A CHANCE TO AIR SOME PEEVES . . .

[The letter of December 26 from the Montgomery home in Jacksonville, OR, continues:]

My main reason for writing from here was to tell you some of my peeves about Camp White. While I don't think there is any censorship at Camp, I don't care to take too much risk. On the other hand I don't want to worry you so remember the written word looks worse generally than the spoken sounds. For one thing Winchell referred to Camp White recently as Little Alcatraz. Just why I don't know unless it is because the physical standards are so high and they are rather unmerciful in trying to bring all men up to them. The Dec. 14^th issue of Time has an article on the camp and a picture of Gen. Gerhardt stripped to the waist, soaked to the skin astride a horse. His idea is to harden his troops as a matter of self preservation when it comes to the actual campaign and battlefield. Many of us say the hardening is worse than the battle and more lives lost. Ha! Well, anyhow I managed this awful cold and I'll go on the sick list again if I catch any more.

To continue with the general. One morning about two weeks ago Lieut. Simpson had us out for early morning drill and someone asked him how long he thought our outfit would be in camp. He was apparently mad clear through and blew his top pretty much in this wise. "I think most of you will be right here when the war ends. Lots of you men are older than I am and they can say what they want to but men after a certain age are no good for soldiering. The commanding general (meaning Gerhardt) is crazy. Absolutely nuts. It's crazy to have you men stand around out here in the cold and rain and crazier still to have you sleep out nights in the wet. I left an outfit in New Jersey because I thought it was bad but it was not a patch to this. And let me tell you, you'd have had even more of this being out in the wet if we hadn't all been raising hell about it the last few days. Particularly the medics. The medics have been crying their eyes out at the appalling numbers on the sick list and the amount of pneumonia in the hospitals. The general is crazy and they know back in Washington that he's crazy. He's the type that wires Washington every other day: 'We are ready. We are ready.' All he is thinking of is making some sort of record for himself. I think most of this outfit if you do get sent away from here will be put doing guard duty around defense plants and guarding roads, tunnels, and bridges."

Well, I stood there with my mouth open for I never thought an officer would dare come out that flat-footed in public criticism of the commanding officer. He was really madder than a hatter and I judged from his state of mind the camp was probably full of others just like him.

[My research on Gen. Charles Hunter Gerhardt indicates that he was a tough taskmaster and his methods were indeed controversial. A small man, he was in great shape himself and he expected his officers to be trim and physically fit, even those of middle age. No paunches. It sounds as though he imposed a standard of fitness on the men immediately rather than working up to it. Or – maybe it was his way of weeding out those who couldn't keep up. The Time Magazine article of December 14, 1942, can be found at this link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,774103,00.html ]