Page 94 - Adobe Photoshop PDF
P. 94
mand Headquarters. One day we had a break for an hour. I went to the
Headquarters, which was across the street, and found the Lieutenant in
KLV R൶FH , WROG KLP , ZRXOG OLNH WR VHFXUH D WUDQVIHU RXW RI VXFK D ORXV\
situation. He said he understood, agreed and would try to help me. A
couple weeks later I received orders transferring me to Camp Roberts,
California, with a training assignment at Stanford for two weeks while
on route to Roberts.
My hope was to get to a decent post and bring Jean and Janet
there. When the fellows in my unit heard that I was being transferred to
Camp Roberts, they all warned me, Dick, you wanted out of here, and
WKH $UP\ LV UHDOO\ JRLQJ WR ¿[ \RX <RX DUH EHLQJ VHQW WR D WRXJK FDPS ´
It was tough to leave Jean and Janet. The train took me to Cali-
fornia and I reported to the training group at Stanford. There were a half
dozen men in the group being trained. I thought I had gone to heav-
en. We lived in a dormitory on the Stanford campus and we ate at the
student cafeteria. The women serving the food would ask things like,
Sergeant, wouldnt you like a piece of watermelon? or Wouldnt you
like two pints of milk? These ladies were mothers of young men in the
Services and they seemed like angels.
At this time, Gord was a student at Stanford Medical School.
He and Jeanette had a small house near the campus. One evening I had
D ¿QH GLQQHU ZLWK WKHP DQG -HDQHWWH EDNHG DQ DSSOH SLH IRU XV 2Q WKH
weekend, I was able to join Mom and Dad in Berkeley.
After two weeks, we left for Camp Roberts (located near Paso
Robles) on the train. The new unit at Camp Roberts consisted of a half-
dozen enlisted men and Major Burns. He proved to be an intelligent and
good man whom we all respected.
&DPS 5REHUWV ZDV D ¿HOG DUWLOOHU\ WUDLQLQJ FDPS 7KHUH ZHUH
30,000 men in the main camp and 15,000 in the East Garrison. Our
particular unit had the duty of testing trainees for their foreign language
facility or their knowledge of advanced math and engineering. Those
who scored high enough on the tests were sent to the Army Special-
ized Training Program. These units were set up on a number of uni-
versity campuses in the United States. The language units were to train
interpreters and translators; the engineering units were intended to train
90
