A
I was there from July 1938 until February 194 1 except for a period of about five
months when the unit was either in the field on maneuvers in west Texas or temporarily
stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, in the fall and winter of 1939 and early 1940. Then we
moved back to Fort McIntosh.
Q.
And what kinds of things was the squadron doing at Laredo?
A
They were engaged in the normal training activities of a unit. I remember doing bridge
training on the Rio Grande River using a bridge that was invented for use in the Civil
War, and that is absolutely factual. The floats or pontons were frames with canvas
covers, to be portable. If we happened to get the bridge too far out from the bank, we
were quite likely to hear shots from the Mexican side. One of our training activities was
to be prepared to react to any Mexican raid along the border.
We probably were one of the more fortunate engineer units as far as training in the
field.
in those days was very scarce. The 1st Cavalry Division was spread along
the border
Fort Bliss at El Paso to Brownsville on the
and we would have
field training with the various elements of the division. One activity in the spring of
1939 was to go to west Texas with a platoon to make a reconnaissance map, which was
used during division maneuvers in the fall of that year. One of the main requirements
in that open country was to plot fences and gates because the cavalry division was
mounted on horses. The restrictions on the use of land under easements was that we
couldn't cut fences, so our maps had to show all the gates. The cavalry then knew
where to head for, to get around and go through the fences. Windmills were a major
landmark, and they had to be plotted on the map. I also went with a platoon for some
antitank training at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, with the 2d Infantry Division. The
2d Engineers (their organic engineers) were at Fort Logan, Colorado, and that was too
far to bring people for training at Fort Sam. We were only 1 or so miles away, so we
got into training with the 2d Infantry Division as well as with the cavalry division. So
even in those days in the late 1930s our unit spent a great deal of time training in the
field.
Q ..
Normally that would have been a combat engineer regiment that would be with the
infantry, as opposed to the squadron with the cavalry, right?
A.
Yes. One of the things we did in the summer, being a motorized unit in a horse division,
as a part of our training, was to go on a motorized hike, as we called it. This covered
about 1,000 miles all in the state of Texas in the period of two weeks. We trained in
motor movement and camping, etcetera, all over south Texas. I think it was very good
training and was also somewhat of a vacation for the troops. We also made motor
movements to west Texas as a part of our activities. So, as a unit, we probably got as
much, or more, field training in those days as did any unit of the Regular Army.
Previous Page
