Word: 43rd
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Three loud cheers for TIME'S June 4 article on the 43rd Division at Camp Pickett, Va. My fiance is one of the thousands of draftee replacements in this division, and reading your article was like reading one of his letters...
They would work hard, General Cramer had told his men. There would be little time to see their families. The 43rd got to work rebuilding the camp. There were few mops, little soap, few towels, not enough garbage cans. The men put in requisitions, but they bogged down in red tape. There were few recreation areas. The supply sergeants never had enough uniforms. Men lived out of footlockers which they bought themselves, wore civilian shoes, frequently ate food prepared by ill-trained cooks, supervised by ill-trained mess sergeants...
...four terms in the state legislature. A veteran of World War I and a brigadier general with the 24th Infantry Division in World War II, he had an excellent combat record, won four Silver Stars for gallantry in action. In 1946, after demobilization, he was made commander of the 43rd when it was returned to National Guard status. A few months later, regarded as a top National Guard officer, he got full-time duty as chief of the National Guard Bureau in Washington. Taking the job, he made one thing plain: if his division was called up, he wanted...
...Pentagon added its bit to the 43rd's troubles. Instead of the required 150 tanks, the division got but 44, and many of them were inoperable for lack of parts. Those that ran had to be driven 90 miles to another base before their 76-mm. guns could be fired-Pickett had no ranges long enough. Regiments had to pool machine guns. There were no cleaning rods. Ammunition was scarce. Instead of six shots with the 2.36 bazooka, recruits were allowed only one-enough to startle them, but not enough to train them...
...CryBaby Division." Somehow, the 43rd pushed its draftees through eleven weeks of basic training. To save time, three weeks of training (overhead artillery firing, combat in cities, infiltration courses) were lopped off the schedules. Then the Army raided the division, levied 3,400 recruits for combat in Korea. The 43rd frantically rushed them through final training, and in return got another batch of men fresh from induction centers as replacements. The 43rd began to wonder if it hadn't been quietly shunted into a training role. Officers & men wrote letters to the Pentagon, their Congressmen and New England papers...