The 325th Combat Engineers

Tennessee

The only good day of the maneuvers, as far as I can tell from the stories, was when they crossed the state line leaving Tennessee. They had various strategic problems to solve in the mock battles between the Blue Army and the Red Army. They spent months in the winter of mud and cold and rain learning how to solve these problems as a unit...

The "Anti-Freeze" Strategic Problem

30 December 1942 "I am writing this by fire light. Spent all day chopping wood and tramping over the hills, enjoying my fire to-night. The last problem ended Friday morning, the next one starts Tuesday morning. Last week has been pretty miserable, rained practically all the time. You haven't any idea what rain and G.I Traffic can do to these mountain dirt roads. ...Bagley has taken off to-night for Bowling Green, Kentucky, to replenish our anti-freeze stock. I had Christmas, so Bagley has New Year's. Some of the men invited me over to share food." (Gordon Morse to Margaret Youngs)

"I believe it was Bagley. He bought us some whiskey. We wanted something to drink. He wanted something to drink for Thanksgiving. I don't know how I got mixed up in this. I don't know who the driver was. We got quite a deal in Nashville. I was kind of a Southerner so I talked them up about how we were up here and on maneuvers and it was holiday time and wanted something to drink and I was wondering if some good Tennesseans would give some old boys from Georgia something for Christmas. We got us a wholesale price. I believe Ding was the driver for Bagley. I believe Ding drove the truck and we went over and got the whiskey in the truck that time.

Then another time, the troops give me some money to go up in Nashville to get beer and wine, about 20 bottles. They didn't have anything but rum. Rum was all they had. 20 bottles of damn rum. Ice and snowing and my feet slipped up and my butt and head hit the ground at the same time, but I saved that damn rum. The thing about it was that wasn't my money. It would have been my money if they'd broken." (T. C. Moore, 2001)

The Family Emergency Strategic Problem

Windham's wife was having a baby and we were on Tennessee maneuvers and the maneuver was about to start. Capt. Bagley he was company commander. He got a telegram from the Red Cross that Windham should go back to wherever his wife was having a baby. And the fastest thing we had was a jeep. Se he picked me to drive him. He said, take this guy to Nashville, might have been 60 miles. We went through the town of Lebanon, Tennesse, as wide open as that jeep could go.

So the MPs lit out after me. Well you ain't gonna catch me because you can't go no faster than I can go. He jumped out of the car, bought him a ticket at the ticket counter, and the MPs pulled up, took me back to Lebanon, and put me in the jail. This is the truth. I thought Bagley or Morse or Bell or somebody would show up and get me out of jail because I was supposed to be on those maneuvers. I'd been there 5 or 10 minutes when someone said "Moore." I said, well, they're here to get me out of jail. But one of the biggest blackest guys you ever saw in your life got up and they were getting him out. I had to eat the prison rations. That was worse than eating at Eisenhower's headquarters. But that's the truth. I thought the good captain or the good lieutenant had come to get me out of jail but I had to stay the whole time. I think it was four or five days before it was over with. But you know they wouldn't take an excuse. They wouldn't hear an excuse. I said, but this guy's got a pass. I don't believe that I even had a trip ticket for the jeep. (T. C. Moore, 2001)

The Breaking in the Officer Strategic Problem

"The thing that got me was Bell. Bell was a raw recruit almost when he come to us. He joined us in Tennessee. That was when he got out of the Point. He and Upchurch. I think he and Upchurch were at the Point at the same time. Bell come to us at Tennessee and he was a little bit cocky, you see, because he came out of the Point. He knew everything. We had a radio operator, a guy named Peters. He sure was a good radio operator. If you got caught on the maneuvers, you had to go back to the "prisoner camp." The officer had to walk, but the jeep driver, that was me, and the radio operator would go back in the jeep to take the equipment back. But the officer had to walk.

One thing I could do in the Army was read a map. I can read a map. So, I knew exactly where we was. I said, "Sir, we're getting over the line here. We're going to get caught." He wasn't believing me. He said, "What do you think of that, Peters?" Peters said, "Yes, sir, that's where we are right there on the map." So about five minutes later, here comes the Blue Army and captured us. So Bell had to get out and walk thirty miles. So the second time we went out and the same damn thing happened. Bell had to get out and walk all the way back. The third time, he got in the jeep and turned to me and Peters and said, "Where are we at?" He was a good officer. He did get to be a good officer. (T. C. Moore)

The Cigar Strategic Problem

T.C. Moore used to get a package from home every month of candy and cigars. They were on the Tennessee maneuvers, camped in some hog pasture. They went out in the field and came back that night and some old sow had gotten in to the tent, looking for the candy. Everything was wrecked, which was bad enough, but when T.C. found that the ciagars were ruined, he cried like a baby. (John P. Wallis, 2003 Florida reunion)

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The 325th Combat Engineers

Tennessee

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