WWII Basic Training/Boot Camp Accidents

I am trying to reserach a fatal accident that occured in July/August, 1944 when my father was undergoing basic. My dad was in the 762nd Engineer LE Co. Have not determined where exactly his basic training was, think his IRTC was Fort Snelling, MN and his separation ctr was Fort Leavenworth KN. He shipped out to the APT 7 July 1945. I know he was undergoing basic 12 Aug 1944 as he got his sharpshooter designation on that day.

My understanding from dad, the one or two times he would talk about it, was towards end of his BT, there was a live fire battlefield simulation exercise where servicemen would crawl under barbed wire with full gear/rifle while live .50 cal rounds were fired over them. The group/platoon in front of my dad were actually hit during this (dad said there was at least one fatality) due to the deflection of a barrel from either accumuilated heat/wear of the barrel. When the acident ocurred, all training stopped and an investigation began and my dads platoon and those in front of his and one other were pulled out, segregated, interviewed, etc and the group did not restart BT for some period of time. He related that this impacted his deployment schedule to at least some degree. His date of departure (to the Asiatic Pacific Theatre) was 7 July 1945, which was about a year after his basic training. This seems longer than was typical from what I have read but I am sure there were other factors.

The entire boot camp and basic training regimen must of been in a constant state of flux due to huge variables and demands for personell. The accident my father related must have been very traumatic for multiple reasons. He did not like to talk about it, the manner of death of the servicemen involved were as real as the battlefield they were being trained for. I wonder if accidents such as this were documented very well as it had to have some serious consequences. I always thought it would be interesting to learn more about it.

I would be curious to know of anyone who might know more about this or similar situations/experiences.

Thanks

 

I don't believe Fort Snelling would have been where he went through Basic Training. It was primarily an induction center. There was some training done there, most notably by the 99th Infantry Battalion (Separate), but no BT as far as I am aware.

If his training was at an IRTC, it may have been one of those mentioned in this thread: USA Infantry Replacement Training Centers (IRTC)

If you can figure out where he did his training, that will greatly narrow down your search.

 

TD,

Thank you very much. I think it was Camp Croft where he did BT. I did some research on their website and (relatively quickly)came up with the following interview summary which describes an accident (on the "infiltration course - will have to research this) similar to what my father related (see highlighted portion):

George P. Kreger
Interview August 2002
George Kreger may be the only person who ever bought his way into Camp Croft. Fresh out of a JROTC high school in his home of Washington DC, Kreger was inducted in September '44 at Fort Mead, MD and learned his name was on a list to go to Camp Hood, TX. He paid someone $10 to move his name to the list for Croft, a post he later heard referred to as "the country club" by other soldiers. "The Army was what you made of it," says Kreger. He found himself assigned as a squad leader in the 40th ITB, Co D, during his cycle at Croft which was shortened from the usual 17 weeks to 15 because "they needed targets!" During training on the infiltration course, he learned of an incident during an earlier cycle when the improvised sandbag mount for a Browing machine gun collapsed during firing and several trainees were shot. Cement mounts replaced the sand bags by the time Kreger came through the course. Riding the "cattle car" into town (a large cargo truck which held as many soldiers as could be piled in), he found the Spartanburg natives more interested in what soldiers carried in their hip pockets than making friends. Kreger preferred spending time in nearby Shelby, NC. Passes were only good for 50 miles so the bus driver would stop on the side of the rode at the 49-1/2 mile mark and jokingly ask if any of the soldiers wanted to get out. "It was in the middle of nowhere and no one took him up on it," laughs Kreger. He recalls some of the German PWs interned at Croft who working for the Quartermaster handing out clothing to arriving trainees. Some of the same clothing was being sold off post by an unscrupulous Supply Sergeant in the 40th ITB and, in perhaps a worse offense, the mess sergeant in Kreger's company was caught in the act of stealing food from the mess hall to use at his restaurant in town leaving the soldiers on half rations. Leaving Croft in January '45, he soon boarded the USS West Point and arrived in Scotland before moving overland to Southampton and across the channel to a tent city in France. There he was assigned to the 8th Armored Div, 50th Infantry, Co A as a scout and eventually was promoted to CPL. After receiving an honorable discharge in 1946, Kreger attended college (American University, DC) and became successful in the retail liquor business. George and his wife resided in Greenville, SC about 40 miles from Camp Croft, until his death in 2006.

It is really rewarding to find info like this. As I mentioned, my dad, like a lot of WWII vets, didnt want to remember aspects of their service. I remember him saying that if something similar to what happened had ocurred during combat, it would of at least been expected and easier to deal with. He also said that their DI and more senior personell strongly admonished them about even speaking about the accident.

Thanks again.

 

Most training accidents in Australia these days are vehicle roll-overs and accidental Tank run-overs...and the occasional "unauthorised discharge of a weapon..."

 

Earthican has a post in this Forum with diary entries from a vet that did basic at Camp Shelby. He describes the infiltration course and what was involved. He mentions "fat" guys were at a disadvantage due to the live fire clearence (over the crawling soldiers) and lay of the course and the thickness of their bodies. Dont think there were many "fat" guys towards the end of a 15-17 week BT course. There were big guys, remember dad saying he was concerned about this as he was one of the biggest of any of the guys going thru basic at the time. Dad was pretty tall and he lost a lot of weight during BT but his honorable discharge ER&RofS shows his weight as 260 lbs.

CAC, during all the recent Middle East conflicts I would read the military obits and it was amazing to me how many service people died in accidents, many were vehicle related as you cited.

 

It sounds like you have a very good candidate. Still, it would be nice to confirm it, or at least rule out the other IRTCs.

Be careful. That's the part of research that can become addictive.

A more modern and cynical take would assume they were trying to avoid some scandal or liability. While that could have been the case, I suspect it (at least in part) had something to do with managing the public morale vis à vis the war effort.

 

Might be worth a search in the nearest town's newspaper ( Spartanburg? ) for the dates when your father took BT.

We had a little mishap during a field problem in Eastern Washington where a soldier was left in the impact area after everyone was to be removed so the big guns could live fire. He somehow managed to survive without being hurt but the local Yakima newspaper had quite a write-up on it.
Our platoon leader was replaced and the Private was promoted to Spec.4 and transferred someplace.