US Army Training Center - Yearbook (Fort Eustis, VA)

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XR r F sf RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES CHAPLAIN TVILLIAM D. CLEARY Fort Eustis-HO-D -Fort Eustis The Chaplains, work for the CNITC commenced long before the camp opened. The program of all religious services to be held during the entire period of the camp was drawn up, approved and printed in folder form and handed to each candidate during the processing. Arrangements were made and dates set for three special outdoor services-one for Protest- ants, one for Catholics and one for men of Jewish faith. Prominent speakers for these special outdoor services were invited and responded. Dr. R. Cary Montague of Richmond spoke at the Protestant service, the Rev. E. S. Brosnan of Norfolk at the Solemn High Nlilitary Field Nlass and Nlessrs. Pinestone and Lipman at the Jewish service. Chaplain John T. Axton, Chief of Chaplains of the U. S. Army, visited the camp on Sunday, August 1, 1926, and addressed the Protestant congregation. Two large stands, one for the members of the choir and the other to serve as altar and speakers'platform,Were constructed for the outdoor services and placed in a suitable location of the civic center grove. A form letter was drafted, approved and printed to be mailed to the next of kin of every candidate who came to camp. This letter contained a statement of how the boy liked camp and explained the wonderful advantages he had at his disposal While here. It also extended an invitation to the next of kin to visit the camp on c'Mother's Dayw, July 30. As the orders were received, envelopes were addressed and approximately fourteen hundred of these letters were mailed by July 15. This letter was in addition to the postal which every candidate was required to write home on the day of his arrival. The Chaplains requested and were cheerfully granted a place in the general processing program. They decided to classify every candidate under the headings, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. Accordingly two thousand cards were printed having a blank space for the name, company and religious affiliation of each candidate, and at any time during the processing they could tell how many Protestants, Catholics and Jews had so far reported. On July 8, the day camp opened, four chaplains were on duty all the time at the Processing,' station. When not busily engaged in actually processing the candidates SOLEMN I'TIGH FIELD MASS ' ' Pagr One Hundred One , n . .v. . . v vmv. .v.v.vnq. .v-v. ' . .Usa-vw. .v.v.v.v.vJ.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.vmv.v.v.n

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'X 'X 011 s . 3 S 5 1 S - S S S S S 1 f a Fort Eustis- O-DH-Fort Eustis A DEMOBILIZATION 'Before four o'clock on the morning of August 6 nearly every CMTC company was wide awake vocally and physically, so that sleep was impossible for the trainee for whom first call had to be more or less of call and recall' during twenty-nine mornings of his month's stay in camp. r The march to Yorktown and 'back to Eustis had been made after a glorious fight on the battlefield of 1781 that acted as a fitting climax to the training of the CMTC. Mileage had been paid out the day before, tickets bought and collected again, equipment turned in and nothing left to the students but pleasant memories and the comforts of bed and food. The tickets which had been purchased the afternoon before were collected at that time by the company commanders and placed in respective envelopes, each one of which bore the man's name and company. After mess in the morning these tickets were given to the student together with his discharge certificate which read that he was to advance a course, repeat his course or was desired for no further military training. The CMTC of Eustis had very few in the latter class. The final physical examinations had been given on August 3, 4 and 5 to those students who by regulations were required to take them and it remained for the CMTC student only to don his civilian clothes and take his departure. Strange beings were these new civilians with their faces bronzed by the Virginia sun and awkward in clothes that had fitted sheikishly but four weeks before. They seemed ill at ease as they wandered aimlessly around camp during the early morning hours. The railroad and bus lines had arranged for transportation direct from the CMTC area and two trains, leaving about eight carried the bulk of students to Richmond and Norfolk, the 'junction points from which they could go to their homes. The nearby com- munities were served by the busses which came directly into the area. Some students left by private automobiles and those going to Baltimore and Washington were carried to York- town by bus. Few students remained in camp after mid-day. VVe were glad to see you come, many of you as undisciplined youngsters, and as the strains of '4Auld Lang Syne, played by the 34th Infantry Band which preceded you in so many parades, broke on the clear morning air, we felt sorry, sincerely sorry, that we should have to wait another summer before renewing the friendships formed during your training period. As we turn back to the Quartermaster and the Ordnance Officer the supplies for your bodily comforts and instruction, huge though the task may be, we are thankful for our share in the work of sending you to your homes better and more apprecia- tive Americans for your month's experience at Fort Eustis. DEPARTURE ron Home Page One Hundrfd

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mms Fort Eustis- O-D -Fort Eustis ' , .3 si K CAl::ovej A Biggs, Johnson, Esaias, Watkins, Crawford, Markley, Irwin, Cleary Cin Charge of Chaplains' Trainingj, Foulke. QCenter, leftl CCenter, rightl Mr. Finestone, Conductor of Jewish Services - Leaders of the jewish Services , CBelowD Perkins, Hogue, Edge, McHugh, Watkins, Unruh, Cleary, Snyder, lVIartin. Page One Hundrzd Two , VV V 'YY YVYYYV