US Army Training Center - Yearbook (Fort Leonard Wood, MO)

Page 9 text:

1 or FORT LEONARD WOOD Only a handful of officials were on hand 3 December I94O To wifness The ground-breaking cere- monies of ForT Leonard Wood. The ceremony sTarTed five seefhing monThs of acTiviTy which resulTed in The complefion of I,60O buildings and all The uTiliTies necessary To provide for one of The naTion's largesT army posTs. , Close on The heels of The ground-breaking ceremonies came The four Iowa consTrucTion companies - Klinger, Neuman, WesTern, and LyTIe - who became known as KNWL. They 'hired men by The Tens of Thousands. In March I94l The payroll numbered a peak of 32.000 civilians. besides The 3,000 working for The posT quarfermasfer and oTher deparTmenTs. The mud was Terrific - so bad as To give The budding ca mp naTion-wide publicify. BuT The excavafors and The wielders of hammer and Trowel and saw surged on in Their work. AlmosT all work- men lived off The posT, and vehicles of all descripfions passed in a consTanT sTream befween nearby Towns and The forf. In spife of The difficulfies The work proceeded aT a furious pace and was virfually compleTed The middle of May. Soon affer The firsT of The year The firsT adminisTraTive officers came To The posT. On January 3 The War DeparTmenT issued The order designafing The area as ForT Leonard Wood, insfead of The Sevenfh Corps Area Training CenTer. LT. Col. Leo B. Crabbs was The firsT posT commander, and posT headquarfers was firsT locaTed aT I ITh and Colorado avenues. By 22 January I94I There were only four barracks for enlisfed men and one for officers. The comTorTs of hoT running wafer, elecTric lighTs and sewage disposal were as yeT unknown. WaTer Tor shaving had To be heaTed on a coal sTove and Transferred To wash basins on a bench around The walls of The improvised' wash room. BaThs could be had only in The surrounding Towns. Soon afTerwards cadres began To arrive To occupy The newly compleTed barracks. Engineer Replace- menT Training Cenfer IERTCI headquarTers was organized under The command of Brig. Gen. U.S. Granf III, in March and The 26Th BaTTaIion received The firsT shipmenf of Trainees in April. The SixTh Division lnoT To be confused wiTh The presenT SixTh Armored Divisionl came from ForT Snelling, Minn., and oTher poinTs and officially Took over Their new home on I5 May. The 72nd Field Arfillery BaTTaIion arrived by moTor convoy from ForT Knox, Ky., on 3 June. WiTh The complefion of The 540,000,000 TorT and The 22-mile railroad leading To iT, Trainees began coming in full speed. Famous divisions Training here afTer The Sixfh include The 8Th, 75Th, 97Th, and 70Th. From The early parT of January I94I unTil The posT closed in I946, ForT Leonard Wood Trained some 300.000 Troops. PosT commander when The posT was inacTivaTed was Col. WalTer J. Wolfe. During The years The forT lay dormanT,, only a handful of groundskeepers were on The premises. Buildings' gradually faded, roads fell inTo disrepair, grass grew wild in The fields. When Sepfember i950 rolled around, ForT Leonard Wood was again puT on an acTive basis, wiTh Col. A. J. DeLorimer assigned as posT commander. He was succeeded by Brig. Gen. Frederick B. Bufler, who held The posT unTil February l95I when Mai. Gen. Samuel D. STurgis assumed command. During The presenT naTionaI emergency ForT Leonard Wood has been The home of The Sixfh Armored Division, a replacemenf Training uniTg The 20Th Engineer Brigade. an engineer Training uniT: The 94Th Infanfry BaTTaIion lSeplg and The Engineer Specialisf Schools associafed wiTh The SixTh Armored Division. I Presenf sTrengTh of The posT is approximafely 28,000 miliTary personnel and 2.000 civilian em- poyees. The forT was named affer Mai. Gen. Leonard E. Wood, chief of sfaff of The UniTed STaTes Army from I9IO To I9I4, and a hero of The Spanish-American war.

Page 8 text:

BRIGADIER GENERAL BRANNER P. PURDUE Assisfanf Division Commander Brigadier General Branner P. Purdue became Assisfanf 6+h Armored Division commander af Forf Leonard Wood following an assignmenf af Eorf Benning, Georgia. While fhere he served as Assisfanf Direcfor of lnsfrucfion in fhe Academic Deparfmenf, Company D Prior fo his assignmenf af Eorf Benning, General Purdue served as Depufy Chief of Sfaff, Headquarfers U.S- Army, Alaslca. Among highlighfs of his career, General Purdue served as observer wifh fhe Brifish Eighfh Army during fhe summer of I942 when Eield Marshall Erwin Rommel's forces drove fhe Brifish back from fhe Gazala line fhrough Tobrulc and Mersa Mafruh fo fhe EI Alamein line. s He was also commanding officer of fhe l2fJfh lnfanfry Regimenf while if was in acfion during World War ll. ln I944, 'rhe I2Ofh Regimenf was acfive in 'lhe penefrafion of fhe Siegfried Line in fhe area norfh of Aachen. , Ofher assignmenfs during fhe general's milifary career include posfs as commanding officer of fhe 6fh Tank Desfroyer Group in I942 and l943g Direcfor of fhe Tacfics Deparfmenf af fhe Tank Desfroyer School, Camp Hood, Texas, in I943-44: and commanding officer of 'rhe 303rd lnfanfry Regimenf sfafioned af Eorf Leonard Wood and San Luis Obispo, California, in I944. A nafive of Eayeffeville, Arkansas, General Purdue was graduafed from fhe Unifed Sfafes Milifary Academy in I925 and lafer affended primary flying school. Erom i926-I'-729 he served as an infanfry unif officer and lafer as commander for a period of fen years. During World War ll, General Purdue parficipafed in fhe following maior compaigns: Norfh- ern France, Rhineland, Ardennes and Cenfral Europe. , g

Page 10 text:

HISTORY QF THE NTCKNAME: Super Sindh. ACTTVATTON: 15 February 1942 aT ForT Knox, KenTucky. TNACTTVATTON: 18 SepTember 1945 aT Camp Shanks, New York. REACTTVATTON: 5 SepTember 1950 aT ForT Leonard Wood, Missouri. TRATNTNG: 1STaTeside1 ATTer The Division was organized, iT 1eTT ForT Knox, 1CenTucky, Tor Camp ChaTTee, Arkansas, To begin Training There in March 1942. T-Taving Taken parT in Third Army maneuvers in Louisiana in AugusT and SepTember 1942, The Division wenT To Camp Young, Ca1iTornia, Tor Training in The DeserT Training CenTer in OcTober 1942. LaTer The Division was assigned To Camp Cooke, Ca1i- Tornia, coming under The 11 Armored Corps and The XV111 Corps whi1e aT ThaT sTaTion. 1n November 1943, sTi11 assigned To Camp Cooke, The uniT became a arT oT The FourTh Army Command. TES FOR FORETGN DUTY: 11 February 1944 Trorn New ' To p DEPARTED UNTTED STA Y kPorT oT EmbarkaTion. , ' d 'n The UniTed Kingdom Tor Tive monThs prior or TRATNTNG: 1Overseas1 Traine i combaT. RETURNED UNTTED STATES: 17 SepTember 1945. BATTLE CREDTTS: 1Division1 Normandy, NorThern France, Rhine1and, Ardennes, and CenTra1 Europe. OMBAT' 1Division1 28 Ju1y 1944. 1FirsT e1emenTs oT Division1 27 DATE ENTERED C . ' ' M rris, hosTi1e riT1emen enro ki11ed him. Ju1y1944. BAT DAYS' 1Division1, 226. GENERALS' Maior Genera1 Wi11iam 1'1. 1-'1. o R berT WL Grow Trom COM . SUCCESSTVE COMMANDTNC-5 . Jr., Trom February 1942 To May 19431 Maior Genera1 o May 1943 unTi1 Division inacTivaTion. ' CONGRESSTONAL MEDAL OF HONOR WTNNER: STaTT SergeanT Archer T. Gammon, Company A, NinTh Armored 1nTanTry BaTTa1ion Tor acTion near BasTogne, Be1giurn, 11 January 1945. OFF1C1AL CTTATTON: ATTer he had charged Through hip-deep snow To knock ouT an enemy machine gun and iTs Three-man crew wiTh a grenade, he again , rushed Torward To desTroy anoTher auTomaTic weapon posiTion and iTs crew oT Tour. 1'1e Then advanced To wiThin 25 yards oT a Tiger Roya1 Tank, ki11ing Two uTe. As The Tank sTarTed To wiThdraw iT Tired poinTb1ank and T .