Induction


Pvt. Roy N. Van Arsdall, US Army

Co. H, Reception Center

Fort Benjamin Harrison

Indianapolis, Ind.


April 1943



April 7, 1943


Dear Mother,

    Got here (Louisville) at 11:10. All our bunch passed O.K. We leave for Fort B.J. around 7:30. Write you then.


Love,

Roy



The first from the soldier.




April 9, 1943


Dear Mother,

    We got here about 2:00 AM and went thru a lot of stuff. They finally put us to bed. We got up at 5, made the beds, and went to breakfast. Then we had our blood test. It is 9:40 now and we have cleaned everything in the country a dozen times. Polished everything that has any metal even close to it.

    This address is only in case of emergency. You must not write until I get to my other camp. I saw Raymond this morning. The draftees go out fast, but some of the reserves have been here more than two weeks. Some don’t even get their equipment for 4 or 5 days.

    We hiked two or three miles after we got off the train last night.


Love,

Roy




April 10, 1943


Dear Mother,

    UK boys are still rolling in. We went over and saw “Air Force” last night.

    We haven’t gotten our uniforms yet. I guess we’ll get them tomorrow. All we’ve had so far is the blood test and have our records typed up. I wont make anything on the tests because I just don’t know math. But I’d just as soon be something else.

    We scrubbed the barracks from bottom to top today. Didn’t do so much this afternoon. Some of the guys have gotten KP for 18 hours straight. It rained like the dickens here today. Those with uniforms hauled right on thru it.

    I guess if you want to you can risk writing a card. Some boys have been here several days.


Love,

Roy




April 12, 1943

Sunday Nite


Dear Mother,

    We’ve caught everything that came off. Friday nite I had guard duty from 3 to 5 AM. We finished processing Saturday. Sunday is supposed to be a day off. We went on KP at 4:00 Sunday morning. Got up earlier than that. We got off at 7:30 tonite with only time to eat. We had to sweep, scrub, and mop a huge kitchen (about the size of the tobacco barn) and two dining rooms about the same size. You’ve no idea what a job all that is.

    Right now we’re waiting for shipping orders. They don’t even tell us that we’re going, just call us in for inspection. We don’t know where we’re going till we get there.

    I asked for artillery, but no telling what I’ll get. You may not get another letter till I get to my camp. I broke my watch in my pocket during KP. Will get an unbreakable crystal next time.

    I got enough on the tests to get anything I want there. We had to make 110 to qualify for OCS. I got 144. I don’t know of but one or two that beat it. Don’t tell anyone. Just forget it. Coat hangers are 10 cents each. I have none, but I need about two. Don’t send any here, tho.


Love,

Roy



The first free one.



April 14, 1943


Dear Mother,

    It snowed as hard as any winter here today. It usually rains. We were out building the walk today. One day we make it round and the next we make it square. We’re still waiting to be shipped out. Raymond Goodlett went out today--where I don’t know. Troop trains leave every day.

    If I do get into the artillery I should like it. So far I like the army fairly well. There is a lot of hard stuff, but we have a big time. When we’re not on detail we can go to the show here. There are two or three theaters, and they cost only 15 cents. You can write here and if I’m gone they’ll send it on.


Love,

Roy




April 15, 1943


Dear Mother,

    Wait until you get my new address and send it to these people: Donald, Ma, MamMaw, and Edythe. I’ll write to the others from my next camp. We have a two day blizzard here. Cold as the devil. We go just the same. I’m hoping to get shipped tomorrow, but I may not.


Love,

Roy




April 18, 1943


Dear Mother,

    We just had a major inspection by the fort commander and 22 other officers. Ours was supposed to be the model barracks. We worked two days getting ready. By 9:00 we’ve already worked half day. I guess we did OK. They didn’t say anything.

    I get just 6 hours sleep each nite now. I go on guard duty from 9 to 11, and we have to get up at five. It’s not so bad, tho. We clean up by day and guard at nite. It keeps us out of KP and details.

    I’m glad the weather warmed up. It’s been pretty cold. We all wore our heavy underwear and overcoats. We have wool knit caps with bills. They go under our helmets. We have them, too (only the plastic inner shell, but you can’t tell by looking).

    Yesterday a bomber came over with a glider in tow. First I’ve ever seen. There are quite a few other planes, too.

    We have good places to sleep and the food is pretty good. I can usually get off around seven and go to a show. You can’t get a pass for two weeks. We haven’t got much chance of getting out of here until at least Tuesday. May not go then.

    Yesterday Duke Coleman arrived in one bunch and Woody Hughes in another. In our Rec room down stairs (for whole co.) there is a Ping-Pong table, pool table and Victrola. Good steel soft bottom chairs. There is plenty at the different Rec centers.

    Say hello to Dad and Roger. I’ll write them when I get to another camp. I don’t know anything except I hope I don’t catch KP again this Tuesday.


Love, 

Roy



If you can say “Ahh” you pass.


April 19, 1943


Dear Dad,

    It’s Sunday here. We had KP last Sunday, but we’re lucky today. Still had to get up at 5:00. Some of the guys were on KP from 6:30 to 3:00 last nite. I had guard duty from 11 to one.

    If I get a chance for OCS I think everything will be OK. We’re just having a lot of bull to keep us busy now. We won’t get out before Tuesday. And we won’t know where we’re going till we get there.

    As long as I have a good chance for advancement and training I don’t want to get out of the army. They might make some go home for the harvests. Depends on how tough the war gets. How is everything?


Love,

Roy




April 20, 1943


Dear Mother,

    Just a note to let you know we’re still here. Though you may get another at the same time saying we’re gone. When I get to my other camp I want you to send one of my pictures, if you haven’t given it away. I don’t know about Wilma’s yet.

    We’ve been having terrible weather and everyone has the same kind of cold. Most cough their guts up (sounds like) every nite. I’m on two hours guard duty now. I can hear them. We have pretty good food. Milk for breakfast. Sometimes cocoa for supper. Sometimes pineapple juice for breakfast. Most always some kind of meat. I went to another show tonite. Keep writing.


Love,

Roy




April 20, 1943


Dear Mother,

    Just to let you know that we’re shipping. Don’t know where, but we leave at 2:45. There are about 16 or 18 in my group. I know them all. Hudson didn’t go, as some of my other best friends lost out, too. I don’t know what we’re in. Probably infantry. Will write later


Love,

Roy




April 21, 1943


Dear Mother,

    I’m in Atlanta. Headed for Camp Croft, S.C.


Love,

Roy




Recollections……


    The sixth of April 1943 was a warm sunny spring day. I was flipping Pippin Wobblers at the spawning run of white bass in the head of Cane Run, the branch of Herrington Lake nearest Burgin. Our farm creek runs into it. The fish weren’t large, but they were hitting with abandon. Life was as it should be.

    A day later a Greyhound bus left Harrodsburg, Mercer’s county seat, and roared off toward Louisville. I was on that bus, lugging the battered brown cardboard suitcase that had carried my laundry by mail between UK and home. It occupies space in our garage to this day.

    I recall no worries about what might be ahead--only anticipation. One yet three months shy of age nineteen is virtually fearless. Doubtless that is why older people plan wars; younger folks fight them.

    Fort Ben was not a training station but rather a place to acquire GI gear and move on in a couple of days. Those two days stretched into two weeks. Training, though completely informal, left as lasting imprint.

    Last names, either composed of or that could be construed as being made up of two words, expose the bearer to double jeopardy in the army. We had hardly arrived in camp when one of my buddies informed me that I was on KP the next day. Impossible! My name falls at the end of the alphabet! I looked at the posted duty roster. There was ‘Arsdall’ right at the top of the KP list. My sigh of relief at having survived a brutal 18 hour stint of KP had hardly been expelled when I was informed that I’d made the list again! Sure enough, the army had corrected its mistake. ‘Van Arsdall’ was now on the KP list in proper alphabetical order. You can’t argue with the duty roster on the bulletin board; you’d certainly better not argue with the NCO who put it there.

    So what’s so tough about serving a little KP duty? Later we’d all realize that such duty was rather soft. As a first immersion, however, KP was a bit brutal. We pass-throughs did pots and pans--huge greasy crusty pots and pans in a never ending flow. We peeled mountains of potatoes, going back through them if the cook spotted any eyes. We scrubbed floors and tables and garbage cans and we did it for 18 uninterrupted hours. Many of us had never so much as washed one plate at home!

    Sidewalk building was the favorite project of our company sergeant. Nicely groomed gravel walks paralleled all of the barracks. They could not have been more perfect. One day, however, Sarg decided ours was too close to the building. We staked out a new location, dug out the dirt, and moved the gravel. Sarg complemented us on our fine work. The next day, however, he discovered that our walk did not match up well with the walks serving the adjoining barracks. So we rebuilt the walks again. Wouldn’t they look better if they curved a bit? We made them curve.

    Some of the guys got rather angry at Sarg because he couldn’t seem to make up his mind. Sarg’s purpose was plain to me. I had performed many such circular chores on the farm; chores with no end in sight. Pull and sack daisy blooms in the pasture so they wouldn’t go to seed. Dig and sack wild onions to eradicate them from the field. Both plants infested our pastures by the millions. Such tasks, I noted, were assigned only when Dad was going to be away from the farm for a day or more. There’s an old adage that says, “Idle hands are tools in the devil’s workshop”. The army apparently would much rather have thousands of butt-weary complaining soldiers than an idle well-rested bunch looking for fun or trouble.  

    Religion came to the fore early. Passes to town were not available to anyone for any purpose. Or were they? On the first Jewish Sabbath the one Jewish guy in our barracks dressed for his pass to town. How come? Suitable facilities for Jewish worship, so he argued, were not available at Fort Ben. He requested permission to go to a synagogue in Indianapolis. Permission granted!

A few hours later he returned with a large bag full of wire coat hangers! Great!!! Why great? Orders were that we must have all of our outer garments on hangers. None of us had any hangers. There were none in the barracks; not in ours or in any of the neighboring ones. So this guy supplied our need. We were most grateful, and glad to pay him 25 cents for each hanger he supplied to us. A first rate entrepreneur!

    What were my concerns and attitudes at this stage of my soldering? A bit arrogant, confident, certainly a little smug. First, I was not a draftee; I was a member of the ELITE Enlisted Reserve Corps. I had volunteered (trying to delay my service, but the low-life draftees would never know that). Further, I was a college man, and I had scored near the genius level in the IQ exams. Without question in our minds my college buddies and I were a cut above most of the guys we had encountered. I figured I’d probably go to OCS before long. Well, hey little buddy, did I have some surprises coming my way! The outlook was bright, however, as our troop train headed south loaded with class mates and friends.