September-October - Air Defense Artillery

86
j~.. \ ~)~ Harbor Defenses
AI': 'f I I f
III 'I ~_J:I - 0
'~ ~~'San Francisco,
COLO:\'EL \ VILLIA1\l F. LAFRENZ, COllllllll1ldillg
The Commanding Officer. Harbor Defenses of San Francisco.
has taken over the activities of the Northern California
Sector. The Sector was inactivated 31 August 45.
,Harbor Defense troops topped all previous \"ar Bond
drives when they reached a total of $106.937, culminating a
three-month effort in the 7th \ Var Loan. Ace contributors
were men of the 174th GA. Bn. mine command who registered
an amazing 76 per cent participation total.
Hq. & Hq. Det., I73rd GA. Bn., Fort Baker, won the
first of a series of four trophies to be awarded by the commanding
officer for the most unusual, unique and informational
orientation display with the HDSF command.
The award to Corporal Jess Haigler, Clemson College,
South Carolina, graduate, originator of the orientation display
in the detachment dayroom.
Athletics dominated minds of majority of the Coast Artillerymen
in the Harbor Defenses of San Francisco during
the month of August, with the Ninth Service Command
softball finals having been concluded at Fort "'infield
Scott August 26 after five days of competition.
Camp Anza, Arlington, Calif., won the softball title, defeating
Fort Lewis, \Vasll., 1-0, in eleven innings for
the crown. Other teams in the tournament included Fort
\Vinfield Scott; Camp Stoneman, Calif.; Camp George
Gordon, Seattle, \Vash.; Dugway Proving Grounds, L1tah;
Tooele Ordnance Depot, L1tah; Birmingham General Hospital,
Van Nuys, Calif.
Fort \Vinfield Scott won the right to enter the finals
(representing eight \-Vestern states comprising the largest
of all the L1.S. service commands) by defeating Camp
Stoneman in the Central District play-offs earlier in the
month at Fort Scott.
The Fort Scott Gunner baseball team traveled to Camp
Stoneman Aug. 29 for the Ninth Service Command finals,
emerging second best. Fort Lewis, \Vash., won the pennant
with the coast artillerymen runners-up, losing to the \Varriars,
9-6, in the final game. The Fort Scott club was coached
by Captain James McDermott and had two soldiers placed
on the service command "all-star teams"-Sergeant Norman
Hibbard, first base, and Private Don "Red" \-Veber, pitcher.
The Fort Scott \-VAC softball team also went to the
Ninth Service Command finals, thus giving the Golden
Gate installation the unique distinction of being the only
post in the Ninth Service Command to put three teams into
the NSC softball and baseball finals. The Fort Scott \Vacs
reached the quarter-finals before being eliminated.
More than half a hundred government civilian employees
and soldiers from San Francisco to Reno, Nevada, convened
at Fort Scott in mid-August for the first of a series of
twenty scheduled conferences in \Vork Simplification spon-
THE COAST ARTILLERY JOLlR:\AL
September-O
sored by the ~inth Sen'ice Command, C-olonel Philip
Biehl. post executive and commanding officer. Sla
complement, 1932 SCLI. welcomed the group.
1\ lore than 600 Harbor Defense enlisted men-ma'
of them veterans of earlier South Pacific campaigns~
Fort Scott in mid-July for various separation centers
discharge under the point system. It was the first
Army release of San Francisco soldiers who have defen
the city and harbor from possible enemy attack. Pril
First Class Henry Hattal. 25. Philadelphia. Pennsyh.an'
had the high-point total of 141.
Antiaircraft Replacement
Training Center
Fort Bliss, Texas
COLO:\'EL E. G SEAl\IAN, Commanding
By Major Rex Ragan
Despite the impending approach of V-J Day at th
writing, with its mounting tension among officers and men
alike, training of troops at the Antiaircraft Replacemen
Training Center continued without a falter.
The AARTC "lost" one of its largest battalions, the 582d
A\-V (Sp) Battalion when the Antiaircraft Artillery Training
Center reopened late in July and the organization returned
to its former command, as did several ordnance unitS
recently attached to the AARTC.
During the shift from training replacements from European
Theater combat to Pacific warfare the tempo has in~
creased, and among other features of training, much stres~
has been placed on scouting and patrolling, for which a
desert course has been mapped out northwest of EI Paso.
along the Rio Grande.
Trainees, in their fourth week of basic, are run through
the course which is a practical test of their knowledge of
map-reading, use of the compass, and individual ingenuity.
Crossing desert terrain, the men negotiate arid lands and
end by fording the sluggish Rio Grande, where they relax
until a night phase of the problem completes the test. During
the hot Texas weather, the river crossing is one of the
most enjoyable parts of the training program.
Following action by Congress prohibiting men under 19
from going overseas, and into combat, without a required
minimum of training, one new battery has been formed-,
the First Provisional Battery-and another in process ot
organization, for giving teen-age youths an additional
nine weeks of advanced AA training before being made
available for shipment. The training for these men closel:,
parallels the regular AARTC schedule, but is more detailed
and advanced than the usual I7-week cvcle.
Men going on desert field exercise; have been taug
more and more about the realities of war. Besides diggi
in when on maneuvers. they are acquainted with the i