I had recently turned 18, and my brother and I heard of a new reserve unit, an engineer railway division; it sounded interestin,g so we both went to the Army recruiting station and informed them we were already part of that reserve unit. In about a month, my brother received a notice to report to Camp Beauregard for indoctrination at Van Buren, AK, in the 759th Railway Battalion.
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| Barracks at Fort Snelling, MN |
I kept waiting for a call, and it never came. In the meantime, I worked at Camp Claiborne near Forest Hill, and in a job for the railroad supervising the unloading of freight cars. After a couple of years, I had to wire the 8th Service Command in Dallas to ask them when I would receive a call. The reason there was a delay is that my paperwork had fallen behind their filing cabinet. It's a good thing I called them; otherwise, I would have never gotten my orders. Shortly, I received a call back and was told to report to Camp Beauregard in a week. Now this messed me up, because I needed my basic training. I asked them why they waited so long to call me. Well, there was a good reason. They told me my records had fallen behind the filing cabinet, so I was forgotten.
So I reported to Camp Beauregard, got my uniform and shots, and they put me on the Missouri-Pacific passenger train with papers for the 704th Railway Grand Division in Fort Snelling, Minnesota.
(It's important to note that this was the first Railway Division. The Army doesn't have them anymore. It evolved into the Transportation Corps.) Here are some photos of my history book from the 704th.
(select a photo to enlarge)
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| my orders |
