity". I abruptly had several court martials and several reductions in rank to convince the enlisted men that they had to soldier with me. I had inherited the spirit and action mood of the "peace-time army." Some of the best NCO's had left for the States, and I very soon found myself with a list of very young, new NCO's, At the time we had obsolete AA equipment, M3 Director, T83 height finder, and 1917 model guns, fit only for drill and tracking practice. About November 5, I began turning in this older equipment and checking out M4 Data Equipment and later model 1918 guns. This turned out to be quite a job and I was two weeks or more accomplishing it. By November 15, I had most of the new equipment and we were getting some good "dummy" practice on the gunnery site located on the north end of Herring Field parade field at Middleside. I had the gun and range sections crews organized. We had three night practices each week tracking a plane flying a course over the island.

All of the officers in the regiment were going to AA school every afternoon and they were really cramming us with structure, functions and maintenance and operations of AA equipment. We had little time for any pleasure. In addition, there was a full weekly training class schedule for the battery in infantry drill, military and gunnery nomenclature, AA fire control and combat materials. Officers were also serving turns as Officer of the Day, Officer of the Guard, and Field Officer of the Day, once each two weeks. Field Officer of the Day was a post in the Command Post of the General in charge of Harbor Defense Command for Manila and Subic Bays.

Women, wives and relatives of military personnel on Corregidor had all been sent home to the United States in May and June before this time, and all left were "bachelors". Some were in competition for the favors of the mestizas (half blood Pilipino ) Philippine women or nurses. It was all work on the "Rock" and some limited diversions could be going to the movies or visiting the Officers club for beer, cokes or to play tennis, golf or billiards.

By November 15, we had a working household. We had purchase some new furniture, obtained three servants and purchased a new radio. Personally,

I had begun to collect some Philippine pina cloth and Chinese linens. I had allotted to my family the limit allowed of my pay, and had $80.00 per month for living expenses. With our limited state of activity and the very reasonable prices of Philippine and Chinese goods, wages for hired help,and commissary privileges this amount of money was very ample to my needs.

We had three servants, a cook, a houseboy, and a lady lavendera (laundrywoman). These three servants cost us about $15.00 per month each. The cook served us very excellent meals, but I soon learned not to go into the kitchen, other than for routine checks. Cockroaches were everywhere. One night I went into the kitchen and found the cook had fried himself a fish for supper, eaten part of it, and left the rest in the skillet. About 50 cockroaches (they were very large ones, some over an inch long) were finishing his meal.

We purchased summer uniforms, pants, shirt with embroidered insignia, belt and overseas caps for $8.00 for each set from the Chinese tailors. I had six sets, and changed three times a day. The humidity and temperature were both high and uniforms became soaked with perspiration very quickly. When we changed, we left the soiled ones on the floor for the houseboy.

There was always a fresh set laid out on the bed. We each had a bedroom and bath, and a central living room and kitchen, with additional quarters for servants. The quarters were concrete and frame construction and were open and cool. Our living quarters had tile roofs, and were arranged for three male bachelors or officers with family. We three bachelors had a cook only as a permanent live-in. Rooms were fitted with drapes, throw rugs and mats upon painted, polished concrete floors. The furniture was dark ironwood (living and dining ) and lighter Philippine mahogany in the bedrooms.

We were located a short walk up hill from the officers club. We ate dinner and played tennis there on weekends. Also, infrequently, we

drank a little beer there in the evenings. One of the fascinating features of the club (there was no distraction of women) was watching the ghekko lizards and their chirping. It was indeed fascinating to watch them, for their size (6-10 inches long ) negotiate across the ceilings above your table without falling off into your soup.

In October, we had an officers party at the club. I was on the committee for refreshments. We decided to serve daquiris, native style. We went to Manila, purchased a 5 gallon demijohn of Bacardi's rum. We siphoned off one quart, put in a quart of lime-lemon extract, and served daiquiris-very dry. The committee did not drink the "punch". We went into the kitchen and drank the Colonel's and General's scotch. That night (late) we were out with a jeep locating and helping "lost souls" to get home. It was a real lively, memorable evening.

When we arrived on Corregidor in September of 1941, there were 700 civilian prisoners from Bilibid Prison in Manila, confined on Corregidor

and under contract to do work for the Military. These Philippine Commonwealth Prisoners were guilty of offenses ranging from petty thievery to murder. The U.S. Military supported and worked the prisoners and relieved the Philippine Commonwealth of the cost of their confinement. The Commonwealth also received some remuneration from the U.S. Military for their work (more cumshaw). They did police, maintenance and construction work for the military. The prisoners themselves received no remuneration.

On November 20,1941, the political relationship with Japan had deteriorated, chances of hostile action appeared more probable and it was necessary to "gear" the "Rock" for action. Also, as garrisons were building from peace-time strength there was less space to accommodate these prisoners and less need for their labor.

One way the prisoners could get money or credit to buy condiments, toilet articles or other "comforts" for themselves was by having an avocation in the prison camp. Some of them were very accomplished artisans. They principally did work with wood, inlaid with bone. Wood was the Philippine ironwood or mahogany. Bone was recovered from bones of horses, caribou or cattle used for meat in their mess. They did beautiful work on bone inlaid wooden jewel boxes, chests, and gaming boards. The finished products could be purchased quite reasonably.

All of the work was done in the prison cells after regular military work periods. These people were gone from the "Rock" before I could get an order for any such pieces of art into their schedule of operations.

Before the declaration of war from the Japanese by the attack on Pearl Harbor, we military personnel at Corregidor used to enjoy the movies once in a while. They were shown at the post theatre. Since the women had all been sent back to the United States, bachelors were lonely, and there were golf, drinking beer and watching the movies as entertainment events on the "Rock". Quite often the movies were western "shoot-em-ups". On November 23 we were at the movies. It was a typical western, where the Indians and Cavalry went at it in pitched battle for some time. Hundreds of rifle and pistol shots were fired, with sometimes lengthy intervals between loading of the pistols and rifles. The movie was in the midst of this Indian-Cavalry war, guns firing, people dying, and sometimes people dying before the guns were firing. Sometimes the Indians fell from the horses before the rifles spoke. One of those kinds of melodramas it was. At any rate, in the midst of this fury, the film was stopped, the lights in the theatre came on and four enlisted men appeared on the stage. "We will now take time out to pick up the brass" they stated. With barracks brooms and shovels they proceeded to clear the stage of about one half inch carpet of spent .30-06 cartridges, obviously spread there before the movie started. They then proceeded with the movie. This was a little extra levity to a tiresome entertainment.

On November 16th, we had Regimental Organization Day. The 60th CA (AA) was organized in World War I at Fort Crocket, Galveston, Texas. They were demobilized in 1921 and reorganized in 1925 and sent to Fort William McKinley at Rizal, P.I. Later they were sent to Corregidor. A Colonel was then commanding officer of the Regiment. This was to be his last station before retirement, but he was destined to be kept in the Philippines and serve as commanding officer during World War II. In my opinion he was not a very competent officer and was not very considerate of his officers and men. He was a very stern, exact man in minor details, but I thought lax in the more important ones. A Lieutenant Colonel was Executive Officer. He was universally disliked throughout the regiment. He was however very well schooled in regulation and very meticulous in details of correspondence and regulation procedure. I had no trouble with him other then redoing several times some of the court martial papers which I had to submit to him, in order to suit his ideas of correct form.

One of the incidents involving the Executive Officer had to do with the "cast" problem. The Executive Officer had served an earlier tour in the Philippines. While on that tour he had married a German mestiza. Later, in the United States, he was divorced from this lady, and married her sister. The latter lady had been with him in his current tour in the Philippines, but had been sent home with all of the other women when war tension increased in the Pacific Area. A 1st Lieutenant, single, and a handsome officer had been squiring a young lady around the "Rock”. She was a mestiza, daughter of an American enlisted man and a Philippine woman.

The Executive Officer called the Lieutenant into his office and lectured him about the qualities of an officer as an "officer and gentleman" and stated that he did not think that it was proper for the Lieutenant to "date" the mestiza. The Lieutenant was correct and right on target with his reply. "Sir, are you not married to a mestiza?". That ended that conversation and the interview, but it did exemplify the nature of the double standard principles of the Executive Officer, and his comparison between a Pilipino mestiza and a German mestiza. From that date the Lieutenant was a "marked" man with the Executive Officer and really had to "toe the line" to avoid reprisal.

When I inherited H battery, a master sergeant of the battery was "King of the Rock", just like that depicted in the book "From Here to Eternity". He was big (245 pounds), hard and crooked. He had control of most of the "ripoffs" on the "Rock". Later when war was declared, he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and given to me in Battery Hartford (thanks for nothing, Colonel.) You will hear more about this creep later in this narrative.

One "buck" Sergeant I had was a well trained, generally well disciplined enlisted man, who was arms instructor in the battery. He had a bad habit of drinking. Once, while drunk, he was in a knife fight with a Spaniard in one of the Philippine barrios. I disciplined (fined) him for this. Later, he was called as a character witness for a private in the battery who was being court-martialled for sodomy in Manila. He appeared at the court drunk and cussed out the officers of the court. To protect him from certain court martial, I broke him to private. He was very angry about that and had it in for me from then on. He later tried to find me in the prison camps to "do me in." (Sgt. Lampshire - Ed)

A Private in the battery was on weekend pass in Manila and apparently got in trouble with the "bini" boys. (they were boys, dressed as girls who tried to lure the soldiers for mugging and other activities). He was accused of sodomy with a relative of the President of the Philippine Commonwealth. He was court martialed, sentenced to several years at hard labor and placed in jail in Manila. When, later, Manila fell to the Japanese, he was transferred back to Corregidor, and placed back in my battery again, during the war. Since he had already been removed from the battery roster, I lost track of him after the surrender of Corregidor.

If he made it through the subsequent prison camps, he may have escaped the prison sentence, since the court martial records may have been lost. I did not try to salvage records on him, since I morally believed that he was framed in Manila by people to cover up the fact that notable people were practicing as "bini" boys and got caught.

A Captain was Adjutant of the Regiment. A Captain was Plans and Training Officer. The Plans and Training Officer was a very efficient and capable officer. I thought that he personally was too self centered, I believed that unofficially, he did a lot in "running" the Regiment.

I respected some of these officers for their exact military manner and training, but as men had little use for them. Of all the officers in the Regiment, I had most respect of a Lieutenant Colonel who was Commanding Officer of the 2nd (my) Battalion. I thought him to be efficient, ambitious, a square shooter with his officers and men, and very conscientious in his military duties. He was a very loyal officer. He had served a tour of duty as an ROTC officer at Utah State Agricultural College earlier. He had been a prisoner of war for a short time in World War I, in Germany.

About November 20th, the 2nd Battalion, minus H and F batteries, moved to Bataan. G battery was moved to Gorda Point. E and A batteries were moved to Little Baguio. H battery was to have gone to Cochines Point for a war position, but this position required construction of a road up the side of the cliff to allow transport of the guns up to the point. The Battalion Commander, Plans and Training Officer and I went by boat to Cochines Point to "reconnoiter" this position. We not only had to consider the possibilities for a gun position, but keep a lookout for wild carabao (water buffalo) who had taken refuge there. We were waiting the completion of this road when war broke out and the Commanding General of the Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays would not let any more armament leave Corregidor. As it turned out this was a very good decision for me, since at the fall of Bataan, it is likely that we would not have gotten from there and would have wound up on the "death" march to Camp O'Donnell with others from Bataan.

On November 28,1941, The General, Commander of the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays, received a communication from USAFFE headquarters which stated" a state of unlimited emergency exists, take all due precautions." The General's action was to order all units to field positions and to maintain battle stations on a 24 hour alert status. These orders were issued at 7:30 PM. We were to be in field battle position and be able to serve noon mess in the field on November 29th. This was a full week before the Pearl Harbor attack.

I was commanding officer of Battery Hartford 60th CA (AA), We were housed at Middleside Barracks and operated a battery of four-three inch antiaircraft guns with appropriate supporting 30 and 50 calibre machine guns.

We vacated Middleside Barracks, and deployed upon the Battery of Sea-Coast Artillery-Battery Ramsey, above Ramsey Ravine. Battery Ramsey was an emplacement of three six inch guns, disappearing rifles, mounted to fire behind Corregidor into Manila Bay. They were to protect the mine fields in Manila Bay, and were not used in the modern defense system for Manila and Subic Bays. The M-4 Director and the height finder of the antiaircraft battery were located on the open parapet of Battery Ramsey. The four three inch guns of the battery were located in a shallow half moon formation immediately along the edge of the Ramsey Cliff, above Ramsey Ravine and in front of the parapet of Battery Ramsey. The guns were well camouflaged by a cover of low brush of the height of the guns. The Parapet of Battery Ramsey had been cleared of brush, so necessitated camouflage to cover operations in that area. Four 30 calibre machine guns were installed, one at either end of the line of three inch AA guns and two, one at either end of the open parapet, camouflaged in the edge of the low brush. The power plant unit was emplaced below ground level on the edge of Ramsey Cliff. Protecting walls to guns and equipment were built above ground as the ground was very stony and frequent large boulders prevented excavation below ground level. The Director and Height Finder were protected by two rows of sand bags shoulder high, surrounded by a row of earth filled power cans, and the whole sloped to the outside ground level with earth fill. The three inch guns were protected by an earthen wall three feet thick and about six and one half feet high in a circle around each gun, allowing sufficient room for operation of the piece. These walls were build over the end sections of the spider mount outriggers of the guns.

The battery used what facilities of Battery Ramsey that were accessible and useable. Access was had to rooms for a battery office, a cleaning and preserving room, ammunition storage, and a supply office. Later use was made of the low trench-like parados for location of the sleeping tents for the men. Three gasoline field ranges were used for cooking.

It has the result of immediately making all Americans fighting mad aready for war, when for months before, when it looked like we would orought to get into the war, people were reluctant to have sons go acroand straighten out the world mess. The common cry was that someone else ought to stop those people, but not me or mine.

Within a few days after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese made landings in the Philippine Islands, at Legaspi, Lingayen, Desmortes and immediately started driving from the north and south toward Manila. During these advances, heavy bombing of Cavite and Manila took place. Our troops with the Philippine Army had previously moved to meet these thrusts at the points of landing and against superior odds had started a retreat backward to Manila. It was the war plan at the time to fight the battle to the finish at the point of landing of enemy troops, but later on December 24th, the war plan was changed, to one of retreat into the Bataan Peninsula and to hold there with the fortified islands in Manila Bay until reinforcements would come. Manila was abandoned on December 28th, and fell to the Japanese on December 29th. Before this time most of the important headquarters had moved to Corregidor, and the remainder of the armed troops of the United States of America and the Philippine Islands had gone to Bataan. Subic Bay, north of the Bataan area had been evacuated by the American and Philippine army.

Previously on December 10th, I had sent a cable gram-home to Faye. On December 28th, the day before Manila fell, I received an answer from Faye, the last communication for some time to come.

In this manner, started the siege for the occupation of the Philippine Islands by the Japanese. The last ditch siege was for the small peninsula of Bataan and for the fortified islands at the entrance to Manila Bay.

This became a struggle in which the defenders had inadequate numbers of men, supplies, field and antiaircraft artillery and aircraft. A few pursuit planes had been salvaged from enemy bombings of Clark and Nichols Fields.

There were four fortified islands of Manila Bay. Fort Mills on Corregidor Island, the largest and furthest north. Next going south in the bay was Fort Hughes on Caballo Island, Fort Drum on El Fraille island, and furthest south toward Limit Point was Fort Frank on Carabao Island, close to the southern shore of Manila Bay. These forts lay about 2 miles apart across the 10 to 12 mile wide entrance to Manila Bay, from Limit Point on the south shoreline to Cochines Point on the north shoreline, near Mariveles Harbor on the Bataan Peninsula. Fort Drum  in the south channel was built upon a small island of rock and was strengthened and built up with concrete. It was designed to operate much like a stationary battleship with 14 inch naval gums and concrete living quarters for the men. It had it's own fresh water conversion system. Fort Frank was also built up with concrete upon a small rocky island sufficient to accommodate 6 and 8 inch guns. Fort Drum and Frank had no Antiaircraft batteries. Fort Hughes had one battery of 3 inch AA guns. It also had some 6 and 8 inch guns along with a battery of 155 mm howitzers.