At Ease - Wisconsin National Guard Department of Military Affairs

Three mobilized Guardsmen exercise the soldier’s age-old prerogative to snatch forty winks while in transit. Louisiana was only a temporary
destination on a journey that would eventually take 32nd Division soldiers to combat in the Southwest Pacific.
to say goodbye for the last time, but a few hurried to the depot to
see Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie.
His campaign train was making a stop, just time enough for
the local Dairy Queen to go on board with a longhorn cheese
and a “Marshfield Cheese Week” cap. She did not get far. The
gifts were accepted by an aide, and when the candidate emerged,
capless, he could only wave at well-wishers. Rumor had it he’d
lost his voice. So there was no speech, no kiss for the Dairy
Queen, no cheese cutting ceremony, just a wan smile and a tired
wave. Probably the only person who was not disappointed was
state senator Melvin Laird, father of the future congressman and
defense secretary, who boarded the train and traveled to Wausau
with the first family-to-be (or so he hoped).
At noon the troops arrived at the Chicago and Northwestern
railroad station after a full-dress parade through town. Now the
tears flowed. Only after a few blasts from the train whistle did
men break free and climb aboard.
The windows were thrown open and the faces that crowded
them were suddenly very sober.
The sadness they had been fighting off for a week had
settled inescapably upon them. The throng on the depot platform
saw a blur of khaki arms as the train picked up speed.
Eau Claire getaway
In Eau Claire, Battery D of the 126th Field Artillery,
formerly a mounted machine gun unit until its conversion a few
weeks ago, marched to Omaha Depot cheered by the whole
student body of Eau Claire High School. Both the commanding
officer, Capt. William Sherman, and his executive officer, Lt.
Claude Craemer, were teachers at the school, and many of the
troops were present or former students, and so classes were
dismissed in their honor.
The soldiers would miss the school’s production of “Our
Town,” scheduled for the next two days.
Sherman was determined to avoid the trap that had snared
his colleague, Capt. Marshall Lassek of B Company: Lassek
had been mobbed at the station the day before by tearful parents
seeking last-minute assurances. Sherman did not linger on the
platform but quickly disappeared into the train, leaving Craemer
and the other lieutenants to hustle the troops aboard. Minutes
ahead of schedule and well before the dazed citizens knew what
was happening, the train began to move.
A clean getaway, Sherman exulted: no overlong good-byes; no
maudlin, shaken-up soldiers. Gone before the gloom could set in.
But suddenly the train jerked to a halt. He leaned to the
window. Back on the platform two uniformed men were moving
on a sea of hands and shoulders to the baggage car. They’d almost
been left behind.
No gaiety at Madison depot
In Madison, the late afternoon of Oct. 20 was cold and gray,
the air dense with smells of coal fires and wet leaves. The
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