Robert E. Shaw, Esq.
ASTP/University of California at Berkeley
Headquarters Company, 56th Armored Engineer Battalion, 11th Armored Division

    In June of 1943, several classmates at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS and I were called to active duty from the Enlisted Reserve Program.  After a short stay at Fort Leavenworth, KS we were sent to Camp Callan, CA (an Anti-Aircraft Artillery Basic Training Center just north of La Jolla) for 17 weeks of basic training on the 40 mm anti-aircraft artillery.  The camp is now the Torrey Pines Golf Course.

    At the end of that training (late September 1943), I was given the opportunity to select Officer's Candidate School or the ASTP.  I figured that with two years of engineering studies already completed, it would be in my best interest to select the ASTP, finish my engineering degree and obtain a commission to serve in the Army.

    I was therefore bused with many others from Camp Callan to Chaffey Junior College in Ontario, CA.  This was ASTP STAR Unit No. 3935 under the command of a Major Rawls.  While waiting assignment to an established ASTP Unit at the beginning of the semester, we engaged in studies according to our desired degree.  It was at Chaffey that I first met my good Army buddy, Carl Simonsen (d. March 2002), who had been transferred from the 126th Anti-Aircraft Battalion near Riverside, CA.

    After about six weeks at Chaffey, 39 of us were transferred to Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA.  We were first shipped to Los Angeles by bus and after a five-hour wait, were sent by train to San Jose -- arriving at the school in time for dinner. But then it was discovered that there had been a mix-up in some orders, and that 13 of us were to have gone to ASTP Unit 3918 at the University of California at Berkeley instead. So the next morning, the 13 of us were loaded onto a truck and transported to Berkeley.

    Upon arriving at U. of California -- around the first week of December 1943 -- my buddy, Carl, and I (and others that I knew) were assigned to our quarters in the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity House on Euclid Avenue, which was just a couple of blocks from the campus.  The only disadvantage to these quarters was that the mess hall set-up for us was in a building in the center of the Campus near the Student Union -- which meant a nice hike each morning to breakfast, and another one back to the fraternity house after dinner.

    It was at Berkeley that I met Bill Nunn from New Jersey (who became my roommate), and Robert F. Hites and Neil Schermerhorn -- all of whom I later served with in the 11th Armored Division.  Within another day or so we were enrolled in our classes. Unlike the Navy V-12 Program, we didn't march to class or between classes; we were free to go to classes and to return to our quarters on our own just like civilians.

    Being at Berkeley was really great -- not only from the standpoint of its being a great campus, but because of being so close to San Francisco.  It was many a weekend that my buddy Carl and I would hop on the "F" Train in Berkeley and go to the City.  I recall that we even got some tickets to the East-West Football Game that year.  During the game it began to rain, so our heavy OD Raincoats served to keep us dry.  But they then became like heavy wet blotters which actually soaked up the rain!

    The good life that we had in the ASTP at Berkeley ended abruptly at the end of March 1944, due to the Army's demand for field soldiers.  So those of us in Zeta Beta Tau and other fraternity houses were loaded onto a train in Berkeley and sent to Camp Cook (now Vandenberg Air Force Base) near Lompoc, CA.  Camp Cooke had just become the new home base of the 11th Armored Division, which was fresh off of desert maneuvers near Needles, CA.

    Needless to say, we college GIs -- with our garrison caps, shined shoes and tennis rackets -- were not looked upon with great favor by the grizzly desert-toughened guys of the 11th Armored Division.  Nevertheless, and despite the fact that we had to go through a basic training refresher course, we quickly fell into our duty assignments.  We did our jobs in the ETO and helped make the 11th Armored Division one of General Patton's spearhead units in the race to meet the Russians -- which we did at Amstetten, Austria on May 8, 1945.