The 325th Combat Engineers
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The 325th Combat Engineers
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| Fort Bragg meant spending over a year 1943-1944, waiting--waiting to be shipped to war and drilling and waiting and classes and waiting and inspections and waiting and more problems out in the field and waiting and 25-mile marches (60 miles one weekend) and waiting. For the officers, it meant they could get married and/or bring their wives and babies to Fayetteville and spend some time together befire shipping out. Margaret Youngs became Margaret Morse and spent the summer of 1944 living in Fayetteville and visiting with Katherine Denton and "Ugly" Williams (a former beauty queen), two other Lts. wives, waiting for the odd moments when their husbands were free. But mostly it was reading about the fighting in the Pacific and then D-Day and listening to the rumors and waiting. |
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"The two story barracks of Bragg felt like luxury after Tennessee and the huts of Fort Jackson." (J. P. Wallis, 2003) |
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Carl Blanton was sent to get a fellow. He'd gone on leave but his wife begged him not to go back so he stayed too long. The MPs got him, and he was thrown in the brig, breaking rocks. Carl was sent to fetch him back, and he was so glad to see him, rescuing him from breaking rocks. At one point, Carl took a nap. Someone asked him wasn't he afraid the fellow would run. No, because he was so grateful not to be breaking rocks. (Carl Blanton, 2003 Florida reunion) "Carl wouldn't go AWOL, he got better chow in the Army." (John P. Wallis) "I was in the Army before I knew supper didn't mean sweet corn bread and sweet cow's milk. My mother would make three pones of bread every night for the eleven kids." (Carl Blanton) |
| J.P. Wallis had guard duty, guarding guys who had gone AWOL who were assigned to digging ditches along the road. He told them, you don't do any work and I won't do any work. They all laid down and took naps in the shade by the side of the road. He told them that if any of them ran, he'd run too--not after them, but from the MPs. (J. P. Wallis, 2003 Florida reunion) |
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Bob Heller thinks these pictures are also Fort Bragg--
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Copyright © 2003-2006 Patricia Morse. All rights reserved. Reuse of material that appears on the pages of this website is expressly prohibited without written permission of the copyright holder. |
