CAMP BRECKINRIDGE

The Tennessee Maneuvers completed our training cycle. The 329th Infantry had been in existence for a year and was ready for combat. For the advantage of improving proficiency in specialist training there was an equal loss in morale by the monotony of repetition. There were some accomplishments for the months the regiment spent at Camp Breckinridge. The regiment attained an overall qualification of eighty-six per cent on the target ranges. All the men could march twenty-five miles in twenty-four hours. Corporals were issued a map and a compass and required to lead their squads over a sixty-mile course of brush and mountains. Check points, manned by officers or sergeants, were established to prevent cheating, and to keep squads far enough apart to prevent them from following each other. They were issued rations for two days, with the requirement that if it took longer they would have to forage. Most of them finished in two days and were given a day's rest.

At Breckinridge the regiment had a dose of "The Soldier's Revenge" -- AWOL. All of them had been given short furloughs, but it probably was difficult for them to tear themselves away from their families or girl friends. The regiment was in barracks at Breckinridge, but the stockade was different. It consisted of a rectangular area enclosed by a high barbed wire fence. The only facilities were a few water outlets and some pit latrines. When a soldier returned, or was brought back from being AWOL, he took his pup tent, blankets, and mess kit and moved into this stockade. He trained and ate with his company during training hours, but the rest of the time he spent in the stockade; sleeping on the ground, no mattress, no spring, no lights, no comic books. There were few repeaters.

The respite at Camp Breckinridge offered some advantages that paid off later. A few officers were allowed to go to the Command & General Staff School at Leavenworth. The training that they got there proved to be particularly valuable when the attrition of combat pushed them into command of battalions. The regiment also picked up Major John Speedie, who had been jettisoned by some armored outfit who didn't know a leader when they saw one. He became later the most valuable battalion commander in the regiment.

An excellent example of the fallaciousness of high ranking officers, who think they can evaluate a man by a few minutes interview, was brought out there. The Sixth Army commander, General Lear, came to inspect the regiment. As the troops marched past, two of the battalion commanders dropped out and reported to the general. He asked them a number of questions. The questions were about things that were his personal views. When a senior officer asks questions, he doesn't want to hear the subordinates' opinions, but rather concurrence with his own views. Both battalion commanders knew the right answers. One gave all the proper answers. The other hedged on such questions as compulsory singing. When they were dismissed the general asked the regimental commander which of the two was the best. The regimental commander knew the proper answer, but weaseled by saying that number one was best on the parade ground, but number two was best in the field. The general vigorously disagreed. He said, "Number one will make you a fine battalion commander, but you will have to get rid of number two." The sequel to this story: Number one got gangplank fever at Hoboken, and was never seen again. Number two was shot through the chest while leading an assault in Normandy, but recovered to make a fine combat record. V.I.P.'s who go about inspecting should know that most subordinates have heard the story about the big boy and the little boy up the cherry tree, and all they are likely to get is a snow job. It seems that very few of them can recognize a "snow job" when they get one.

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