Fort Jackson, South Carolina 1939-1949
In November 1939, two years before Pearl Harbor, the United States began enlarging its military installations as the “Blitzkrieg” swept across Europe . Suddenly, Camp Jackson was activated again as the streamlined 6th Division of the Regular Army was ordered to duty in October 1939, only one month after the outbreak of war between Britain and Germany.
This Division, made up of units gathered from smaller posts all over the country, was commanded by Brigadier General Clement A. Trott. The Division remained for five months of training and field maneuvers.
New barracks, mess halls, and kitchens were constructed at a cost of some $300,000, supplementing the National Guard facilities already available. The 6th Division moved out in April 1940 to participate in the IV Corps area and Third Army maneuvers, after which the Division was ordered to Fort Snelling, Minnesota.
In December 1939, two months after the reservation was turned over to the Regular Army, construction was started by the Corps Area Engineer on the first buildings of a revamped hospital facility. The cost of this venture was $133,000.
In May 1940, all the Medical Department Officers who were on temporary assignment at Camp Jackson had to return to their permanent stations, and the hospital was closed for a short time. However, on 1 July 1940, Colonel Thomas E. Scott arrived and took over as the Post Surgeon and Commanding Officer of the hospital.
The hospital was officially opened under the name of Station Hospital on 8 August 1940, at which time five wards were receiving patients. Other parts of the hospital in operation at this time included a clinic building, a mess hail, a hospital administration building, one set of nurses’ quarters, and two medical supply warehouses.
In the summer and fall of 1940, things began breaking with almost unbelievable rapidity around Camp Jackson as the Army expansion program began in earnest. The site area was expanded to approximately 53,000 acres. In accordance with studies made during the 6th Division’s stay at the Post, and through one of the War Department’s first mass condemnation proceedings, 977 of the land was acquired without contest.
To facilitate construction of the 8th Division’s headquarters and housing, the original Columbia Cantonment Commission lands were redonated to the War Department for the cost of improvements erected on them by the American Legion, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, YMCA, YWCA, National Youth Administration (which had established a resident training center at the camp) and other agencies.
At this time, Camp Jackson acquired most of the ponds which are an important feature today of its recreational and training program. These areas previously had been developed as recreational areas for the City of Columbia in the interval between the wars.
Historical records are not available from 11 August 1917, when the first Post Exchange was authorized, to the middle of 1940.
The Post Exchange again began its service to the military at Camp Jackson during the summer of 1940. From a very humble beginning in tents and floor- less cabins and with a mission to provide articles of ordinary use, wear and consumption not supplied by the Government for the 8th Infantry Division, stores were opened through the use of unit funds. Through the sale of these items, earnings were to be generated to supplement appropriated funds for the support of welfare and recreation programs for the troops.
Funds to finance the next Exchange were eventually obtained from the Army Exchange Service. Its operation became a part of the Special Services Division and remained under its direction until one year after the National Security Act of 1947, at which time it was designated the Army and Air Force Exchange Service and a separate entity within the Department of Defense. Colonels Tomey and Rouffy were the first two Exchange Officers, and they were supported by an all-male workforce. During 1942, with draft requirements reducing the number of available male personnel, women were employed and have remained as an integral part of the present workforce.
On 1 July 1940, the triangular, streamlined 8th (Pathfinder) Division was reactivated at Jackson . This Division consisted mainly of the 13th, 28th and 34th Infantry Regiments and the 28th and 83d Field Artillery Battalions. The mission of the Division was to train enlistees and selectees to be skilled soldiers and to be in subsequent readiness for the role of replacements in a combat unit.
Commanding this Division was Major General Philip B. Peyton, who was instrumental in initiating the construction of the largest small-arms target range in the United States . Two and a half million dollars were allocated for the immediate building program to erect semi-permanent buildings on Post.
On 9 July 1940, General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, wrote James F. Byrnes, then senior United States Senator from South Carolina, notifying him that Camp Jackson had been designated as the home station of the 8th Division, Regular Army, and that the Station would be placed on a permanent basis. Later, on 15 August 1940, Camp Jackson reverted to Federal control, and General Order No. 7, changing the status of Camp Jackson, was issued.
The J. A Jones Construction Company of Charlotte, North Carolina, was awarded its first contract of more than $2,000,000 for construction of troop housing facilities and other buildings on Post. During August, Fort Jackson became the site for one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken in the Southeast. Over 100 miles of surfaced and reconditioned roads were carved into the sand.
In the case of streets and roads at Fort Jackson, the names of South Carolina ’s most notable military heroes are kept alive. And with them are the names of well-known US Army divisions which have trained here. In fact, the streets which sprawl across this sandy Post are marked by the names of South Carolina generals from the days of the American Revolution through the Civil War.
Few school children have not heard the name of Francis Marion, “The Swamp Fox,” whose men plagued and eluded the British forces during the Revolutionary War. One of the Fort’s main thoroughfares, Marion Avenue, bears his name.
And anyone can count on the fingers of one hand the South Carolinians who do not know of General Wade Hampton of Columbia, who sacrificed his services and personal wealth for the cause of the Confederacy. His name adorns a broad parkway here.
Chesnut Road is named in honor of Brigadier General James Chesnut of South Carolina, an aide-de-camp to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Several streets are named for South Carolinians who were awarded the Medal of Honor, either in World War I, World War II or the Korean conflict. Forest Street, for example, is named for Sergeant Gary Forest of Inman, South Carolina, a Medal of Honor winner in World War I. Several roads in the outer fringe areas were renamed after famous divisions which have been stationed at this infantry training center. A new road connecting TRAINFIRE Ranges 1 through 15 - running parallel to Dixie Road - is known as Old Hickory Road, in honor of the 30th Infantry Division of the same name.
The 108th Division (USAR) - with units in North and South Carolina training annually at Fort Jackson - is commemorated by its insignia: "Golden Griffon" Road winds its way through towering pines among the mortar ranges.
Later, the Old Camden Road leading out to the TRAINFIRE Ranges was re named Dixie Road in honor of the 31st Infantry Division (which trained here in early 1950).
By September 1940, the 8th Division was growing steadily, and construction was speeding ahead with the award of two more building contracts of about $5,000,000 to the Jones Company. More than 2,000 buildings and 6,000 tent frames replaced National Guard training facilities. A water filtration plant processing daily six million gallons was built; also, a sewage disposal plant; a 3,000-bed, mile—long hospital; new rail lines; grading, soil erosion and landscaping projects - all resulted from this renewal of the installation.
On 16 September 1940, 1,623 South Carolina Army Guardsmen began pouring into armories across the State on their way to Fort Jackson, for what they believed would be a one-year stay. Most of them were in the 118th Infantry Regiment, a part of the four—state 30th “Old Hickory” Division, which included men from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee . The early arrivals of the 30th Division at Fort Jackson were under the command of Brigadier General Trelawney E. Marchant of Lexington and Columbia .
The training program for the troops and the building program for the Post itself continued to gain impetus. A $2,500,000 construction program of buildings was started. New tent houses and barracks popped up overnight. The Army and the South Carolina Highway Department got together on the road situation and new paved roads began replacing old dirt ones. Telephone and power cables were being laid.
Volunteers for enlistment in both the 8th and the 30th Divisions swelled their strengths constantly. The Post Golf Course vanished - buried beneath row on row of new barracks for the soldiers. The military reservation itself was suddenly more than doubled when the Army, in order to provide training facilities for a minimum of 43,000 soldiers, took title to approximately 30,000 acres of land bordering the old 23,000-acre reservation.
Meanwhile, in Columbia, there had been set up the headquarters of the I Corps, Command Post for both the 8th and 30th Divisions at Fort Jackson, the 9th Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and special corps troops at both Posts. The first commander of this organization was Major General Walter C. Short; on 30 December 1940 he was ordered to the Hawaiian Department, and was replaced by General Peyton.
Likewise, in Columbia at the municipal airport, the 105th Observation Squadron, National Guard unit from Nashville, Tennessee, arrived on 24 September 1940 for a year of active duty. It was a corps aviation outfit training in conjunction with ground troops at the Fort.
In November 1940, a spacious new Post Office Building was completed on Post for the use of the officers and men stationed at Fort Jackson . It was manned by one officer, Lieutenant Ross H. Porter, Postal Officer; 18 enlisted men from the Station Complement; Mr. Clyde H. Trapp, Superintendent, and 10 to 12 civil service employees.
Although in use for about two months, in January 1941 the Post Office was still under control of the Post Construction Quartermaster, awaiting approval before being turned over to the postal officials.
On 31 December 1940, the 30th Division’s strength stood at 11,900 officers and men, approximately 400 short of the authorized peace-time strength of 12,300, attainment of which was sought before the first draftees reached the Division. The draft was expected to bring the strength up to 18,000 officers and men, with the greater part of 6,000 selected from the two Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee to be added to the Division in January 1941. By January 1941, women were working at Fort Jackson as clerks and stenographers for the first time. Shortly afterward more were hired as switch board operators on a 30-day trial period.
In January 1941, Fort Jackson ’s assignment center for the placing of selected from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee went into high gear. Over a weekend period, 2,177 new recruits reported to the center for assignment to the 30th Infantry Division. During this period construction was taking place on the new $250,000 Reception Center . On 17 September 1941 all 18 buildings of the center were ready with the exception of a few additions or modifications. The new center was one of the finest at any Army Post. Included in this group of buildings were 11 bar racks, one recreation hall, one officers’ quarters, one mess hall, one infirmary, one supply warehouse, one processing building and one administration building.
Many of the requirements the Reception Center fulfilled in its processing of inductees had been unheard of prior to mobilization. Allowances for dependents were established, an adequate insurance program was inaugurated and a more complete record system was put into effect for all men in uniform.
During the next two years the Reception Center filled several Divisions, among them the 6th, 8th, 30th, 77th, 4th, 87th, and 100th. At the height of induction, a backlog of personnel developed. Men being drafted were sent home for seven days after completing their processing to await a space in one of the training activities. This backlog grew larger and by late 1942 men were given as much as three weeks’ leave after induction. During this period the Reception Center worked at full speed to keep the inducted manpower moving into the stream.
The original 1940 construction program for Fort Jackson of $11,000,000 neared completion 4 January 1941 as Army officials and constructors finished a housing program designed to provide quarters and facilities for 23,000 officers and men stationed at the Post and for additional expected soldiers. The vast construction program had been launched on 29 July 1940 under the supervision of the local constructing quartermaster. More than 1,000 buildings were constructed by January 1941, in addition to 6,000 tent frames. In addition, water lines and other facilities were installed to adequately house the influx of men. The huge building program moved forward with almost in credible speed. At various times a civilian army of between 7,000-8,000 workers was employed. These workers erected tent frames at the rate of one every 90 minutes.
As the suitability of the South Carolina climate came to the attention of the War Department and the fitness of this section for training fighting men was noted, additional troops were sent to Fort Jackson and the building program was further expanded. The Post continued the steady growth that had already made it the sixth largest Army Post in the United States, with new buildings going up each day, and additional contracts being awarded.
A permanent tent camp for the 128th Field Artillery was 98Z complete, and the permanent tent camp for the lO2d Cavalry at the north end of Wildcat Road, west of the 128th Field Artillery area, was 85 complete.
Acquisition of trespass rights on 265,000 acres of land in Richland, Fairfield, and Kershaw Counties for military training purposes on 26 January 1941 involved the largest block of property ever handled in one single transaction in the history of South Carolina up to that date. This land was acquired for mammoth military maneuvers to be conducted in the spring of 1941. Thirteen hundred of the 2,000 land owners involved were residents of Richland County .
Seven new chaplains were assigned to the 30th Division in January 1941, which brought the total to 22 chaplains on duty with the National Guard organization.
By January 1941, new appropriations caused construction to soar to higher proportions as new troops were ordered to Fort Jackson . The total money spent thus far on additional construction at Fort Jackson was $18,375,000, providing housing, recreation, maintenance, and other facilities for 43,000 officers and enlisted men. A new water system replaced the old one Camp Jackson had used during World War I. At that time water was supplied by the City of Columbia, which extended its water mains from the city to the Post, and stepped up its filtration plant to make available the water needed. These lines had been repaired when the 6th Division moved onto the Post, but in February 1941 the Army acted to set up its own filtration plant, drawing water from the Dust Bowl Lake which it had acquired in its expansion. This filtration plant had a capacity of 6,000,000 gallons of water a day and, in addition, the Post had available for use in any emergency up to 300,000,000 gallons from the City of Columbia lines.
Fort Jackson grew to be South Carolina ’s third largest city, surpassed in population only by Charleston and Columbia . Visitors to the Post were awed when shown this far-flung Army reservation, with row upon row of neat, white-painted barracks buildings, parade grounds and training areas; a hospital one mile in length; ‘acres of warehouses, utilities and motor sheds; and the theater and recreation buildings which dotted the Post’s living area. Construction of more than 3,000 buildings and 6,000 winterized tents, linked by more than 100 miles of hard-surfaced roads and streets, in such a short time was truly amazing.
Seventeen attractive chapels, so arranged that any denomination could use them, were completed. There were a 6,000,000 gallon-a-day pumping plant, a 187-acre lake, a Post Laundry capable of doing the washing of 30,000 soldiers weekly, a modern Post Hospital of 2,200 beds, and a cold storage plant for the perishable food for the 42,000-plus soldiers stationed here by that time.
Fort Jackson stood as a tribute to the success of one of the most stupendous construction undertakings ever attempted - the building of a military city for 43,000 men in less than a year.
The Fort played a leading role in the Selective Service program. An Induction Station capable of handling 200 men per day was established, with plans laid for a new 500-man Reception Center .
A housekeeping force of between 2,000 and 3,000 men, known as the Fort Jackson Station Complement of the IV Corps area service command, took over the duties of maintenance and upkeep of the Post itself, thus relieving the officers and men of tactical units so that they would be free to devote all their time to training. The Station Complement began operating in the latter part of 1940 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Frank L, Whittaker, Post Executive Officer,
While the number of Fort Jackson civilian employees was below the 7,000 peak with only 4,500 workers in January 1941, it was expected that this figure would rise to a peak when work was begun on the buildings for the I Corps troops to be stationed at Jackson .
A $356,000 WPA Project for work at Fort Jackson was approved and announced 1 January 1941, by Congressman H. P. Fulmer. The funds were for construction and rehabilitation of buildings and facilities and improvement of grounds.
The work included construction of a rifle range, storm sewers, warehouses, hospitals, railroads, roads, rehabilitation of buildings, draining, laying of water and sanitary sewer lines, landscaping and grounds, clearing, grubbing and performance of appurtenant and incidental work.
Start of construction of a new target range, which would provide more than 1,100 targets for the firing of all known modern weapons, was announced 4 January 1941. The new range, expected to be finished in two months, would thereafter be in constant use by the more than 40,000 men expected to be trained at this Post by early spring 1941.
The range, of the latest type construction which combined all the newest developments and safety features, located near Leesburg on the extreme eastern edge of the reservation included 400 known-distance targets, as well as additional targets for machine guns, automatic rifle, pistol, both mounted and dismounted, anti-aircraft, anti-tank, and other modern weapons. A tent camp was erected adjacent to the range to include all the necessary facilities for caring for two regiments during their firing periods.
President Roosevelt, on 5 January 1941, authorized immediate construction of 150 units of the proposed 400-unit housing project for Fort Jackson . To be constructed on Forest Drive at the north entrance of the Post, the dwelling units were to be for noncommissioned officers, and would be known as the Andrew Jackson Homes .
The 128th Field Artillery Regiment had 981 enlisted men and 57 officers at Fort Jackson on 6 January 1941, who paraded for and saluted their retiring Adjutant, Captain Rolf Raynor of Columbia, Missouri, as he was presented the Meritorious Service Medal of Missouri. In the official order, he was appointed to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, F.A., on the retired list. It was Captain Raynor’s suggestion and at his insistence that the regiment adopted the motto: “ Show Me. ”
In early 1941, a branch of the American Red Cross was established at Fort Jackson, with Mr. Porter C. Layne as the Field Director. His office was moved into the newly completed Post Headquarters Building the second week in January 1941, and it was expected that the services of the Red Cross would greatly increase with the move. During December 1940, the Red Cross had acted on 155 direct cases and 81 miscellaneous cases at the Fort.
Specialized instructions that aided the selectees and enlisted men of Fort Jackson in learning a trade for civilian life were initiated the first week in January 1941 when a Clerical School was conducted for the first time. In the beginning, only typewriting was taught to the group of men who gathered after duty hours each night except Saturday and Sunday. The course was supervised by Captain E. J. Cook, Assistant Post Adjutant, and Technical Sergeant J. T. Coleman.
The course was strictly voluntary, but had to be completed once the selectee or enlisted man had started. This was the forerunner of the later expanded nine specialized courses known as common specialist, then Combat Support Training.
On 8 January 1941, Captain H. E. Burke, Signal Officer at Fort Jackson, announced a new communications complex to concentrate all telephone, telegraph, radio and message centers together with the Signal Office, in two new buildings that were completed that month. A new five-position, 700-phone switchboard, which took care of the Post Personnel and the 30th Division telephone lines, was completed. Ownership and maintenance of much of the Post telephone network was the responsibility of the Southern Bell Telephone Company, but upon completion of this building program, all existing lines on the Army Post were to be taken over by the Government. The new telephone network was completed within three months.
The second phase of the $11,000,000 construction program at Fort Jackson opened 9 January 1941 when the post staff moved into a new and completely finished Post Headquarters Building . The building, glistening white amid the green background of pines, across from the 30th Division Headquarters, set the style for the planning and final decorations of buildings on post. While hundreds of buildings had been completed and used at Fort Jackson prior to this time, the new Post Headquarters Building was the first to be taken past the “serviceable stage” and into the “completely finished stage.” As the post vacated the old Post Headquarters Building southeast of the 30th Division Headquarters, those offices were used for inducting men reporting to the post for assignment to the 30th Division.
If the 30th Division wanted to go anywhere in January 1941, it needed equipment to get there in a hurry. When the Division was inducted it possessed a total of only 381 cars, ambulances, trucks, motorcycles, and trailers. Within four months this was tripled to 1,411 vehicles, with more on the way, to bring the Division up to war strength motor quotas. More than 1,000 new trucks were assigned to it from the time of its induction into the Federal Service on 16 September 1940 to 11 January 1941.
On Friday, 10 January 1941, Fort Jackson was “on the air” over the nation wide NBC Blue network in one of a series of broadcasts covering various military installations. Before the broadcast, Lester O’Keefe, NBC Production Director, was at Fort Jackson for preliminary auditions. Beginning at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on 20 December 1940, the series ended on 14 March 1941 with a broadcast from Fort Lewis, Washington .
Although none of the selectees arrived at Fort Jackson for permanent station until 10 January 1941, the Post’s Induction Station went into full action on 6 January 1941 with the arrival of the first group of 91 South Carolina selectees. Pending satisfactory completion of the induction process, including passing the physical examination, they were sent to the Fort Bragg Reception Center, from which they returned within a few days for permanent assignment to a unit on this Post.
The South Carolina selectees were put through the induction process at the rate of about 100 a day thereafter until the full quota of 1,391 had been inducted and sent to Fort Bragg for reception.
Both the 8th and 30th Divisions in early 1941 received authorization to go to war strength as the Selective Service Act began going into effect. Both of them received 6,000 selectees the early part of the year, pushing the strength of the 30th up to 19,000 officers and men, and the 8th up to 15,000. The reason for the difference was that the 30th was of the “square” type division; the 8th of the new “triangular” type.
Six thousand selectees trained for 15 days in three training sections of the 30th Division beginning 10 January 1941, prior to their assignment to units in the Division. The three centers were located in the 59th and 60th Infantry Brigades Headquarters Companies and Headquarters Battery of the 55th Field Artillery Brigade. In charge of the training was Lieutenant Colonel Garvin B Farris of the 117th Infantry, assisted by a staff of officers from the various units of the 30th Division.
Lieutenant Colonel Lewis A. Page, Post Provost Marshal, stated in an article in The State Newspaper on 12 January 1941 that the Fort Jackson Military Police Force would be expanded from 150 to 250 to control vice conditions aggravated by “camp followers.” “The conduct of the soldiers has been outstandingly good on the whole since the troops first began arriving,” he stated. The “camp followers” were attracted to Columbia by the huge military payrolls of between $800,000 and $900,000 distributed each month to the 23,000 soldiers, plus an additional sum for some 5,000 civilian laborers.
Colonel Page expressed belief that continuance of the “high measure of cooperation” between civil and military authorities would do much to remedy the situation, but that more civil officers would be required to handle the even greater vice conditions expected when 43,000 soldiers began training at Fort Jackson.
Under command of Colonel Donald W. McGowan, Deputy Adjutant General of New Jersey, the famed Essex Troops, lO2d Cavalry, arrived at Fort Jackson 16 January 1941, for one year of intensive training. The Regiment was one of the first cavalry units in the United States to be converted into a horse- mechanized, fast-moving, quick-striking reconnaissance regiment. The Essex Troops, as they were known from coast to coast, was one of the oldest National Guard cavalry units in the United States, having been established in May 1890. It was designated as a reconnaissance regiment for the I Army Corps and included both horses and motorized equipment. Most of the men were from Newark, West Orange, and Westfield, New Jersey . The strength was 1,098 enlisted men and 54 officers, which increased Fort Jackson ’s population by 1,152.
The Regiment was composed of a squadron of three Horse troops, a squadron of Mechanized troops, Headquarters troops, Service troops, Medical Detachment, and the Band. The Band, at that time, was one of the few mounted bands remaining in the United States Army.
A mass movement of 6,000 selectees from four southeast states to Fort Jackson for one-year military training began 6 January 1941 and, operating on a split-second schedule worked out by the Army, was completed 27 January 1941.
Completion of this task found 6,000 brand new soldiers, clothed, equipped, housed, and ready for one-year military training with the 30th Division. Gathered from South Carolina and North Carolina, 3,026 were sent to the Induction Station at Fort Jackson, then through the Reception Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and returned to Fort Jackson for assignment to the regiment or other unit with which they would train in the 30th Division. From Georgia came 1,624 men who were sent from Fort McPherson, and 1,350 Tennesseans were sent from Fort Oglethorpe .
New two-story wooden barracks resounded to the tramp of many feet for the first time over the weekend of 28 January 1941, as the "housekeeping troops," the special troops who help the officers run Fort Jackson, transferred their belongings from the area behind the old Post Headquarters to their new home behind the new Post Headquarters Building. These were Post Headquarters personnel, including those of the Induction Station Detachment, Station Complement, and the Post Military Police Company.
The strength of the 8th Division was increased from 9,000 to 14,738 by selective service men in February 1941. This increase, plus the 6,000 inductees into the 30th Division in January, enlarged the personnel strength of the Post to over 34,000 men.
Following its inception, the hospital facilities were expanded in light of the increase in military personnel at the Post. In March 1941, the bed capacity was raised from 500 to 2,000, and the principal part of the plant had become so large that it contained six miles of walkways and corridors. So rapid was its growth, in fact, that it was the largest hospital in the State of South Carolina at that time.
On 7 August 1941, Colonel Scott relinquished command of the Station Hospital to Major Stanley W. Matthews of the Medical Corps. Colonel Scott, however, retained his position at the hospital as Post Surgeon and held responsibility for all Medical Department activities.
Bleak, white buildings on a sun-blistered sandy hillside quickly became one of the beauty spots of Fort Jackson when Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier General) David N. Ross, on 13 September 1941, activated the Reception Center . From the beginning, two other commanding officers, Lieutenant Colonel Gersum Cronander and Lieutenant Colonel Newton B. Morgan, added to the beauty, size, and efficiency of the original establishment. The skeleton staff which opened the area eventually reached a peak of 38 officers and 209 enlisted men in the detachment. Originally, there were seven officers and 67 men assigned to duty in the area.
The numbers of South Carolina selectees, who poured through Fort Jackson’s Induction Station at the rate of 100 a day beginning 6 January 1941, dropped off to a mere trickle by 24 January as the station staff cleaned up the leftovers of the State’s full January quota of 1,391 white men. A total of 112 selectees were processed at the Induction Station on 23 January. Of that number, 87 were accepted for service and sent to the Army Reception Center, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with Second Lieutenant Benjamin D. Lucas, Fort Jackson Headquarters Detachment, in charge.
After a processing stay of approximately five days at Bragg, the majority of them were returned to Fort Jackson to be stationed with the 30th Division.
The next regular group of men processed was 101 Negro selectees from South Carolina who arrived 27 January 1941, with a similar number arriving on 28 January to complete South Carolina ’s January quota of 202 Negro men. This group was housed and fed at the 48th Quartermaster Regiment, the only Negro regiment at Fort Jackson . No white selectees were processed during that time.
The commander of the post was Major General Henry D. Russell, who also was Commander of the 30th Division. Commanding the 8th Division was Major General James P. Marley until the arrival in February 1941 of Major General William E. Shedd, who took over the 8th. When General Peyton fell ill and retired, General Shedd was assigned to command the I Corps. He was succeeded by Major General Charles F. Thompson, later Commander of Camp Croft, Spartanburg, South Carolina . General Marley, then a Brigadier, again took temporary command of the 8th until he was promoted several weeks later to Major General and assigned permanent command of the Division. Later, he was replaced by Major General Paul B. Peabody.
Of significance at this time was the important position Fort Jackson had in the business life of Columbia and South Carolina . Besides the $22,000,000 construction bill, most of which was spent in Columbia and South Carolina, the average monthly payroll at Fort Jackson was in excess of $1,850,000. A staggering total of $540,000 was spent monthly on food alone, with South Carolina fruits and vegetables being purchased in vast amounts to feed the hungry soldiers of the Post. For instance, in the spring of 1941 when South Carolina growers were faced with a surplus of asparagus, this vegetable was placed on the menu at Fort Jackson and, after a few meals, the surplus was removed and the market was back to normal. A bumper peach crop threatened bankruptcy for the growers of South Carolina . Fort Jackson added peaches to the soldiers’ menu, and the surplus was soon removed.
Months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America ’s subsequent entry into World War II, the nation had been girding for war. Fort Jackson, from 1939 until the attack, had figured prominently in training soldiers. The Fort was even more in the national limelight in the fall of 1941 as one of the bases of the mammoth First Army maneuvers held between Fort Jackson and Fort Bragg in North Carolina . Both the 8th and 30th Divisions had held extensive maneuvering exercises on the Fort Jackson reservation. Trespass rights on approximately 250,000 acres of land in Richland, Fairfield, and Kershaw counties, bordering the reservation, were obtained for the purpose of giving the troops enough room to move around in their field training.
An area of around 10,000 square miles, covering practically 17 entire counties in the two Carolinas between the two Army Posts, was used by approximately 350,000 troops of the First Army, two armored divisions, and tank and aviation units in the most comprehensive peacetime maneuvers in the nation’s history during 3-30 November 1941. The 1st and 2d Armored and the 9th, 29th, 31st, 43d, and 44th Infantry Divisions were trained and toughened into effective fighting units. In October, prior to these maneuvers, between 120,000 and 180,000 troops of the I and II Corps maneuvered in the same area. The 30th Division had its first taste of large-scale maneuvers as a part of 77,000 troops participating in the Second Army war games in central Tennessee . By the time the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on 7 December 1941, Fort Jackson was ready for the greatly increased training loads.
After Pearl Harbor, the tempo at Fort Jackson, as everywhere else, was stepped up. Additional land was acquired; buildings, roads, and utilities facilities were constructed. The 8th and 30th Divisions supplied cadre personnel for new divisions, and Major General William H. Simpson took over command of the 30th Division.
After the nation’s entry into the War and with the constant threat of an attack on the East coast by German submarines, the 8th Division was directed to patrol the Atlantic Coast . For six weeks during the winter of 1942, units of the Division patrolled the shores from North Carolina to the Florida Keys .
Fort Jackson staged its first air raid alarm practice on 30 December 1941, when seven whistles located at various points on the Post blasted out a warning. The warning was principally to test the whistles, which were located at the four fire stations on Post, one at the Post Laundry, and two at the Station Hospital power plant. The practice alert was a success.
Soon thereafter the 100th Division, the 106th Division, and the 2d Cavalry also were activated here. The 100th and 106th Divisions were prominent units in the liberation of Europe from the Nazi powers.
A combat division is conceived and born after incredible planning, but not without confusion and a certain amount of suffering; it passes through periods of slow development, through much sweat and a little blood on the drill fields and training areas, into a coordinated and competent organism of confident soldiers. The outstanding abilities of these individual soldiers are merged into a confident and mature combat body.
The 77th Infantry Division was reactivated on 25 March 1942 as one of the first three reserve divisions (82d and 90th) to be reborn in preparation for World War II. Under the leadership of a cadre of officers and noncommissioned officers, the selectees, mostly men from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, were sent to Fort Jackson and lost no time in molding themselves into a fighting outfit. This Division, which had become famous in World War I through feats of its "Lost Battalion,” had an outstanding reputation to uphold.
For this period of development and training, Major General Robert L. Eichelberger was designated as the 77th Infantry Division Commanding General by War Department orders dated 10 February 1942. With distinguished service in Panama, on the Mexican Border, in Siberia, in the Philippines, and command and staff assignments in all echelons including the War Department, General Eichelberger was well-qualified for this new strategic assignment. He came to Fort Jackson from a tour of duty as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York .
While more than 600 officers had been selected for the important task of transforming an awkward mass of men into a fighting unit, a requirement for 1,178 capable enlisted men as cadre was being filled from the 8th and 30th Divisions already at Fort Jackson . Thus hundreds of officers and non commissioned officers, thousands of selectees, hundreds of vehicles, train- loads of supplies and essential items of equipment were brought together to create the 77th Division.
The questions uppermost in the minds of those given the responsibility for its creation were: "Can it be done? Can new and effective combat divisions be built with only a handful of experienced officers? Can it be done soon enough?” Above all, the 77th Division, and its two sister divisions, were a challenge to American military ingenuity and leadership ability. It represented an impossible task that must be accomplished at the earliest possible moment. A distinguished and competent group of officers and some few experienced regulars were the hard, purposeful core around which the Division was formed.
General Eichelberger had directed that from the start the Division would maintain superior standards of discipline, police, and dress. He had also ordered that when the new selectees arrived at Fort Jackson, they should find clean quarters, hot showers, hot food, and clean beds already made up for them. This meant a great deal of dirty, undignified work for the officers and noncommissioned officers. Thus six strange officers and 12 strange non commissioned officers would engage in the rush job of carting cots and bedding from warehouses in another part of the Camp, making beds, scrubbing and painting barracks, and come away from the task as “K’ Company. Here were the beginnings of loyalties which paid off at places like Barrigada and “Chocolate Drop.” The work had to be done between and after school periods, and after all-night guard duty many times. Both officers and noncommissioned officers griped plenty, but they did the job that had to be done and learned to work together.
Preparation for training the selectees was the most difficult task. The 77th Division was the “guinea pig for the new training program. The training had to be done with inexperienced instructors, unfamiliar with the new drill regulations, without adequate training with recently developed weapons, and not even familiar with the sources of training information. Training aids were scarce, and so were funds with which to obtain materials to make them. Those in command had to crowd years of learning and experience into a few days prior to arrival of the selectees.
The first trainload of selectees reached Fort Jackson on 25 March 1942, the day the 77th Division was reborn; others continued to arrive until 12 April 1942. These men who were destined to wear the Statue of Liberty patch represented the white, yellow, red, and brown races, and almost one- third were either foreign born or of more or less recent immigrant descent. There were even a few from very wealthy families who later, as privates, maintained apartments, expensive cars, and valets in nearby Columbia . As a group they were not young: their average age was close to 32; there were some in their forties, and a few past 50.
As the tired, disheveled men poured from the trains, they were divided into groups and led to a barracks and a mess hall by a company officer. The hot meals, the hot baths, and clean beds ordered by the Division Commander were ready. While in this company area, prior to classification, these men received training in basic subjects such as military courtesy, infantry drill, and hygiene. Every bit of instruction which could be given prior to the initiation of the training program was that much gained. Some had a turn at kitchen police and others walked guard carrying clubs or unloaded rifles.
For the first time in the history of the Army, a classification system was tried out on a division-scale. Each newly inducted man had been interviewed and a mass of information obtained from him at the initial Reception Center . This information card arrived at Fort Jackson with him and was sent to Captain John J. Sigwald and a crew of assistants who had been training for a month for this classification task. The cards were machine sorted and cross-sorted in the Division Headquarters. Many men ended up in the wrong niches, or found there was no place for their particular talent in an Infantry Division. Such errors were unavoidable but were held to a minimum and usually corrected later. After all, there was a war on and everything had to be done “double time•”
Two days after the Division was officially reborn, Brigadier General Mark W. Clark, Chief of the Army Ground Forces, came to inspect the activities of the new Division and to witness the presentation of the colors, which the old 77th Division had carried in World War I, to General Eichelberger. General Clark’s party then toured the camp to observe how the soldiers were being cared for.
On 7 April 1942, the training program officially started. By that time each unit had been organized and the men assigned to specific jobs. Now the real job began. The daily schedule began before dawn with a reveille formation, followed by a hurried toilet, breakfast, and policing of quarters and area. Then the men had almost 10 crowded hours of training, after which their time was their own until taps, unless there were fatigue details or night classes. Sunday was a day of light duty, but hardly a day of rest. Life became a steady, weary grind of classes, drills, and duties under driving taskmasters.
The men could not help seeing that the officers were working on a longer, tougher schedule than the one they were following. This was particularly true in the companies and batteries. Most of the platoon leaders, at the start, knew very little more than the men, and less than some of the cadre sergeants; but the officers had the heaviest responsibilities. By Division order, every company officer was required to spend eight to 10 hours with his unit on the training field. Most of that time he was teaching what he had probably learned only the night before. Also, by Division order, each officer attended a two-hour school three or four nights a week. In addition, there was the ever-present administrative and paper work; all of it must be done or checked by an officer, because the standards in the Division were perfection in administration as well as in training. It was no wonder that absent wives received few letters, and even those living in Columbia rarely saw their husbands. It is understandable that at least one capable sergeant refused to attend Officer Candidate School because he “would not put up with the hell my lieutenants are getting here.”
The entire officer and enlisted personnel of the newly reactivated 77th Infantry Division, at full war-time strength for the first time, assembled at 1000 hours, 11 April 1942, to hear an address by Major General Robert L. Eichelberger, the Commanding Officer. Marking one of the rare occasions an entire division was assembled for one event, the ceremonies included stirring martial music by the regimental bands.
When Colonel James N. Peale became the Commanding Officer in early April 1942 of the new 306th Infantry Regiment, the regiment, with a rich tradition of bravery in battle, secured as its leader a military strategist who wrote the war plans for defense of the Hawaiian Islands, and who served intimately with the popular war hero, General Douglas MacArthur. Colonel Peale took over the task of molding some 3,300 raw recruits into a crack regiment with the same vigor with which he supervised the measures which have made the Island of Oahu, in Hawaii, one of the world’s greatest fortresses.
But both the officers and enlisted men of the 77th learned to work under pressure, to expect little and to get the job done well and quickly. General Eichelberger told them on 11 May 1942: “This will be no joy ride or picnic. Time is precious and we cannot afford to waste it. We shall have thorough training and hard work, the methods used by all successful armies; for there is no substitute for hard work. If you think you are working too hard, remember what our enemies are doing.” All knew that the Division was going to war soon and that their own survival would depend, to a large extent, on their performance in training. Spurred on by such considerations and working under great pressure, these men helped to prove that America, given adequate time, could convert its men as well as its machines to war.
On 16 May 1942, when many of the men had received less than five weeks’ training, Lieutenant General Ben Lear, commanding the Second Army, made a thorough and searching inspection of the Division. He and his staff were not looking for men who knew or even appeared to know the answers. They questioned the dullest appearing men they could select to find if these were learning. But General Lear found little to criticize and was pleased with the progress made.
Fort Jackson received its first tanks in early 1942 when the 757th Tank Battalion was transferred to the Post from Fort Knox, Kentucky . The terrain at Fort Jackson was considered ideal for tank training, and during maneuvers the armored monsters played a big part in the " Battle of the Carolinas ." The arrival of the lumbering tanks added still another branch of service to those in training at this busy military Post that already included infantry, artillery, mechanized cavalry, and "tank-killer" units.
Two additional buildings were acquired by the Reception Center in the latter part of 1942. These were used to care for the civilians expected to complete their induction in the Army.
Not all the men were South Carolinians, and not all South Carolina recruits entered the Army by way of Fort Jackson . All the men reporting for examination at the Induction Station entered the Armed Forces through their local Selective Service Boards, or through special arrangements for volunteers, such as those which sent hundreds of Citadel cadets into the Army by way of Fort Jackson in May 1943 and January 1944.
Senator Edgar A. Brown and Major General William H. Simpson were featured speakers at the activation ceremonies of the new 100th Division at Fort Jack son when the unit was made an official part of the Army’s ground forces on 8 November 1942. Both speeches were made just prior to the presentation of the Division flag by Major General Emil F. Reinhardt, Commanding Officer of the 76th Division at Fort Meade, Maryland . General Reinhardt’s presentation was symbolic of formal activation of the new unit, since his Division was the parent organization of the 100th Division.
Cadre for the new Division started arriving at Fort Jackson on 3 October 1942. The 100th Division was activated on 15 November 1942, and was destined to see service in Europe . Commanding this Division was Brigadier General Theodore E. Briechier, who arrived at Fort Jackson in October 1942.
On 20 November 1942, 45 chaplains were on duty at Fort Jackson . The assignment of more soldier-ministers to the Post was expected with the activation of new units and the transfer of other troops to this station.
The Fourth Echelon Newspaper made its debut on 28 November 1942. Containing Army news, humor, poetry, detachment gossip, and sports news, the publication was issued weekly by and for the soldiers of the 107th Station Hospital of Fort Jackson .
Ample school and recreational facilities were provided for the families living at Andrew Jackson Homes . The Andrew Jackson School, to care for the grammar grades, was built for $25,000 and was operated under a 100% Lanham Act Grant. A community house, used exclusively for recreation, was under the direction of Mrs. Florence Luther. It cost approximately $15,000 and had ample assembly rooms, two multi-use rooms with suitable furniture for the children, kitchen, and storage rooms. The staff at Andrew Jackson Homes was under the direction of J. Whilden Woodward, Manager. The project was occupied by 350 families of commissioned and noncommissioned officers and a limited number of defense workers assigned to Fort Jackson .
Fort Jackson became a replacement training center in November 1946 when Camp McClellan was closed and the Army replacement training units there were transferred to Fort Jackson . On 4 June 1947 the Fort was designated by the Army as one of the four permanent replacement training centers in the United States - the others were located at Fort Ord, Fort Dix, and Fort Knox .
In October 1946, Fort Jackson was chosen as one of the four Replacement Training Centers of the United States Army. Therefore, the United States Army Personnel Center was established here to assist in the Universal Military Training Program, with a Reception Station and a Transfer Station. The Reception Station processed all newly inducted personnel and prior Service personnel who entered the Army from civilian life and were forwarded to the Post from Recruiting and Induction Stations. Upon completion of processing, these individuals were transferred to training installations for completion of their basic training. The Transfer Station processed for separation all overseas returnees whose homes of record were located in the Third Army area. Through 1963, more than 603,500 military personnel had been processed through the various stations of the Personnel Center . The mission of the Personnel Center included many types of personnel matters, and each company was organized to handle a particular type of personnel processing.
On 30 April 1950, Fort Jackson prepared for a “standby” status. A few hundred men who served as caretakers and aided in the training of National Guard units sent to the Post for summer training were all that remained of the former great military force of this installation.