Bob Wells
sobob@hotcoco.infi.net

I was inducted early in March 1943, and scored 150 on my AGCT. I had an older brother who told me how to take the test! I was only 19, which also helped.

Anyway, I was sent to Camp Wheeler, Georgia, for Infantry Replacement training. Part of the way through the 13 weeks, a handful of us were taken from training, dressed in Class A's and trucked to HQ. There we were given written tests, and interviewed by a board of officers. We were told nothing of the reason for this. Weeks later, the process was repeated -- except that the tests were different. Perhaps we knew the reason by then -- ASTP.

At the end of the 3-week cycle, maybe 30 or 35 of us were shipped to the Citadel for further processing. It is worth noting that of the 1,000 men trained in this cycle in my training battalion, maybe 10 or 20 got assigned to OCS or Pilot training, and the rest went to Shenango, PA, to the POE and "bon voyage" after 13 weeks and no furloughs.

Civilian faculty members at the Citadel interviewed us, screened us, tested us and treated us like family.  The Army was forgotten -- almost.  A lot of us were sent to Georgia Tec in Atlanta, where we were again treated like young gentlemen.   Also, at first, we were CADETS!!! Then it was determined that Cadets were supposed to receive $75.00 per month. We then became privates.

There was a basic flaw in this process. I had endured one year of High School Algebra, and a year of Geometry. I had had no Physics, but I did have a year of Chemistry. We were given really heavy schedule, and I was completely at sea in the Physics and Math classes. The professors were aghast to learn that the Army thought we could handle college-level subjects from scratch, and we proved that we could not. I got past the first half of the semester, but got "incomplet's" in Math and Physics at the end of the semester. I did get a furlough, though.

I was -- or we were -- returned to Camp Wheeler, from which I was sent to the 100th Infantry Division in Fort Jackson, SC. A lot of us were shipped together, and half were assigned to the 106th Infantry Division. I was lucky to go to the 100th.