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

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OF FORT LEONARD WOOD Only a handful of officials were on hand 3 December i940 To wiTness The ground-breaking cere- monies of ForT Leonard Wood. The ceremony sTarTed five seeThing monThs of acTiviTy which resulfed in The compleTion of I,6OO 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 lowa consTrucTion companies - Klinger, Neuman, WesTern, and LyTle - who became known as KNWL. They -hired men by The Tens of Thousands. ln March l94l The payroll numbered a peak of 32,000 civilians, besides The 3,000 working for The posT quarTermasTer and oTher deparfmenfs. The mud was Terrific - so bad as To give The budding ca m p naTion-wide publicify. BuT The excavaTors 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 sfream befween nearby Towns and The TorT. ln spife of The difficulfies The work proceeded aT a furious pace and was virTually comple+ed The middle of May. Soon afTer 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, insTead of The SevenTh Corps, Area Training Cenfer. LT. Col. Leo B. Crabbs was The firsT posT commander, and posT headquarfers was firsT locaTed aT l lTh and Colorado avenues. By 22 January I94-I There were only four barracks for enlisfed men and one for officers. The comforfs of hoT running waTer, elecTric lighTs and sewage disposal were as yeT unknown. Wafer for shaving had To be heafed on a coal sTove and Transferred To wash basins on a bench around The walls of The improvised wash room. Bafhs could be had only in The surrounding Towns. Soon afferwards cadres began To arrive To occupy The newly compleTed barracks. Engineer Replace- menT Training Cenfer TERTCJ headquarfers was organized under The command of Brig. Gen. U.S. GranT lll, in March and The 26Th BaTTalion received The firsT shipmenT of Trainees in April. The SixTh Division lnoT To be confused wiTh The presenT SixTh Armored Divisionl came from ForT Snelling, Minn., and oTher poinfs and officially Took over Their new home on I5 May. The 72nd Field ArTillery BaTTalion arrived by moTor convoy from ForT Knox, Ky., on 3 June. WiTh The compleTion of The 540,000,000 forT 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 7OTh. From The early parT of January I94-I 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 Tell 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. l-le was succeeded by Brig. Gen. Frederick B. BuTler, who held The posT unTil February l95l when Mai. Gen. Samuel D. Sfurgis assumed command. During The presenT naTional emergency ForT Leonard Wood has been The home of The Sixfh Armored Division, a replacemenT Training uniTg The 20Th Engineer Brigade, an engineer Training uniT: The 94Th lnfanTry BaTTalion lSeplg and The Engineer SpecialisT Schools associaTed wiTh The SixTh Armored Division. ' PresenT sTrengTh of The posT is approximafely 28,000 miliTary personnel and 2,000 civilian em- poyees. The TorT was named afTer Mai. Gen. Leonard E. Wood, chief of sTaTf of The UniTed STaTes Army from l9I0 To l9l4, and a hero of The Spanish-American war. '

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lf T cv' ' T., 1 .f F.. 'gg ' il f 15 .La - fy K Q: 'gig -ff: FQ: , M-if OF THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS . . . Increasing The combaT power oT The Tield Torces . . . is The mission oT The Corps oT Engineers. WheTher iT be by consTrucTion or desTrucTion, The Engineers are primarily concerned wiTh TaciliTaTing The mo-vemenT oT Triendly Troops and impeding ThaT oT The enemy. IT is Tor ThaT mission ThaT men oT The 6Th Armored Division are Trained. Upon compleTion oT Their Training aT The world's largesT engineer Training cenTer, men oT The Super SixTh have received insTrucTio-n in providing passage Through obsTacles, boTh naTural and man-made. DeTile operaTions, river crossings, bridging, passage oT obsTacles, beachheads, airheads and demoliTions all come wiThin The scope oT acTiv- iTies oT The Corps oT Engineers. l-lindering enemy movemenT, by means oT hasTily erecTed barriers, such as road blocks and mine Tields, as well as deliberaTely prepared zones oT obslacles is buT a porTion oT The Corps' responsibiliTies. . OTher missions underTalcen by The Engineers include waTer supply, producTion, reproducTion and supply of maps, mosaics, map subsTiTuTes and relieT models: reproducTion and disTribuTion oT aerial phoTographs: operaTion oT uTiliTies1 supply OT consTrucTion, TorTiTicaTion and camouTlage maTerials and oTher engineer equipmenTp operaTion o-T landing craTT in amphibious operaTions: beach operaTions: combaT as inTanTryg and baTTle- Tield illuminaTion. Such is The mission oT The Corps. ln pasT wars and in The presenT con- TlicT, The Corps oT Engineers has been ciTed Tor a iob well done. Aiding The Corps in The successful compleTion oT iTs mission in The currenT acTion hfavedbeen many men oT The 6Th Armored Division and EorT Leonard oo ,

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HISTORY QF THE 1 . CXCNAME: Super SixXh. r X942 ai Fori Knox, Kenrucky. Shanks, New York. . NX ACTXVATXON: X5 Februa y XNACTXVATXON: X8 Seplrember X945 ar Camp ATXON' 5 Sepiember X950 ai' Fori Leonard Wood,Missour1. he Division was organized. ir Xeir Fori Knox, X4enXucky, There in March X942. X'Xaving Xoer X942 REACTXV . TRAXNXNG: XSXaXesideX AXXer 'r Tor Camp Chaiiee, Arkansas, To begin Xraining 'raken pari in Third Army maneuvers in Louisiana in Augusr and Sepiem . The Division wenr Xo Camp Young, CaXiXornia, Tor Xraining in Xhe Deseri Training y Cenrer in Ocjrober X942. X.aXer The Division was assigned Xo Camp Cooke, CaXi- Xornia, coming under The XX Armored Corps and The XVXXX Corps'whiXe ar Xha'r sXa'rion. Xn November X943, s'riXX assigned Xo Camp Cooke, The uniX became a parr oi The Fourrh Army Command. DEPARTED UNXTED STATES EOR FOREXGN DUTY: XX February X944 Trom New York Porlr oi Embarkarion. TRAXNXNC-5: XOverseasX Trained in The Unired Kingdom Tor 'Xive monXhs prior Xo combat ' i STATES: X7 Sepiember X945. Xhern France, RXnineXand, Ardennes, and RETURNED UNXTED CREDXTS: XDivisionX Normandy, Nor X3'rsX' eXemen'rs oi DivisionX 27 BATTLE CenXraX Europe. DATE ENTERED COMBAT: XDivisionX 28 .XuXy X944. X 1 Juiy XQ44. COMBATKDAYS: XDivisionX, 226. SUCCESSXVE COXVXXVXANDXNG GENERALS: Xviaior C5eneraX WiXXiam X'X. X'X. Morris,- Jr., from February X942 ro Xviay X943: Xviaior GeneraX Roberr W. Grow from May X943 unXiX Division inacXivaXion. CONGRESSXONAL MEDAL OF HONOR WXNNER: Slraii Sergeanr Archer T. Gammon, Company A, Ninih Armored Xnianiry Ba'rraXion Tor acXion near BasXogne, BeXgium, XX January X945. X OFFXCXAX. CXTATXONg AXXer he had charged 'rhrough hip-deep snow To knock X ' our an enemy machine gun and i'rs Three-man crew wirh a grenade, he again V rushed forward Xo desirroy anoiher auiomaiic weapon posiXion and iXs crew' of 5 ' X'Xe Xhen advanced To wirhin 25 yards of a Tiger RoyaX frank, kiXXing Xwo 'rhe rank srarred ro wirhdraw ir Tired poinXbXank and Xour. hosXiXe riTXemen enroure. As kiXXed him.