Chapter 22 - Camp Bowie

We had to report back to Camp Bowie, Texas, by way of Fort Mc Pherson, Georgia, and we arrived there about August 10th and training began again as if we had forgotten everything we had previously learned. Camp Bowie was a small war-time camp. The closest town was a little dry Texas town called Brownwood. This little town was dry in every way not only the weather, but also the booze. I'm not real sure about the date, but I believe it was about the 17th of August we were all summoned in formation, and then were sent to the orderly room for an announcement.

Much to my surprise Capt. Brundage said "The war is over in the Pacific". The average GI didn't read a newspaper or listen to the radio, so it came as a complete, but delightful surprise to me. The next thing he said was everyone who desired could have a pass that night. I believe Camp Bowie was deserted by nightfall and the "Bootleggers" in the surrounding small towns had a field day, because everyone had something to celebrate.

Shortly after this date we found out the 275th was being inactivated and a lot of the older men were being discharged, the rest of us would be reassigned and split among other outfits and sent to other Camps or bases. I was one of the first ones in C Battery to receive moving orders. I, along with a red headed boy I believe from B Battery called Red Phillips, were sent to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. I've found out later that some other men from the 275th were also sent up there, but I didn't know it then.

But, anyway as a fighting unit, the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion was forever assigned to the memory of the some five or six hundred men who had served in it. I began writing or trying to write poetry or limericks or rhyming verse, as I sometimes refer to it, in my later life and I've written a little limerick in honor of the 275th which I'm going to include at this point.

The time spent at Camp McCoy was very easy. We worked or played at the discharge center when we felt like it. The barracks were comfortable, and the food was good We could get a three day pass any time we had accumulated enough spending money to take it. A new friend I acquired named Henry Clements from New Jersey, and I went on pass together down to Milwaukee, and dated two beautiful Polish girls, and really had a good time. In the city that was supposed to be a sailor's town, we were never bothered by Navy men. Of course, we had enough sense not to provoke them, since we were always greatly outnumbered by them anywhere we went.

The last month or more we began discharging boys who had a lot less points than we had, and we became bitter because the overriding desire in most any soldier is to get out No matter how good we had it the grass is always greener on the other side. I remember discharging a lot of American Indians most of them from North and South Dakota. They had real typical Indian names. I remember one called "Johnny Shot-With-Two-Arrows", one called Running Wolf", and one called" Grey Fox". You could well imagine what a ribbing they took from their Army buddies about their names.