Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

SESSION 4, TAPE 7, SIDE 2
Q: That was the closest big town, Lafayette'!
A: Yes, Lafayette. And we lived in tents of four and I'm always an early riser so I was
the alarm clock, I'd wake everybody up. It seemed like we were all up before reveille or
whatever in the hell they called it. And . . .
Q: Did you do KP [Kitchen Patrol]?
A: Oh yes. Hell yes. (laughs) Did I do KP! (chuckles) To show you how military I was,
they put up a KP list after we got to Claiborne and some fellow that I knew was on it,
he said, "Well I can't," he said, "I don't feel good." He said, "Would you tell them I can't
serve." Of course I told them he couldn't serve - and I was the KP. (laughter) And that
broke me of that. And he laughed about it. I said, "Well you roped me in on that."
Yes I did KP, and I did latrine duty, and all things like that and guard duty.
I think we got there ~ovember 11, 1943, at Claiborne to our Company 1374 of
Engineers. And we stayed there to - I think it was - when we broke camp there it was
right around the latter part of April. And we were together that long.
Q: What was the training like? What did you actually do in the way of training for the
unit?
A: Well we had close order drill of course.
Q: No I mean, once you had completed basic training and then . . .
A: Oh the pipeline?
Q: Yes sir.
A: Well we had that type of training yes. That was right along with part of our basic training,
was the laying of that four-inch pipe twenty feet long. And it had a coupling that you
could tighten by your hands.
Q: Oh?
A: And we done that.
Q: What did you do, just lay it and then take it apart?
A: Lay it and take it apart. Lay it and take it apart. Lay it and take it apart. Maybe
the first week you'd go a mile, maybe the next week you'd go two miles. And we had classroom
work on it. We had classroom work, they had portable pumps and you'd study how
to repair them and the flanges. And there were piston pumps you know, that's what they
were, a regular piston pump. I never had any circular pumps. And I think when we went
overseas we took our own equipment with us. I'm sure we did. And of course it got there
a different way but it went on the boat with us.
Q: How many trucks would you have in the company?
A: Well we had the six-by-six of course, not too many of those. Of course the officers had
jeeps. We had 227 personnel and I don't know how many officers, we had seven maybe and
there might have been a hundred odd non-commissioned officers.