6. Basic Training Continues

April 1942

A typical day at Camp Wolters:

6:00 AM: Reveille

6:45 AM: Breakfast
7:00 AM: Clean up
7:30 AM - 12 NOON: Drill and Instruction
1:00 PM - 4:30 PM: Instruction (radio school)
5:15 PM: Retreat
5:30 PM: Dinner
5:30 PM - 11:00 PM: Free time
11:00 PM: Taps

True Story: I was getting basic training in Camp Wolters, Texas, one of the guys was on guard duty. They sent him to the hospital to guard a prisoner. A kid who was serving time in the guard house became very sick and was in the hospital. The army rules are that a prisoner must be guarded at all times. This kid was very sick, in fact, on his death bed. They had called his family in. He was dying with pneumonia. The guard said, 'There I sat with my rifle in my hands. The kid died. The mother and sister were crying. Did I ever feel out of place.'

The Camp Wolters Longhorn was the camp newspaper "Published for soldiers by soldiers." We could send these home so our family and friends could keep updated on what we were doing.

This is from a copy of The Longhorn that I sent home. I wrote at the top of the page "The man at the top is one of my instructors" for radio school, which I am currently attending.



My handwritten notes from radio school classes. This was a crash course and a lot of information had to be digested quickly. Luckily, I had a pretty good radio background already.




Not all of our time was spent in drill and instruction. I snapped this picture (left) of a bunch of soldiers lining up to get into the camp movie theater. The photo to the right is of the very same building in the early 1970s, taken from almost the exact same position [courtesy: www.fwcvhpa.com].



Caption on back of picture: "Me, Clarence Hazleton of Mpls is in center, Reuben Johnson from Henning is on the right. We were eating ice cream." Camp Wolters, Texas.