Word: pickette
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Inside the gate at Camp Pickett, deep in the dusty Virginia pine barrens, a soldier stood methodically thrusting copies of a neat, mimeographed pamphlet into the hands of arriving draftees. The cover bore the grape-leaf emblem of the 43rd ("Winged Victory") Division, and the first page carried a message from its commander: "You have just joined the best outfit in the Army ... I expect to see you doing your jobs as soldiers in the best division in the best Army in the world. (Signed) Kenneth F. Cramer, Major General, Commanding...
Coal Smoke & Mud. Everything had gone wrong from the minute the 43rd arrived at Pickett, 8,000 strong. Buildings, roofless and rickety, abandoned since World War II, dotted the landscape. Dirty green camouflage paint hung in peeling festoons from the barracks. Windows were smashed, hot-air heating ducts rusted and broken, the ancient latrines filthy, the mess halls flooded with water from leaky pipes...
...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...
...into a training role. Officers & men wrote letters to the Pentagon, their Congressmen and New England papers. Privately, the Pentagon labeled them the "crybaby division" and sent inspectors to check up. Soon, hundreds of inspectors-from Second Army, VII Corps, Army Field Forces, Congress and the Pentagon-roamed Camp Pickett...
Orders went out to clean up Pickett. In Washington, Lieut. General Van Fleet, then Second Army commander, told a Congressman that he had ordered Cramer to straighten out his division, that if Cramer didn't get busy within 24 hours, he, Van Fleet, would issue the orders under his own name. Things got a little better. The leave-policy was eased a bit and some overage officers were relieved of command. But Cramer stayed on and the barracks were still unpainted. "Our day room looked so grimy," said one company commander, "that we painted it ourselves. It cost...