Memoirs 3

RECOLLECTIONS OF A WORLD WAR II INFANTRYMAN

by Sol R. Brandell

EXAMINATION AND ASSIGNMENT TO ASTP:
After completing Basic Training I was asked to take the Army’s OCT-X3 Examination (for OCS or ASTP). Afterwards, I was told that I had scored very high and would have a choice of either Infantry (only!) OCS or ASTP. As the average life expectancy of an Infantry 2^nd Lieutenant replacement in Europe at that time was about 6 to 9 days (or was it 6 to 9 hours ?) after taking command of his platoon, I felt that I wasn’t all that brave! Besides, being faced with this new chance of completing my college studies in electrical engineering and then serving afterwards as an engineering officer in the Corps of Engineers, or in the Signal Corps, appealed to me as I’d had a fleeting thought that I might like to remain in the Army as a career officer after the war? This idea diverted me from my original enlistment goal of fighting against the Germans “en face”! I therefore chose ASTP and was sent to Camp Maxey, Paris, Texas, which was an ASTP STAR Unit. While awaiting a university assignment I was asked to teach 1st semester College Physics, to other GI’s waiting like myself, having already completed 1½ years of study, with a 3.85/4.00 GPA, towards a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering before my enlistment. This experience made me realize that it was much more difficult to teach physics than to learn it! After about 3 weeks I was assigned, at first, to Indiana University in Bloomington, but then was shipped onward with some other GI’s to the University of Cincinnati (Ohio) being told there were greater facilities there for advanced (?) students.

ASTP AND PRE-MED AT UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO:
I was enrolled directly into the 2^nd quarter of the Basic Engineering Course, comprising 3 quarters, because even though I would have been otherwise qualified to be placed directly into the 1^st quarter of the Advanced Engineering Course, which also comprised 3 quarters, I lacked a course in Inorganic Chemistry in my previous college work. I was told that when I’d completed 'Basic Engineering 2', I’d then go directly into 'Advanced Engineering 1', thereby skipping 'Basic Engineering 3' ! It was near the end of this very quarter that news came through that the Engineering portion of ASTP was to be shut down because the need for engineers had dwindled while the Army’s need for physicians and surgeons had increased tremendously due to the sharp increase in combat casualties. This caused the Army to request all the ASTP and Army Air Corps Ground School students at the university, a total of about 450 enlisted men, to take a Medical Aptitude Exam, Professional Form 20. Two days after completing this exam I was summoned into a large conference room, containing a combination of about 14 civilian physicians and Army Medical Officers, including a colonel, who addressed me as “Cadet Brandell” and informed me that I’d attained the 2^nd highest score, i.e., 298/300, or 99.33%, of all those who’d participated in the examination, and that I was one of the top 40 Pre-Medical School candidates selected to be enrolled in the University of Cincinnati in the accelerated Pre-Medical Course of study comprising 3 college quarters (Note: School comprised about 8-10 hours of class and/or labs a day with additional homework and study hours in our dormitory each evening). We also had physical education classes, including fencing lessons. After our first fencing lesson our civilian fencing instructor, saying he saw in my fencing style that I’d had previous exposure to fencing lessons, which I’d had in high school, selected me to be his assistant, and I was excused thereafter from all other physical education classes.