T/Sgt Wilfred "Mac" McCarty (Rtd)
ASTP/College of Puget Sound
"B" Company, 21st Armored Infantry Battalion, 11th Armored Division

    In World War II, some of us were sent after completing Infantry Basic Training at Camp Roberts, California to the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at the College of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.  We were expected to complete a four-year Engineering Course in a little over a year and a half, but we were only in the program from about December 1943 to March 1944.

   We went by train from warm, almost desert California to cool and rainy Puget Sound.  I recall that we marched from the train station to the campus in fog and rain, and that cars were driving up onto people's lawns in the fog.  As the fog did not lift until about noon, we did not get a good look at the town or the campus until then.  Later on, when we would be marched to class in the early morning fog, the Sergeant in charge of us would not know if we were giving him the finger or skipping merrily to class, as he could not see us in the fog.

    Instead of sounding reveille each morning, the active-duty officers who were in charge of the program would put a recording of "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning!" from the musical Oklahoma on the sound system.  Some nights after lights were out I would take a flashlight under the covers in my lower bunk and try to read from my textbooks.  I would try to figure out what they had been talking about in class that day.  In spite of a high Army Intelligence score (their standards were not really that high) I did not have the background for an engineering course.  I came from a small farming community that had less than 200 people in town and 15 students in class.  We did not have much in the way of physics, chemistry and higher math, as most of us had to go home and do chores after school and few of us were going to go on to college.

    At Puget Sound, the teachers and girl students were as curious about us as we were about them.  Our classes and study periods were separate from those of the civilian students.  One civilian teacher was so intimidated about teaching soldiers and was so scared of us that at his first lecture, he had to sit down and get his breath.  I wondered why he was sacred of us when I was scared of him!  I was always tired from our heavy schedule and our military training.  I would almost puke when I would hear that damn song "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning!" as our wake-up call each morning!

    We had one guy in our ASTP Unit who had a very military bearing but who was also always tired.  He walked like a West Pointer and had the ability to sit at attention in class with his eyes wide open while he was fast asleep!

    We were issued three quarter length tan officer Army coats.  When we would go into town wearing these "officer" coats, the troops from Ft. Lewis would not see any rank on our coats but took no chances and saluted ("Salute anything that moves!").  I always returned the salute!

    One day during our three-month stay, we were marched down to town to what I think was the YMCA for a swimming test.  I think that we were supposed to get something out of the water, in case we were ever on a ship that was sinking and we had to retrieve our gear.  I did not know how to swim but I did not tell them that.  I guess that I was going to drown before I admitted that I did not know how to swim.  Luckily, time ran out before they got to my name in the alphabet.  I was always sweating out something or worrying about something!

    While the college was pretty and they treated us nicely, the pace was too hectic for me.  I think that some of the teachers thought that we might return to the College of Puget Sound to go to school after we got out of the service.  I never did.  But I still get alumni news from them as if I were a distinguished alumnus (of three months!), and I actually do have a soft spot in my heart for the college.

    One day during our stay at the college (during our spare time), they marched us to the railroad station to help the war effort by loading scrap iron into railroad boxcars.  I think that it was raining that day.  Even so, it was almost a relief from studying!

    The active-duty officers who were in charge of the program were nice to us.  I think that they knew what a heavy schedule we had, and they would tell us Army stories during our military classes to lighten our load.  One Major claimed that he lost an Army fishing boat, and that because he had so much paperwork to fill out he changed it from a fishing boat to a gravy boat (a utensil you put gravy in) in the statement of charges.

    When this Major inspected our room one day, he knew that we had forgotten to dust above the sill of the door.  As he was leaving the room, he ran his white-gloved fingers over the sill and, without turning around, showed us his now dirty gloves.  I think that he enjoyed this demonstration because he knew how green we still were in the ways of the Army despite our basic training.

    When we were back in the Infantry at Camp Cooke after the ASTP was disbanded in March 1944, some of the soldiers there who had been on maneuvers, etc. while we were at college kind of resented us.  One guy in charge of the KPs (kitchen police) would holler at me, "Hey you, you ATSPer (he always got the letters wrong!), you are assigned pots and pans (to scrub out the pots and pans)".  Some thought that this was an undesirable job, but it got you outside and you could goof off somewhat, so I did not mind it.

    The critical shortage of infantrymen in the winter of 1943-44 was largely responsible for the virtual liquidation of the ASTP (and here I thought it was due to my poor grades!).  They did not close down the equivalent Navy Program, however (I guess that they did not need sailors!), and a buddy of mine finished that program and became an officer while we went off to the Battle of the Bulge.  A different type of training altogether!