Carroll H. Dunn
Those were activities that kept us busy. We also tried to do some experiments
ourselves. I remember trying to devise an antitank mine. I used a wooden box with
TNT explosive and for a detonator, a blasting cap. I devised a means by which, if
something ran over it, the cap would be sheared and explode. We also did other
experiments with explosives to devise ways to make antitank obstacles by blowing
craters. We had a very active organization, relatively small in number of people, but
very active in training.
We also had the annual rifle fire training. When we were in the field with the cavalry,
one of our major activities was to find locations for watering points and to operate
them to water the horses. In west Texas, that's not an easy task.
We went on maneuvers in 1940 in east Texas and western Louisiana in what later
became the area of Fort Polk, Louisiana. We were there before there were any military
installations. Those came later as mobilization took place for World War II.
Q.
There was a debate going on about the role of engineers with the mechanized cavalry.
I don't know how much you recall about that, but from this we have the formation of
the armored division. So you stayed with the cavalry right on until you went to Fort
Leonard Wood?
A
Actually, I went to Fort
first, and then to Fort Leonard Wood.
My first experience with the mechanized cavalry came about in the Louisiana
940. The 8th Engineers were there as part of the 1st Cavalry Division.
It was the first attempt at mobilization of a large part of the Active Army. A part of our
job had been to prepare the area for maneuvers, including reconnaissance and minimal
base camp. One event that stands out in my memory involves the first mechanized unit.
I was a young second lieutenant. There was a bridge across a stream in western
Louisiana that had been severely damaged in a flood. One of the piers had been
displaced; and in repairing it, instead of fixing it for full load, the state highway
department had come in and built it up using some short lengths of wooden piling on
top of a tilted pier. We had looked at it and decided that it was severely restricted in
capacity and had set a load limit of ten tons for any vehicle crossing it. The squadron
commander, or my company commander (I don't remember which), had left me there
with a few men purely as a precautionary safety measure, not as a part of the exercise.
My orders were to prevent any U.S. military from using it for a vehicle that exceeded
ten tons.
While we were there, a unit came up that happened to be the 1st Mechanized Brigade
under Brigadier General [Adna R.] Chaffee, Jr. I stopped them and wouldn't let them
cross because they had some vehicles that exceeded ten tons. General Chaffee was very
Previous Page
