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I was from Wisconsin and my orders sent me to Ft. Sheridan, Illinois. I arrived as scheduled and the examining doctor, wearing a bloody apron, performed a thorough examination of me. He said, "your in good shape and you may proceed to Ft. Benning".
After three months at the Infantry training center most of us had undergone a splendid change in condition. I was not sure at anytime what we were eating in that mess hall. The combination of Army food and Georgia cooking made the menu a real mystery to most of us. But we soon learned we had best eat whatever it was because noon came many hours after breakfast.
After our Benning training in Infantry tactics we were ready for assignment to units. About this time the first Tank Destroyer Battalions were being formed. The officers for those units were recruited from three branches of the service. The Armored forces, the artillery and the infantry. All seventeen of us were ready to try something different from the infantry and we were all granted our first choice. The 819th Tank Destroyer Bn. In formation at Camp Chaffee Arkansas.
My first assignment when I was a 2nd Lt. in the 819th was platoon leader of a specialized pioneer platoon which was a part of The Reconnaissance Company. The pioneer platoon was assigned the job of demolition of bridges and construction of bridges and it was neccessary for the platoon leader to be training in explosives and bridge construction. I was sent to Ft. Hood to the first pioneer school. Other officers were sent for tactics training and motor school. Lt. Gunga Dean, William Cornellius Dean, the first motor officer of the battalion rode with me to Texas, along with Dan Flynn whe went to the first tactics school in the first class at Hood.
Gunga suggested as we crossed the Red River into Texas, "lets stop and meet uncle Henry Barlow, a rancher, just North of Dallas." We stopped but Gunga had not mentioned his two cousins, Mary Ann and Elizabeth. After two nights with the Barlows, I knew I would be back someday to see more of Elizabeth. Before we went overseas Elizabeth and I were married in McKinney, Texas and two years later, when we returned from the Pacific, she met our troop train at Ft. Sam houston and we have been together ever since. That's how a Wisconsin man ended up a Texan.
The Tank Destroyer Battalions were a new military concept introduced to counter the blitzkrieg tactics employed by the Germans. Over time it was decided the T.D. units would be assigned to Regiments and the Reconnaissance Company duties would be performed by the Reconnaissance units present in the Regiment, thus removing this duty from the battalion. My job of Pioneer Platoon leader was thus eleminated and for a few weeks I filled the duties of S-3, Plans and Training officer on the Colonel's staff.
Before I really learned that job another change was made and it was exactly what I wanted. The Commanding Officer moved me to Company A, to be Company Commander. There were lots of things I needed to learn but here the whole unit would be schooled together. Another circumstance of the move was a fine break for me. My predecessor at Company A had appointed men to fill all the vacancies among the non-commissioned officers but had not awarded the titles, or the pay. He had been waiting weeks without taking this action. I saw this as an opportunity and observed the performance of each of these men then decided to make 17 promotions at one time. This action was one of the things the Company needed and it helped me to gain the confidence of thr unit
Ft. Hood was choosen as the Tank Destroyer center because of the wonderful tank in which it was located. The land was rolling with spots of vegitation providing some cover. Leases were taken and many hundreds of acres provided perfect country for tank activity. At the T.D. School units were ordered out to maneuver aganist other units and the training was practical and gave all of us an oppertunity to learn our jobs of moving and fighting tanks. That was followed by the Mojave dessert as a training environment in preparation for North Africa where General Rommell was the superior force.
As construction at Ft. Hood was completed additional units were moved there. In anticipation our Battalion was moved from Camp Chaffee to Brownwood Texas and Camp ?? where we spent a cold winter. None of us will forget the tactical march with all our vehicles from Chaffee to Brownwood. It was a freezing day and because it was a tactical march all windshields were laid flat. It must have taken us eight hours in the cold weather and I expected half the men would come down with pheumonia. Not so. They were to healthy for a little cold air to sicken them.
The next move closer to Hood was temporarily into tents at Cow House Creek camp to the north of Ft. Hood. We may have been their three months before our area at Hood was available. Roads were still under construction when we made the move into brand new barracks. I remember constructing shower boards which could be replaced and hung on the building in the sunshine as a disease prevention measure. Our new battalion commander was in charge and discipline was increased. Aiming circles were used to align dishware on the tables and frequent inspections of all quarters were made.
These were the days when we really started learning how to quickly move our units from one place to another. We started company training in selecting fighting positions on maneuvers and we learned how to occupy these positions after dark to be ready for daylight defense of a position. I was brand new as a company commander. But we were all learning for the first time how to move the battalion into tactical position and how to site our tanks for best effect in real combat. We began our first maneuver. We would oppose an enemy tank unit and the problem was to select gun positions in the dark and then move into those positions before the expected dawn attack of the tanks. We drove some miles to the assigned and it was the darkest night of the year. While reading the map by blackout jeep lights I found my platoon Lts. were missing. Corporal Casey my excellent driver and I stood alone on a hill in the dark wondering how this was all going to turn out. I panicked and then asked myself, "Do you want this responsibility, or not?" My answer came to me..."absolutley". That helped and at that moment the lost Lts. jeeps pulled up and after scouting out their positions in the dark we went back for the company and the tanks.
Just before 5:AM we returned, Our column approached the wooded area at the top of the hill. I pointed out new positions to each platoon and they crashed through the trees occupy the area. The umpires judged our positions adequate to defend the area. We were at Hood to learn this sort of thing and it was good practical knowledge for everyone involved.
After Hood we moved to the Desert Training Center on the Mojave Dessert. the first project was to give the the men several weeks to adjust to the heat. We were ten or twelve miles north of Needles calif. And we didn't know what the temperture was but it was hot. I jumped off the airconditioned train at Needles. I took a few breaths of air and believe that a man could stand that kind of heat and without thinking, jumped back onto the train. With time we became acclimated and forgot the heat.
Momories of our unit maneuvers are fresh in my mind.
One of Company A's gun crews was commanded by Sgt. Enrique Gonzales. His was an excellent crew witha good record. The half track used to pull their three inch gun had a need for extra water and on an occasion or two I saw his men unhook a desert water bag used for drinking water, from the halftrack and pour it's contents into the radiator to cool the engine in order to keep up with the column. On that three day forced march where we broke up the maneuver, I found Gonzales and his crew out of gas and water, draining the radiator of that half track to quench the thirst of the gun crew, It required more than one five gallon can to satisfy them. On the maneuver the battalion was not only out of water. We had outrun the food kitchens and the gasoline supply was of prime importance. Company A had been out of food since the day before and when we met a mess truck and crew heading our way we stopped them and asked what they had aboard. They replied no food here. Just water and some raisins. We commandeered the water and found boiled raisins were exactly what Company A wanted for breakfast.
Our unit left from the desert training center and boarded the Gen'l George O. Squires troop ship. We knew not our destination but we hoped the African Desert. Instead it was beautiful Hilo Hawaii. After the Mojave Dessert we were overwhelmed by the lush green of Hawaii. On our arrival we were equipped with the M-10 Tank Destroyer, the weapon we had been awaiting for months.
Everyone was overwhelmed with the beauty of Hawaii. We had an unusual setup here with the battalion spread out over the city of Hilo. For the first three months A Company was assigned duty at the Hilo Naval Air Station. We guarded the front gate and furnished a jeep to answer Emergency landing request along with the fire truck and ambulance. We all lived at the Navel Air Station and I'll never forget the morning the company was standing Reveille in the street beside the runway. A torpedo bomber lost power on it's takeoff and pancaked into the roof of our orderly room. Under the weight of the plane the building started to collapse Slowly, as if the air was flowing from the building permitting it to collapse, the building was falling flat. The charge of quarters, one of the men was the sole occupant. As the building settled he climbed out a window of the lavatory, buttoning up as he emerged, in front of the lined up company. It was a big laugh, and we were reassigned a building next to this for our use.
After the airbase duty we were assigned the island outpost duty. Here we placed small groups of men in a perimiter, all around the island to have weapons available in the instance the Japanese should make an attempt to take Hawaii. It took three days for me to circle the island to deliver the men's pay. Everyone enjoyed this release from military discipline. It undoubtedly was each amns favorite time in the service.
The units not on guard were going through \ routine army training. We had a firing range in the mountain area of the island where it was much cooler. Here it was much cooler. Here we had an opportunty to fire our tank weapons.
A P-38, photographic plane crashed into Maona Loa and burned. The plane had special equipment aboard that the airforce wanted to recover. We were called on to help quickly recover the pilot and special equipment on the plane. This because we had radios we could take in a plane permitting a man to direct us on the ground to the wreck. We found the body and returned the equipment which was in the vicinity of the lava tubes near the volcano. The pilot's wedding ring bore the same date as my wedding, 12/23/43. He had attempted to climb out as the plane struck the ground and started disintegrating. We found his left hand with ring at the site. Hilo was such a nice time for the battalion, I'll leave us there at this time. Robert L. Dauterman I want to remind those men of the battalion who were on Peleliu of the night explosions that we awakened to several times. The unit was in camp located not a half mile from the Purple beach. That was the tatical name for this beautiful sandy, coconut wooded ocean frontage. It's name was unpronounceable as were most landmarks here. The currents carried north to south and the Japanese had planted housands of sea mines which had been in the water for months. As the anchor chains rusted the mines broke loose and sometimes came to rest on this particular beach. We were close enough to be blasted from our bunks into a position of attention by the huge boom.
Every island with a population of listeners was served by a local radio station. As trained professional announcers were drafted the quality of these stations became excellent. On Peleliu a fictional afternoon tea dance was broadcast from the Sherra Canoa Canoe Club (sp? an infamous Japanese prison of war camp) and the sound effects of a cab arriving at the listener's door where an attractive femaile voice asked if we were ready to go along to the club in "down town Peleliu." Men on Merchant ships would obtain leave to see the island and arrive looking for that club. They also wanted to explore the caves for souvenirs and so many incidents occurred the island was placed off limits for these visits.
In the monts before we abtained the parts of a walk-in refrigerator (from Army, Navy, Marines) our menu consisted of preserved foods with emphasis on Spam. We company comomanders attended meetings with the Executive Officer, Major Wooster to talk of new ways to serve Spam. Then someone encountered the opportunity to barter a captured Japanesee boat, a thirty foot fishing vessel, which had no engine. The cost was a case (or so) of Shenley Whisky. The engine from one of our issued 2 1/2 ton trucks was quickly installed and we had a fishing vessel. We shot large white birds and feathered hooks for lures. We then were able to frequently serve tuna, barracuda and other fine fish. Reservations were taken care of by Headquarter's Company for the Shenley Maru. I remember fishing with a line wrapped around the hand. There was no way to let go and essential for the engine to be cut in a timely manner when playing the fish in our small boat. Captain Lloyd Simmons was half over the transom of the boat, pulled by a struggling fish when I caught his belt and gave weight to his side of the battle. Greetings to all surviving members of Company A. We are now becoming a real Last Man's Club after 53 years.
I feel grateful and fortunate for good health at 81. I enjoy a daily hike in a wooded and hilly area near my home. We live just blocks from each of our two sons and five grandchildren and many weekends we all take the tollway north to the ranch where my wife grew up. The state developed a flood control lake of 25 acres on the Upper place and the fishing isn't bad. We keep canoes there so it reminds me a bit of Wisconsin, my birthplace, where I've found they talk funny after all these years in Texas. (After 40 years in Texas banks, I still had customers ask me, "Dauterman, where are you really from?").
I just want to say thanks to you Company A men for making ours the best unit in the army. Sgt. Yates, do you still hate marines? Bob Dauterman
