Camp Barkeley News (Camp Barkeley, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, May 1, 1942 Page: 1 of 8
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Camp Barkeley News
Including The 45th DIVISION NEWS _________
VOL. I, NO.~Tl ~ CAMP BARKELEY, TEXAS____FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1942
WMmmS,
III
yJ,<
as much
$667,753.05 in the soldier’s parlance ain’t hay and one" man seldom handles
Summer's Here
As Barkeley Is
Out In Khakis
That anonymous bard who aver-
red so lyrically that Summer is
i-cumin’ in would have had to
admit hereabout that the gal has
been denied slow about it. But
with the advent of May 1, Camp
Barkeley admits officially that the
winter is over and permits the
doffing of whiter . regimentals for
the cool clothing toward which
rank-and-file have been casting
sheep's eyes for many days.
Frankly envious of Fort Sam, where
summer hove in a good fortnight
ago, the camp here has been look-
ing suspiciously at the calendar
and the weather man in an effort
to determine which was really
wrong.
Official summer means khaki
slacks and khaki shirts, garrison
caps and khaki ties. Nobody can
promise Barkeley less perspiration.
The Texas sun is fairly good at
bringing it out whatever the cos-
tume you wear.
it. Tiffany's 90th
Division Orchestra
Wifi Play At Dance
Hottest band to hit Camp Bar-
keley since the departure of the
180th Infantry orchestra, Lt. Bob
Tiffany's 90th division dance band,
will play for tonight's Field House
dance which will begin at 8 p. n;
Members of the Blue Bonnet Bri-
gade will be in attendance to fur-
nish partners for the soldiers. Doors
open at 7:45 p. m., and the first
1.000 men to enter will be admit-
ted free. A concession stand will
be maintained in the northwest
corner of the building.
At the Service club, plans are be-
ing made by several ladies’ clubs
and auxiliaries in Abilene to take
over the Sunday afternoon and
evening programs at the club and
furnish entertainment of varying
types.
Future of the Thursday night
ranch dancing classes to be held at
the club will depend on the attend-
•ance report of last night’s function.
If it appears that sufficient interest
.was shown, the class will be made
' a permanent feature.
Panhellenic
. Nets Neat Sum
For Day Rooms
With a profit of approximately
$400 realized, Saturday night’s Pan-
4 Hellenic dance, .held at the Fair
“ park Supper club to raise funds for
soldiers of Camp Barkeley was
'pronounced a huge success by Mrs.
Will Fulwiler Jr., club president.
Money derived from the over 600
paid admissions will be used to
help furnish dayrooms in the 90th
division and MRTC areas, Mrs.
Julia Pickard, one of the dance
sponsors, said. In view of the suc-
cess of this dance, the first held
for officer’s of Barkeley by the
citizens of Abilene, several other
dances are being planned for this
summer.
Music was furnished Saturday
night by two orchestras. When the
Medical Replacement band was off
the bandstand for ‘ a rest period,
dance tunes were taken over by the
Brook Haven trio local drum, piano
and organ combination.
Uncle Sam Invests Bis Wad In Your Pay Check
money as that. But that was the exact amount of the check which Lt. Col. Elmer iVI.
Peddrick, Camp Barkeley finance officer, wrote out on April 24 to meet the enlisted
payroll of all units at Camp Barkeley. This is the largest amount that has been re-
quired so far to pay off the rank-and file. With the officers’ pay vouchers the Army
payroll here for May 1 will top a cool million. In one way and another all of the per-
sonnel pictured here helped in the writing of the gargantuan check. Left to right,
they are 1st. Lieut. John N. Worden, Deputy Finance Officer, Barkeley; Sgt. R. M. Me-
Cleskey; Marguerite Cornelius, stenographer; Sgt. Robert W. Grawley; Maj. E. O. Coo-
per, Finance Officer, 90th Division; 1st Lieut. A. S. Hinkle, assistant Finance Officer,
90th; and 1st Lieut. Glenn W. Jones. Seated is Colonel Peddrick.
Behind Pay Day Is Mechanics Of Finance
Ernest R. Godfrey, Techn., was
the grinning embodiment of Camp
Barkeley’s typical soldier as he stood
yesterday before a money-heaped
desk at the Finance Office to re-
ceive his $54 monthly pay allot-
ment from 1st Lieut. J. N. Worden,
cashier, as 2nd Lieut. G. W. Jones,
Asst. Finance Officer, looked on.
For Technician Godfrey, as for
other soldier and civilian employes
of Camp Barkeley, the long-await-
ed “pay-day” had rolled around
and he wa£ very much on hand to
see that Uncle Sam hadn’t for-
gotten his monthly stipend for
services rendered.
Just how big a dent each soldier’s
pay allowance made in the fabu-
lous pile of money can be gathered
when—after some tall figuring—it
can be said that Technician God-
frey would have to return to the
Finance Office every month for
over 1,000 years before he could
carry away—at $54 a trip—the
$667,753,05 which is the amount of
this month’s pay allotment to
Camp Barkeley’s employees. This
is said to be the largest pay allow-
ance to be issued by the present
finance section. The last month’s
allotment totaled only $324,827 in
comparison.
As Simple As That
“It’s a simple matter—this pro-
curement of a half a million dol-
lars for the soldiers,” Lt. Worden
explained, waving toward the large
stacks of greenbacks and sacks of
silver. Included were $86,044 in
$100 bills, $118,085 in $500 bills,
$195,830 in $10 bills and $240,440 in
$20 dollar certificates—to say
nothing of the bit of “chicken feed”
silver in about a dozen sacks—some
$20,000 in cold cash.
To obtain this unbelievable
amount of money Lt. Colonel E. M.
Peddrick, Finance Officer submits
each month a check in his name to
the Federal Reserve Bank in Dal-
las, Tex., and the cash—bills and
silver—is sent out by train express
to a bank in Abilene. From there,
after careful guarding, it is sent
on by armored car to Camp
Barkeley.
Carriers Are Armed
Upon arrival at Camp the money
is divided into company allotments
and the company commanders come
to the Finance Office to verify the
amount of money alloted to them
which is taken and then distrib-
uted to the soldiers. To insure safe
delivery of payments to the men,
the commanders are usually armed
in addition to having from one to
two guards with them.
After delivery of the allowance
to the soldier what becomes of it?
A complete answer to this ques-
tion would be as diversified as the
the personalities of the different
soldiers. However, from talks with
the soldiers today it was evident
that a large part of each soldiers
pay would be spent on overnment
insurance, laundry, amusements
with a goodly portion being sent
home to help the folks or for de-
posit in the bank for safe keeping.
How They Spend It
Technician Godfrey admitted
that his first purchase would be a
pair of glasses; Pvt. Richard
Grawll of Manitowoc, Wis., one of
the guards posted outside the Fi-
nance Office, plans to send most
of his allowance home, for he says,
“It is’nt what you earn but what
you save that counts.” Several oth-
er privates interviewed said they
planned to spend their checks va-
riously for Government insurance,
pool cards, “about three movies a
week,” and for incidentals such as
tooth powder, soap etc. All in all,
the soldiers “have no kick Scorn-
in’ ” for the way Uncle Sam is
treating them—after all another
“pay day” is only 30 days away.
Something Odd Here
Must be something contagious
about special assignments. Two
Barkeley officers given charge of
important army campaigns had
hardly checked over the job when
they went on the hospital list.
Major Lloyd Patterson, Camp Com-
mand. head of the Army Emergency
Relief campaign, is on sick leave.
Lt. Col. Wylie Turner, in charge of
the 90th Division’s pay allotment
bond purchase drive has been trans-
ferred to William Beaumont Hos-
pital.
The doughboy sees his pay in terms of the table at distribution. He sees a neat stack of green-
backs and coins. He gets, he thinks, mighty few of them. He’d think still more of his still less if he
saw his pay arrive as the finance office beholds it in cartons and sacks. Remember the caves of riches
in which Arabian Nights’ characters used to find themselves? When the finance office lias well over
half a million in cold cash, the resemblance must be startling. Left to right, looking over Uncle Samuel’s
money are Technicians Godfrey; 2nd Lt. G. W. Jones, 1st Lt. John N. Worden,
MRTC Officer
School Opens
Here May II
Too late for publication in the
Camp Barkeley News last week was
announced the designation of the
Medical Replacement Training
Center as the site for an officer
candidates school in the Medical
Administrative Corps. Brigadier
General Roy C. Heflebower, MRTC
commanding officer, will also com-
mand the school, which will open
on May 11.
Selecetd Army officers for the
staff of the new MAC have already-
received their orders to report here.
This initial group of officers comes
from the staff at Carlisle Barracks,
Pa., the- only other MAC officer
training school.
Among them will be Lt. Col.
George E. Armstrong, who will serve
as assistant commandant of the
new school at Barkeley. The other
selected officers from Carlisle in-
clude: Capt. William H. Crosby, Jr.;
Capt. Francis B. Gider; Capt. Au-
gust H. Qroeschel; Capt. John J.
Maloney; Capt. Wayne A. Starkey;
1st Lt. Jesse F. Gamble; 1st Lt.
Rob H. Holmes; 1st Lt. John M.
Willis. Jr.; all of whom are mem-
bers of the medical corps. Three
medical administrative corps offi-
cers will also be on the staff: 1st Lt.
Miles G. Bell; 2nd Lt. John J. Kra-
mer; and 2nd Lt. Richard B. Quig-
ley; all of whom are also transferred
from the mother .school at Carlisle.
When the new school opens here
on May 11, it will occupy the area
formerly used by the 120th Medi-
cal regiment, of the 45th division, -—-
vacated after the 45th was tran-
gularized earlier this year. General
Heflebower said he has been ad-
vised that permanent structures for
the school will be erected in the
near future just east of the present
MRTC area. Camp Commander,
Col. H. A. Finch, has announced
that the area to be used by the
school will be converted into a hut-
ment camp prior to May 11.
Plans call for the accommodation
of several hundred officer candi-
dates; and. as with other candi-
date institutions, the course of in-
struction will cover a period of ap-
proximately three months. Stu-
dents will be selected from qualified
enlisted men throughout the na-
tion.
Long Time Between
Wars For Pvt. Abbott
A sergeant major in the intelli-
gence department during the last
war — now a buck private in the
90th division.
That in brief, sums up the mili-
tary career of 50-year-old Pvt.
John Thompson Abbott. 343 F.A.
battalion.
The “rookie” served on three
fronts during the first World War,
one of them the famous Meuse
Argonne. He suffered both mus-
tard burns and shraonel wounds
during his service. That did not
keep him from enlisting immedi-
ately after December 7.
Abbott has proven himself to be
one of the most ambitious and
hardest working rookies in the di-
vision.
VIM Corps Area
Gains Two States
But Loses Pair
The magnificent distances nif
VIII Corps Area, which once
stretched as far northwestward as
Fort Francis E. Warren in Wyom-
ing, have been shortened, according
to an announcement made last
week by the War Department. Re-
visions in Corps Area make-up are
in the interest of more compact
jurisdictions.
The VIII Corps Area will be com-
posed now of Texas. New Mexico,
Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louis-
iana. with the headquarters of the
commander, Maj. Gen. Richard
Donovan continuing at San An-
tonio. VIII Corps Area acquires
Louisiana from the IV Corps Area
and Arkansas from VII, loses Ari-
zona to IX and Colorado to VIL
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Camp Barkeley News (Camp Barkeley, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, May 1, 1942, newspaper, May 1, 1942; Camp Barkeley, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth601141/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Grace Museum.