V. CAMP POLK, LOUISANA
We were put on a train and sent to Camp Polk, LA. This was an Armored Infantry and Paratroop training camp.
They lined us up to see where we were going to be sent. They just took them at random. When we got up to the Sergeant that was designating where we were going, Beaney came up to where I was and asked me where I was going. I told him they hadn't told me yet. He said, "Let's stay together." I said we would try. So we told the Sergeant we wanted to stay together. He asked, "Are you brothers from the same hometown?" We told him no, we had been together practically since we had been in the service. He finally said, "OK, where do you want to go, to the Medics there at Camp Polk, to another activity other than Camp Polk or to the Armored Infantry there at Camp Polk?" Don and I had a little conference. We decided we didn't want to be in the Medics and another activity would probably be the Foot Infantry, so we decided to stay at Camp Polk. We told the Sergeant we wanted to stay there and would like to go to the 58th Armored Infantry Battalion because we had heard it was a good outfit. He told us it was a good outfit and that was where he was from.
VI. CAMP POLK, LA - 8TH ARMORED DIVISION
After being kicked out of the Cadets, I looked back and wished I had stayed with the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP).
When we got to the 58th Battalion, we found it was made up of GI's that had been in the ASTP Program and Cadets and got the same raw deal we had gotten. So it wouldn't have made any difference if I would have stayed in ASTP, I would have been sent to the ground force.
While at Camp Polk, there were a few events that stick out in my mind. I wanted to get into something besides the Armored Infantry. I had heard that the Ski Troops were taking applications, so I applied through the National Ski Patrol.
Later, I got a paper saying I had been accepted in the Ski Patrol. The next time we had a company inspection, Capt. Malarky asked if anybody knew we had a professional skier in the company. He told the company that I was the skier, but he would not release me. The Ski Division later was sent to Italy and was shot up pretty bad in combat.
We read in the paper that there was a natural gas fire out of control just south of Shreveport, LA, A gas representative came to the Camp asking for help. The Captain seemed to think we could shoot off the pipe where the fire was coming from.
The Captain sent my squad up to the fire because my squad was the anti-tank squad which had a 57mm anti-tank gun. Arriving there in the late afternoon, we drove to the fire to see what we could do.
The gas well had a 6-inch pipe reaching from the ground to about 30 feet. There was a shut-off valve about waist high from the ground, but nobody could get to it because it was at a joint in the pipe about 8 feet from the valve. It made it impossible to get to the valve because the flames were spurting out from the joint at 360 degrees. Even with an asbestos suit, you couldn't get to the valve for the heat.
I positioned the 57mm gun at the most advantageous spot, as close to the pipe that we could stand the heat, even with asbestos suits.
We put on our suits and aimed the gun by using a cross-hair method. The cross-hair method was by making a cross hair at the muzzle end of the gun with a string. Then we would aim the gun at the target by looking down the inside of the bore of the gun and positioning the cross hairs on the target.
The 57mm armor-piercing bullet was about 2-l/2 inches in diameter. When the bullet would hit the pipe the 2 l/2 inch hole made by the bullet would shrink to less than l/2 inch because of the heat of the pipe. We kept firing away at this small target until about 2:00 a.m. The pipe fell over to the ground allowing the flame from the well to go straight up, enabling the company people to get to it and shut off the gas at the valve. One of the company men told me it was costing the company $3,000 per day for every day that the well was afire. Imagine what they would be losing today!
We went out for physical training one morning and when we sent in the barracks to get our rifles to do close order drill, I was next to the last one out of the barracks. As we passed the shower room, which was just inside the door, Scott yelled, "Carroll, look at this." When I went back and looked in the shower room there sat a guy with his wrist slit with blood running from his arm. I went to the door and yelled at Sgt. Higgins to come in there. When Sgt.. Higgins saw the guy bleeding, he grabbed the guy by the shirt and acted like he was going to hit him. Then he said, "If you weren't so near dead I would kill you." We got a big kick out of that remark later. Sgt. Higgins said the guy had pulled these types of tricks before when the outfit he was in was scheduled to go overseas. They sent the guy to the infirmary and sewed up his wrist. We never saw him anymore.
I was at a restaurant one day and when I was paying my bill, a fellow standing beside me said, "I like your ring. It's a Balfour, isn't it?' I said it was and he said he was a Balfour salesman. I think I gave $l2 for it in l943, and I still have and wear the ring today.
Lloyd Parish, from near Shoals, was in the 58th Battalion the same time I was. I worked on the railroad (B&O) with him before we went in the service.
After training at Camp Polk was finished, we got a 7 day furlough. I took a train to St.Louis. On the way to St.Louis it was hot and another GI and I were standing outside between the train cars. The car in front of us was closed and you couldn't see in it. Suddenly, the door opened and a well dressed man opened the door and asked us to come into the car. When we walked into the car, they're sat a pretty girl, well dressed, with sun glasses on in an air-conditioned car. We had just sat down and started a conversation when we saw the train conductor talking to the man that let us in the car. The conductor told us we had to leave because it was a private car. The lady told the conductor that she had asked us in the car and she was paying for it. The conductor said it was against the rules and that we had to go. To keep from making a fuss, we left. I always wondered who that lady was that could rent a whole air-conditioned railroad car in the middle of the war. I really thought she was a movie actress to be able to travel in this manner.
I spent 7 days at home, relishing the first 2 or 3 days, and worrying the rest of the time about returning to Camp because I was going overseas.
I was sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey which was the port of embarkation.
| 
