The war action was gearing up in both Europe and Asia, and many new divisions were needed overseas. The 95th had been training in the California desert for 18 months and were not up to division size when they reached the Gap. The division was heavy with sergeants and corporals and short on privates.
The Division received 4,000 troops from the drastically curtailed Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), half of this number being sent later to other units. I was among the 2,000 soldiers who was assigned to the division and stayed. I was now a part of a weapons platoon of an infantry company. Besides this total 2,190 other enlisted men were added to the Division's rolls at its Pennsylvania station, bringing the division up to its full strength of 15,000 men.
Infantry Divisions are made up of 3 regiments. In the 95th, they were the 377th, 378th and 379th, and I was part of the 377th. Each regiment had 4 battalions, and each battalion had 4 infantry companies, and a heavy weapons company which had 6 80mm mortars and 6 50-caliber heavy machine guns. In turn, each company had 5 platoon made up 4 infantry platoons and 1 weapons platoon which had 2 60mm mortars and 2 30-caliber light machine guns. My address was Company A, 1st Battalion, 377th Regiment, 95th Division.
There was one other man from the ASTP program in our company, Carl Braunig from Beaumont, Texas, and with our common background, we soon became good friends and hung out together. We each carried a small baseball glove overseas with us, and spent idle time playing catch. I brought this glove home with me and Karen now has it. Before being in the ASTP, he had been with the 10th Mountain Division in Camp Carson, Colorado.
Beaumont, Texas is very hot, and Carl always said he almost froze in the Colorado winter. Mountain divisions trained with mules to haul ammunition and supplies in rugged winter terrain. He used to tell me that it was so cold in Colorado that they sent the Army mules down to Texas for the winter and left the soldiers there.
In early March, 1943, the Division's latest training program was the series of exercises to be conducted in the West Virginia Maneuver Area, down near the Kentucky border. Besides combat teams, parts of all special troops units were to take part in mountain climbing exercises, while selected personnel would take part in the pack and assault schools. They asked for volunteers, and since it sounded interesting, I signed up along with Carl Braunig.
At this time in 1943, the Allied Army was pretty well stalled in the drive up the Italian peninsula, trying to drive the Germans out of their defenses in the Appenine Mountains. With our mountain training, the rumor was that the 95th Division was going to be sent to the Italian Theater of War.
In the middle of March, very early in the morning, we boarded Army trucks with benches in the back and covered with tarps for the trip. At that time, the Pennsylvania turnpike was open from near Harrisburg to New Stanton near Greensburg. After a long cold ride, we arrived in the late afternoon at the training area in southern West Virginia and were assigned to field tents with four soldiers to each. We were sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags.
We soon settled into our routine. For the first few days, we took mountain hikes and practiced repelling on a rope down about a hundred foot cliff, after instructions on a wooden wall. We lined up at the mess tent with our aluminum messkits for meals, and after being served, hurried back to our tents to eat before it became cold. Breakfast was always hot oatmeal, but my recollection is that it was always cold before we hit our tent.
The first several days of training with the mules was to take a hike through up hills and through woods and brush, walking ahead and leading our assigned mule. They were veteran Army mules who knew when they were being led by novices. They balked when they didn’t feeling like moving, tried to head back to the coral early, and let us know who was boss.
The next step was spending a day in learning how to fasten packs to the sides of the mule. We used rations boxes or ammunition boxes for practice and were taught how to make sure they were balanced on each side and cinched up tight.
Our first outing with loaded mules was a disaster. We weren’t very far along in the woods when my mule started rubbing against tree trunks until the load came loose and fell off. Others had the same problem. The mule skinner sergeant training us came along yelling, “I told youse #@!#& dumb GIs to make sure they were tight!”
Each day for a week, we daily loaded up our mules for our trek up and down hills through the woods and brush. We got better, but the mules were still boss and constantly stubbornly balked or tried to rub off their pack. Our training was now complete and there was a short ceremony standing in the cold to receive our certificates proclaiming that we had successfully completed our training and were now officially “Army Mule Skinners.” We were all glad to get back to Indiantown Gap and warm barracks and beds.
The advanced party of the 95th Division arrived at Indiantown Gap, February 12, 1943 with the entire Division arriving in the new station February 25. Having boarded trains in California's temperate winter climate, Division troops were not altogether prepared for the subzero weather that met them when they detrained in Pennsylvania.
With my best army buddy - Carl Braunig ~ at Indiantown Gap, 1944
After about a week, some of us were assigned to the “mule skinner school,” while others advanced to the challenging Seneca Rock which offered a 928-foot climb or descent to the cliff scalers. I’ve always figured those of us who now became mule skinners must have flunked the repelling test. I felt a little let down until I had my first view of the Scenic Rock face where they would be repelling!