1990

THIS COLLECTION OF REFLECTIONS FROM THE MEMORY OF JERRY

W.     EADES IS DEICATED TO MY VERY GOOD FRIEND GEORGE G.

BRINCKLEY, LONDON, ENGLAND, WHO HAS SHOWN A KEEN INTEREST

IN THE ACTIVITY OF MY ARMY LIFE, ESPECIALLY THE PERIOD

OF THE BROWN SHOE ARMY OF THE THIRTIES.

JERRY W. EADES,

ARLINGTON, TEXAS

THIS SHORT COLLECTION OF MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS OF MY ARMY

LIFE AND THINGS RELATED TO MY ARMY SERVICE FROM 1936 10 1942

WHILE I WAS SERVING IN THE HORSE MOUNTED FIELD ARTILLERY AND

CAVALRY.I AM BY NO MEANS ANY KIND OF WRITER, AND A VERY POOR

TYPIST, AS YOU WILL SEE AS YOU READ THESE PAGES, MIS-SPELLED

WORDS, WRONG KEYS HIT, POOR ENGLISH AND OTHER BLUNDERS, BUT

THIS IS THE WAY I TALK, SO GOES THE WAY I WRITE. I PUT THESE

REFLECTIONS TOGETHER FOR MY FRIENDS, CHILDREN, GRAND CHILDREN

AND ANY ONE ELSE WHO WOULD CARE 20 READ THEM, SO IF HUMAN

MISTAKES COME OUT, SO BE IT. THE THINGS I HAVE PUT DOWN ARE

HOW I REMEMBER THEM, AS WELL AS 20 DATES, PLACES AND NAMES,

AND ALL ARE TRUE, AND TOLD 20 THE BEST OF MY MEMORY.

JERRY W. EADES,

ARLINGTON, TEXAS

Note: This collection of memories have been edited using Word spell check in 2008 by Jon Harrington

JERRY W. EADES, SEPTEMBER 1936 AT FORT BLISS, TEXAS

JERRY W. EADES 1942 FORT BLISS, TEXAS

JERRY W. EADES, ON SECOND GUN FROM RIGHT, FORT BLISS, 

JERRY W, EADES ON LEAD TEAM, GUN NUMBER THREE, FORT BLISS 1936

SUN PARADE, EL PASO, TEXAS 1940, JERRY W. EADES SECOND FROM LEFT

JERRY W. EADES, 1940 WITH KING

FORT BLISS, TEXAS

JERRY     W. EADES, 1940 IN THE BEAUTIFUL BAD LANDS

OF NEW MEXICO

Page 1

                                          JERRY  W. EADES, FROM 1936 to 1942 “MY ENLISTMENT”

I enlisted in the U.S. Army on 14 September 1936, At Dallas, Texas and was assigned to the First Cavalry Division, as Cavalry unassigned. I remember the Doctor who gave me the physical examination telling me to eat a lot of extra rations when I got to my unit and the Army would put some weight on me, as I weighted only One Hundred and Forty-Six pounds and stood Five foot Ten Inches. -

There was an old Cavalry Sergeant in the recruiting Station who quickly spoke up and said no, no, don’t do anything, you are just the right size and weight to be a Cavalry Soldier, as the Cavalry like their troopers tall and slim, I told the Sergeant and the Doctor both that I had never in my life been on the back of a horse, and I did not know anything about a horse, and that it was my wish to be in the Infantry, where upon the recruiting Sergeant, told me not to worry that the Cavalry like to get men like me that did not know anything that they would teach me everything the Army way and it would to make it a lot more easy for me and my instructor, and then told me that the only place in the Army with an opening in the Infantry, was at Fort Frances E. Warren, in Wyoming, and that it would be bad as it snowed and was cold a lot in Wyoming, but at Fort Bliss, Texas the weather was nice and warm ( I guess he had never been out on the Donna Anna firing range in January) and besides I would be riding in the Cavalry, where I would be walking everywhere I went if I went into the Infantry

Then He gave me a long speech about how the Army had sent him from Fort Bliss to Dallas to recruit Cavalrymen for his Division, and that he knew I would not want the Army to waste all the money it would cost if he did not recruit some Cavalrymen, and that his Commanding Officer would be mad at him,"Now you would not want to cause us all that trouble just to go into the Infantry, Would you Son"

.

So there is no use telling you where I went, but it was Cavalry unassigned, Fort Bliss, Texas.

Page 2

JERRY W. EADES, FROM 1936 20 1942

                                   YOU'RE IN THE ARMY NOW”

There were six of us that were talked into going to the Cavalry, J. Z. Baker, Carl Long, Finis Davis, Jerry Eades, Joe C. Prewett and Fred B. Roson. Of the Six only Carl Long, knew from the start that he wanted Cavalry all the time, as he was a Horse-shoerer, and he wanted to do that job in the Army.

As soon as we had taken our Oath of Allegiance to our Country, And had the Articles -of-War read to us, we were told that we were now United States Soldiers. And along about that time it was noon time, We were marched down the street to the first Cafe we came to and feed and told to hang around the recruiting station and to be back at this cafe at Five P. M. for our next meal, After the Five P. H. meal was over we were handed one box each, and told this was our next Three meals. Each box consisted of three dry sandwiches, three pies all lemon, Three Small Oranges and Three small apples.

We were then marched to the rail road station and put aboard the West bound train headed for El Paso, Texas, There were only Two or Three other people in the car, It was a chair coach, and what sleep we got that night was laying in the seats, when morning came we were about half way to El Paso, out around the Midland-Odessa area. When I opened my box lunch I found that all three sandwiches were made of jelly and potted ham, and the three pies were all lemon, and the apples and oranges looked quite old and were very small, those of us who had money went into the dining car and bought coffee for all of us. J. Z. Baker was in charge of our little group, not because he had any advance Military training, but because his name was the first one on our orders list,

After it got light enough to see outside the train and as a young fellow who had hardly been outside the City Limits of Dallas, Texas, I was all eyes, taking in all the new wonders I was seeing~ and was really enjoying the trip, Especially through West Texas, with its mountains and Desert. Along about Five-Thirty P. M. the train pulled into El Paso.

Page 3

JERRY W. EADES, FROM 1936 20 1942

‘FORT BLISS”

As we detrained at the train depot in El Paso, we were meet by a Corporal from the Seventh Cavalry Regiment who was on recruiting duty there in town, The first thing he ask each of us was did we still have the Six Cents we were given in Dallas, As this Six Cents was our fare out to Fort Bliss, on the Street Car, and was well worth the Five and a half mile ride out to the main gate of the Post.

I was very quick to notice nearly all the civilians people in El Paso were Mexican, as we boarded the Street Car, the Corporal told us someone would meet us at the end of the Street Car line and would take us to our Barracks. As we got off the Street Car, A Sergeant stepped up and said, You Men Belong to me, I’m Sergeant Petrevitch., and you will notice I am wearing a RED hat cord, RED is for ARTILLERY, and every one you see wearing a YELLOW hat cord is a CAVALRYMAN, and said BY-TWOS follow me. (I would latex come to know Sergeant Petrevitch, and respect him very much, as he became my recruit Instructor, and one of the Best Soldiers, and the most Soldier looking men I ever knew in the Army). As we followed him along the edge of the main parade ground in front of the Eighth Cavalry Barracks, the wind was blowing and the sand and little rocks from the parade ground would hit you in the face, It was very cold as the sun had gone down behind the Franklin Mountains west of Fort Bliss, and I had on summer clothes with no coat or jacket, and there was the strong odor of horses coming from the stables, across the Artillery parade ground we walked to the end of the Field Artillery stables and came to a stop in front of D Battery Barracks, where we were shown where to bunk, drew sheets, blankets, pillow and pillow case, then took to the D Battery Mess Hall, and by this time I was getting kind of hungry, We sat down at a table with stools to sit on, the table was set with platters of ham, boiled, cabbage, boiled potatoes and thick sliced bread, and Ice tea in stainless steel pitchers full of ice, This is the first time I had ever drank Ice Tea from a cup, Thick cups , about a half inch thick, But over the years I would indeed get used to these thick cups, As it turned out the ham, was nice red horse meat, I had taken Two big slices , and found that I didn’t like it very much, and after a couple of bites I thought I was finished eating the horse meat and cabbage, there was still a lot left on my plate, Sergeant Petrevitch, then gave me a lesson I would never forget, when he said you men can have all you want to eat, But you sure as hell better eat all you take onto your plates, or you will have it for your next meal, and even for your next until it’s all gone from your plate, In other words don’t let your eyes over load your stomachs, and even though I did not care for the horse meat, that night I cleaned my plate. But as the weeks went by I even learned to like Horse Meat and Cabbage, as we always had it on Wednesdays while in Barracks, As I went to bed that night after the lights were put out I could hear the sand and little rocks hitting against the window pane and thought to myself, I don’t think I am going to like it in this place, and found the Two blankets they had issued to me felt very good, but was so tired I was asleep in nothing flat.

Page 4

                    JERRY   W. EADES, FROM 1936 TO 1942

                            “RECRUIT DRILL”

After about a week of plucking weeda from the lawn and polo field, We were issued our clothing allowance, I never had so many cloths at one time in my life before, Four pairs of khaki breeches, Four khaki shirts, Four pairs if 0.D. Breeches, Four O.D, Shirts, Four Black Ties, and Four Khaki Ties, A khaki Blouse Tunis, An O.D,Blouse Tunic, Two pairs of Sixteen inch high Boots, A pair of High Top Shoes, Two Campaign “Montana Peak” Felt hats, A Garrison Cap, One each of O.D. and Khaki, A dozen handkerchiefs, A set of blue fatigue clothes with a blue fatigue cap, A dozen of each of shorts, undershirts and pairs of socks.

We were shown how to store all the gear in our foot and wall lockers, I was one of the twelve men assigned to Sergeant Petrevitch for my recruit drill for the next Four weeks, The other Twelve men in our platoon was assigned to Corporal Carl S. Blass, (I would later serve in the same Battery with Corporal Blass, in fact he would at one time later be my First Sergeant) there was as much difference in looks between Sergeant Petrevitch and Corporal Blass as daylight and dark, Sergeant Petrevitch , stood about Six Feet tall and his uniform fit him like it had been tailor made for him, while Corporal Blass stood about’~. Five feet Five inches and his uniform fit him like an oat sack, although both men knew The Army and Soldiering and the Field Artillery like they had been born into it. And I will never forget some of the things they taught me about the Army as well as other things.

We were marched down to the Artillery Post-Exchange the next day after we drew our cloths, where each of signed for Five Dollars worth of canteen checks. These could be used just like cash in the canteen from anything it stocked ( on the canteen check issue date, you could buy a carton of Cigarettes for One Dollar-Twenty-Five Cents with canteen checks, go outside and one of the taxi drivers would buy them from you for One Dollar cash., this way you could go to town that night) And when they stopped piling things like shoe polish, shoe brushes extra boot string laces, button polish and other things you needed to soldier, we had about Eighty cents of our Five Dollar canteen checks left to spend on our self. Next we would get a haircut at the barber shop next door, each recruit would sign for a barber card which had Four Twenty-Five Cent hair cuts on it, and the barber would punch out each Twenty-Five Cents as you used the card up. Next we would sign for a book of show tickets which would give you Ten movies for One Dollar Fifty Cents, and all this would be deducted from your Twenty-One Dollars a month, And after your Laundry and Dry Cleaning expense was deducted, If you collected Five or Six Dollars in White Money ( what the Soldiers called Cash Money) A private was lucky as Fifteen cents for the old Soldiers home and Ten Cents for the Red Cross was deducted before they started deducting the other things you had signed for during the month, and if you had broken any dishes like Ten cents for a cup, Fifteen cents for a plate and Twenty-Five cents for a platter, all these things took a bite in the Twenty Dollars, Seventy-five Cents the private soldier was paid.

Page 5

I opened my eyes to the loudest noise I had ever heard, It was the Eighty-Second Field Artillery Regiments Drum and Bugle Corps sounding Reveille, The morning had broken crisp; and cold, clear as a bell with not a cloud in the sky, just blue sky and sun shine, At that moment I fell in love with Fort Bliss and El Paso, and have never changed my mind about it in all these years. (And would live in that area in a minute if I had the chance).

It looked like we were the first intakes as our barracks room started filling up pretty fast in the next Two or Three days, so many recruits came in, we would be put out on the lawn in little bunches, plucking weeds out of the grass to be keep busy.

And this was the pace set for all the years I was in the army, do something to keep busy. I remember one of the men who came out from Dallas in our group, Finis Davis, He was from East Texas, up around Paris someplace a kind of quite type fellow, got a thorn in his finger while we were pulling weeds out of the lawn, He reported to the medical aid station, and was sent up to William Beaumont Army Hospital, he never returned to duty, around Four months later he came by the Barracks to say good bye, He was being Discharged, with a very bad looking hand, They had operated on it a number of times,

Over the years I came to know Fort Bliss as home, and remembered the times the sand and little rocks blew around was very few, and most of the time it was very nice at Fort Bliss.

Page 6

Each Soldier was allowed so much per. month clothing allowance to replace his original issue, and at the end of his enlistment if you had not used up all your clothing allowance you could draw it in cash money, anything you had left, and if you really wanted to save your clothing allowance, there were a a lot of pawn shops in down town El Paso, and the Fort Bliss area where you could buy about anyway in the way of clothing and boots, and get them even cheaper than the Army sold them for even new items.

Our recruit drill consisted of Six days of Foot drill, Six days of mounted instructions, Six days of Artillery tactics and Six days of Military Courtesy along with any other thing we needed to know, And at the end of Four weeks of our training we were turned to duty, and took our place with the duty soldiers. I drew the assignment of Swing Pair Driver on the Third Gun Section of Dog (D) Battery, Second Battalion Eighty-Second Field Artillery Regiment. The Regiment had Two Battalions and a Regimental Headquarters Battery, and a Service Battery. The First Battalion had A and B Batteries, The Second Battalion had D and E Batteries. I was turned to Duty on 26 October Nineteen-Hundred-Thirty-Six, On fifteen December, A Headquarters Battery and Combat Train was organized in each Battalion, and I was transferred to Second Battalion Headquarters Battery and assigned as a phone operator in the wire section, I was assigned to Sergeant Dave

F.    Laws Section, of the Six men who went Fort Bliss with me from Dallas in September, J. Z. Baker was assigned to First Battalion Headquarters Battery, Joe C. Prewitt, Fred B. Roson and Me went to Second Battalion Headquarters Battery, Carl Long was transferred to the Seventy Cavalry Regiment, and Finis Davis was discharged. About the time we started our recruit drill a Colonel from the Seventh Cavalry came and gave us a talk telling us how we were supposed to have come to the Cavalry and how the Field Artillery had took us and hid us so they (the Cavalry’ could not find us for a good while) and how much glory there was in being a member of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment and ask us all to ask for a transfer to the Cavalry, He had hardly gone when Colonel Dodds, from the Field Artillery came and gave us a talk on how much better it was to be an Artilleryman, and since we were already wearing the pretty Red-Hat Cord of an Artilleryman it would be a shame to change it for the Yellow Hat-Cord of a Cavalryman now, Any way Colonel Dodds won as the only man who did transfer to the Cavalry was Carl Long.

After being transferred from D Battery to Second Battalion Headquarters Battery we had to have two more weeks of training on the work we would be doing in Headquarters Battery, who took care of all the communications to keep an Artillery Battalion firing, I never actually operated on the Guns again as long as I stayed in the Eighty-Second Field Artillery.

One little thing I remember was one evening when we fell out for fatigue work, Sergeant Laws told me and Hagood to go into the barracks and pick up our mess kit knife, then wait for him at the barracks door We both misunderstood him and went to the barracks door and sat down.

Page 7

In about half an hour or so he came back and said well boys lets go up to the storage shed, we are taking an old reel cart out of storage to put into service, we will scrape the old paint off and repaint it, You boys do have your mess kit knives, don’t you ? No we said, Then he put his hands on his hips and gave us the kind of look he was famous for-& said, Well you see them Gun Sheds up there, the other side of the parade ground, I want you both to double time around them and back here, after we had done that he ask, Do you know why I doubled timed you around the Gun sheds and back 7 I thought I would be polite and said NO SIR, He looked at me again and said Double Time around the Gun Shed again, When I got back that time He again ask, Do you know why I doubled you around the Gun Shed 7 I was so out of breath I just shook my head no, well I doubled you the first time for not paying attention to what you were told, and I doubled you the second time for saying SIR to me, I am a noncommissioned officer, Just a Sergeant and do not rate a SIR, so next time you just say Yes, or No. (It stuck with me)

Forty-nine years later I was in El Paso and found Sergeant Dave Laws name in the phone book, and gave him a ring. When he got on the phone I told him who I was, but he just could not remember me, Then I ask him if he remembered the kid bugler he used to double time around the Gun Sheds, of course he didn’t, but said I doubled timed so many of you boys around in our Army days together I just can’t remember them all, Then said ~You don’t still hold that against me do you”? I sure don’t I told him, In fact it sure helped to get me used to and ready for some of the things I went through in World War Two.

When we went back to El Paso Five months later to attend my War time

Battalions reunion, I had Sergeant Dave Laws and his wife come to our

Banquet Dinner as my Special Guest and introduced him as the meanest

Sergeant in the U. S. Army, which he got a big kick out of.

Page 8

OF JERRY W. EADES, FROM 1936 10 1942

“GUN DRILL”

While I was in D (Dog) Battery of the Second Battalion, Eighty-Second Field Artillery Regiment, I was in a Gun Section, we were equipped with the Seventy-Five Millimeter Howitzers., They were originally designed as a Pack or Mountain Howitzer, But were redesigned with Split Trails and fitted to be pulled by horses, So the Second Battalion was the first horse Artillery to be equipped with them,. and they were fitted with the new Pam. sights, and were very easy to handle, being mounted on rubber tired wheels.

Never the less, The Gun crews did every spare minute in Gun Drill, When the Gun went into position, it was laid on a setting with an Aiming Circle, to get a base deflection, then when a new deflection reading was given the gunner would always traverse the tube, until his sight came back on his Aiming Stakes.

On the parade ground where most all simulated gun drill fire was practiced we used a fixed point for an aiming point, And anywhere on the Artillery parade ground, The highest point on Mt. Franklin could be seen, and as each man in the Gun Crew practiced at each position in the crew, everyone was gunner at one time or the other, Sergeant Farmer was our Chief-Of-Section and believed each member of the crew should be able to do any job in the Section, We had a cannoneer in the Section named Joe A. Sweeny, who was a kind of comic, who was doing the Gunners job one day, And as Sergeant Farmer gave out the deflection, as the highest point on Mt. Franklin, Sweeny hollered out, Sergeant Farmer, when we go to war, can we take the highest point on Mt. Franklin with us to lay our deflection on 7 He did not see Lieutenant Marcus Tague, our platoon leader standing back out of the way watching, He stepped up and said Sergeant Farmer, ten this gunner he can take Mt. Franklin with him if he can carry it on his back, But since he can’t, see if he can double time around the gun shed three times. We didn’t hear Sweeny or anyone else making cracks about the Aiming points that day, But ole’ Sweeny sure heard it plenty from the rest of the gun crew, And all that Gun Drill practice paid off, As I made expert Gunner, and that meant Five dollars more each month for a year, And when I went to Headquarters Battery, I knew everything that was going on from both ends.

Page 9

                  OF JERRY W. EADES, FROM 1936 TO 1942 “STABLE POLICE”

Even though the Buglers got out of most all the dirty duties like Kitchen Police and Stable Police, Once in a while when the men were spread kind of thin, The Buglers were put on some of the work details.

This particular time the Battery was out on the firing range at Dona Ana, New Mexico and there were very few men left in the Barracks, The Battalion had been trucked out to the range and all the horses were left in the corral, So I was put on Stable Police along with Theo Looney, John R. Ashley, Elwood Evens and Doyle Wakefield, Along about noon time we had all the stalls cleaned out, The Stable Sergeant’s name was Bill Kenzell, who was a kind of hard boiled man, and did not like to repeat any order, He came through the stable on his was to early chow., and said you men take about a dozen bales of hay, scatter it out in the feeders and take the wire and put it in the wire barrel at the end of the corral, He snapped his finger as he had forgotten something in the Stahl.  Shank and went back for it. (To leave loose wire in the corral was one of the worst things you could do, as the horses could cut their feet and legs on it) As Sergeant Kenzell came back through the corral Theo Looney, who was kind of slow on the up take anyway, had forgot what Sergeant Kenzell had said and ask, ‘Sergeant Kenzell, what did you say to do with this wire, Bill Kenzell Stopped, Put his hands on his hips, Got red in the face , And Said” Take the dam stuff down to the Canteen and get yourself some cigarettes with it, Theo Looney’s mouth flew open and he had the most dumb-founded look on his face I ever saw, and just stood there looking at Sergeant Kenzell as he walked away, We all started laughing at Looney and he just sit down in the corral and hung his head.

“From then on when he asks any of us anything we would say takes the dam stuff down to the canteen and get yourself some cigarettes with it”.

Before I become a Bugler, I got hooked into doing Stable Police, we had a man named Cecil Bone, He would do about anything he could to get out of work details. He was on Stable Police on one of our holidays, and went around offering to pay anybody One Dollar who would do his Stable Police for him that day, of course he could not pay the Dollar right then but would on Pay-Day. Every one gave him the cold shoulder, except when he came to me, He found a sucker, I did his Stable Police that day.

It was a few days before Pay-Day, and as we were all looking forward to, I thought well I’ll have an extra Dollar, But when Pay-Day came Bone, drew his pay and took off for town, As I ask around for him, I was informed that he owed most everybody in the Battery for work they had done for him. Then on top of all his other miss-deeds he went A.W.O.L. for three days and was in so much other trouble he received Three months in the Guard House, I never did collect my Dollar for the day of labor I gave him, on Stable Police.