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Remember that Ralph was in the 147th Engineer Combat Battalion. One has a good opportunity to see what that meant through Ralph’s letter of May 2, 1943 as he describes the bivouac on the Colorado River not far from Austin. Remember that Ralph is 31 years old at this time.
“Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we were all on the Colorado River building floating bridges. We pitched tents and slept on the ground. I didn’t get much sleep. The ground is too hard for my aging frame, I guess. Ten years ago I wouldn’t have minded it. I used to sleep on the floor anytime, but I can’t do it anymore. We built a big floating bridge across the river and tore it apart twice. We also built several different kinds of rafts and a foot bridge. The materials are all cut and fitted, so all we have to do is fit them together. We were timed on everything to see how fast we could do it. Our platoon built a raft that would carry a loaded 2 ½ ton truck in eight minutes and 50 seconds. When we came to the foot bridge our platoon set a record. The best time that was made before us was 14 minutes. The Captain was there to time us, and he said it should be built in 8 minutes, but the way he said it you could tell he didn’t think we could do it. Our sergeant said we could do it in 10 minutes. Well we put it across in 6 minutes flat. I think the captain was a little bit flabbergasted. No one else came close to our time. The river is something like 200 ft. across at that point.”
“We spent half a day paddling around in rubber life boats something like the one’s Luella helped to make in Akron. That part of it was a lot of fun.”
But this work also held its dangers. “We didn’t have any casualties, but a couple fellows almost drowned before they got them out. I thought sure one of them was a goner. He was under at least two or three minutes. One boy did drown down there the first of the week, but if he’d obeyed orders he wouldn’t have.”
Ralph also mentions in this letter that his driving partner is Charles Villars from Wilmington, Ohio.
CONTEST – Robert Leckie Books
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CONTEST – Strong Men Armed, The United States Marines Against Japan, by
Robert Leckie – Featured in the HBO Miniseries The Pacific It’s time for a
new cont...
14 years ago
4 comments:
I remember my own bivouac in the Air Force. It was part of our training as medics at Shepherd AFB, Witchita Falls, Texas. We lived in tents for 3 days, shaving from cold water in our helmets in the mornings and eating field rations. Not the tastiest fare.
The exercises were interesting. First, we had to go through a special obstacle course in five-man teams. One was on the stretcher, while the other four carried him, hopefully without dropping them or spilling them out of the stretcher as went over and under obstacles. With each obstacle completed, we had to change to a new person on the stretcher. Being the one on the stretcher was definitely the scariest part!
The next exercise I remember started in the evening and went into dark. Two-man teams had to follow clues and go into the woods to locate a wounded man. Once we located the wounded man, we had to look at their wound (a moulage), treat it properly, and then safely get them back to camp. Some of the wounded were up in trees. It was pretty wild. I remember that one guy we found had a sucking chest wound. Slap that celophane from your cigarette pack on there, put on a bandage with pressure! Yikes.
The third exercise was definitely the most dramatic. We were taken to a crashed aircraft. They had drums of burning oil inside the large hull of the plane, creating much black smoke. There were probably 75 wounded on the ground all around the plane screaming and yelling. We had to quickly triage who was going to die soon, and leave them behind, while we sorted the others by seriousness of their wounds and evacuated them to a safe spot. Then we needed to treat them.
I suppose Broadway didn't want them. Poor actors. What do you do for a living?
Wow, 6 minutes to build a 200 ft. bridge, and 8 minutes to build a bridge that can carry a 2 1/2 ton truck! I don't even go to the bathroom that quickly.
I think it's wild to imagine leaving my family 3 years from now and running around with a bunch of 18 year olds, trying to learn a completely new set of skills. This, not to mention that he was drafted.
Hey dad, maybe we should build replica bridges over the creek at Rebecca's parents' house, to see what it's like.
-- Josh
Hi there. I was looking for Rusty Rousculp on google & came to this page.I met Rusty & Adda Mae a long time ago when they came to Wilmington Ohio. It blew my mind when I read your article & saw the name of Charles Villars.....thats my dad.I lost my dad back in 1987 but remember he thought the world of Rusty. I know he has also passed. As for Adda Mae???? I have no idea if she is still with us but would love to know. I have pictures of them & others at the WW2 reunion that was held some time ago. Please get back to me as this is a very important part of my dads history & I'd like to keep in touch. Thank you, Cindy(Villars)
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