January-February - Air Defense Artillery

Coast ~rtillery News Lette
Harbor Defens'es of
.
Chesapeake B~y
BRlG~\DIER Gm~ERAL ROLLIN L. TILTON, C01l1111mldillo ~
By Captain Alonza F. Colo1ll1l1
i\lindful of the fact that a trained army is a good am1Y,
the Harbor Defenses of Chesapeake Bay has instituted a
training program which eventually will send to the various
harbor defenses within the Eastern Defense Command,
soldiers versed in the fundamentals of Coast Artillen'.
Fort Monroe, headquarters for the Harbor Defe,;ses of
Chesapeake Bay, has been named a redistribution center
for replacements for a large part of the Eastern Defense
Command, and Regular Army enlistees as well as low point
men and men with a short time of service in the army will
be sent here for basic training, retraining, and simple processing.
The Harbor Defenses of New York and the Harbor Defenses
of Boston also have been made redistribution centers
by the Eastern Defense Command and will function in the
same manner.
Those to be trained at Fort l'vlonroe include the raw recruits
who have just enlisted in the Regular Army, those
from other arms who have to be converted to Coast Artillerymen,
and the experienced Coast Artillerymen who have
reenlisted.
Already fifty of these men have arrived at Fort Monroe
and completed approximately six weeks of training. The
large majority have been youngsters who have enlisted for
the first time and for them the war is just starting. Once
again the famous old Coast Artillery post which trained so
many men during the first hectic days of the last war is the
scene of recruits learning the rudiments of infantry drill
regulations. Not so apparent but still the most important
part of the training schedule are the hours spent learning
to be crewmen on the big Coast Artillery guns. In fact
every phase of being a Coast Artilleryman will be studied
and practiced before these men take their places in line
batteries up and down the Atlantic Coast.
\Vell over 1.000 of these men will be trained at
i\lonroe and subsequently assigned, with some of them
maining in the Harbor Defenses of Chesapeake Ba
replacements.
Contrary to the popular conception of a tough
boiled first sergeant training rookies, the man who
godfather to this group is a soft-spoken, refined Phi
phian, who handles them with kid gloves that can be
bl" firm at times. He is Sergeant William R. Gor
p(oduct of the University of Pennsyh'ania, who COm
his educational backoround with three vears eXIJerielX'
o ,
become an excellent soldier.
Although handicapped by the shortage of trained
sonnel brought about by the discharge system, the s
uled target practice~ for. the calendar year of 1945
completed by battenes ol the Harbor Defenses of C
peake Bay and plans have already been made for those
be held in the first quarter of the new year, which s
produce periods of good weather.
Men of Fort Story, especially those of Battery
reached a climax in training late in November when
16-inch rifles were fired in a special service practice. l
considerable delay due to weather conditions, the pra
which was held in connection with the Seacoast Test
tion, Annv Ground Force Board No.1 (the former
Artillery Board) took place in the afternoon of N
her 27.
A total of 20 rounds, six trial and 14 for record.
fired with one broadside and one bow-on hit being record
Other shots were plotted fairly close. ~
During the practice the battery commander used a 1\
Battle Announcing System to give orders directly to
ouns. This eliminated the relav and ooavethe comma
o •
more direct control.
Fort Story and Fort John Custis, guardians of the er
trance to Chesapeake Bay, have both settled down to
mal and are looking forward to the early spring man
when the work will again be outdoors. Plans made
training include small-arms practice and the many ot
phases of instruction which can take place in the open.
\Vith the removal of the minefields, activities at the Li
Creek iVline Base, which was such a vital part of the
bor Defenses during the war, have been considerably
tailed. Maintenance, repair and salvage are the prog
stressed at this time with the usual mine planting and m
practice always evident.
Despite unsettled conditions, the information and ed
cation program is still underway and affords the op
tunity for discussion of world problems as well as off-d
studv and work on subjects that will be of benefit
discharge ..