The Kennesaw State University Department of Museums, Archives and Rare Books (MARB) presents exhibitions, public programs, collections, and educational services supporting KSU’s mission and encouraging dialogue about the past and its significance today. The Museum of History and Holocaust Education, as a unit of MARB, has developed a series of online modules, including this one, for university students to explore pivotal moments from the history of World War II and the Holocaust.
This online unit covers the training methods, locations, and stories of American soldiers during World War II. Relying on diverse primary and secondary materials, the unit gives a brief glimpse into the unique experiences of World War II trainees, from their recruitment to their first steps into battle. Read on to find out more about the making of the American soldier.
Essential Questions:
Using the primary source material and content in this online unit, respond to the three essential questions found below. In your responses, include evidence from the content in this online unit. Please refer to the directions provided by your instructor on submitting your responses to these essential questions as well as to the questions posed throughout this unit.
1) Why do you believe the efforts to recruit American soldiers were so effective? What were the contributing factors to the success of recruitment and eventually an Allied victory?
2) How did the soldiers’ training and deployment experiences appear to hold up against their expectations? What were the differences?
3) To what degree do you believe the training measures taken to create the “American soldier” were appropriate? In what ways did they fall short of the expectations of war?
Image: "Marine Pfc. Douglas Lightheart (right) cradles his 30-cal. machine gun" Courtesy National Archives
At the forefront of the 1940s, America was thrust into the largest and deadliest war in world history, World War II. Such a conflict demanded the United States have an excellent military in order to stand a fighting chance. However, the American military prior to 1940 contained fewer than half a million soldiers in total. Understanding the gravity of the situation, the U.S. government invested significant funds and resources into creating a powerful military. Through a variety of recruitment and training techniques, the American soldier of World War II was born.
Image: "San Mateo, California. Cadets get instruction in the use of hand tools at the United States Merchant Marine cadet basic school." Courtesy Library of Congress
WE WANT YOU! RECRUITING THE MEN OF AMERICA
In 1940, the United States implemented its first peacetime draft with the passage of the Selective Training and Service Act in response to America’s impending entry into World War II. This legislation required all men ages 21-35 to register for the draft. Before passage, the United States Army had only 174,000 soldiers. The draft and rapid voluntary enlistment caused this number to spike to over 8 million people in the Army at the war’s peak.
Image: "Ready--Join U.S. Marines / Sundblom." Courtesy Library of Congress
Thirty-nine percent of new soldiers volunteered, with the balance being drafted. Many new recruits enlisted following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack prompted the country to enter into the war, igniting patriotism and outrage amongst Americans.
Sydney Phillips of Mobile, Alabama, made the decision to join the Navy with a friend upon learning of the attack. He recounts his trip to the recruitment office, at which men were lined up for over a hundred yards. “We thought we were going to be the early birds,” Phillips remembered ("Training the American GI," The National World War II Museum New Orleans). This widespread enthusiasm was commonplace for new recruits, especially at the beginning of the war. American propaganda further fueled the flames of military recruitment.
Discussion Questions:
- What role do you believe the attack on Pearl Harbor played on recruitment in the early part of the war?
- Do you believe the success of the American military depended upon the draft? Would the outcome of the war have looked any different if no soldiers had been conscripted?
Image: "Calvin Graham – The Youngest Recruit" Courtesy https://visitpearlharbor.org/
Propaganda played a major role in recruiting all kinds of Americans to the war effort, especially when it came to enlisting soldiers. The Office of War Information allotted resources toward informative, inspirational posters and videos encouraging military enlistment.
The Uncle Sam poster shown here, along with its many varying recreations, is perhaps the most iconic World War II recruitment poster. Originally created in World War I, the image was so compelling and effective that its creator, James Montgomery Flagg, reused the design with minimal changes during the second World War. The design was inspired by a similar 1914 British concept.
Discussion Question:
- What sort of techniques does this poster utilize in order to appeal to young men in America?
Image: "Uncle Sam recruitment poster, 1942." Courtesy National World War II Museum
The U.S Army Air Corps Recruiting film “Attention Young Men” was shown before feature films in movie theaters across America and was one of the many means utilized to reach potential soldiers. Movie theaters and other businesses in the U.S. worked with the military to promote recruitment and make it as easy and available as possible.
Discussion Questions:
- What methods does this video implement to entice men to the war effort?
- How effective do you believe this appeal was?
Image: "b-24 Liberator Archives." Courtesy ww2research.com
Recruitment efforts were highly successful, and they remained fruitful throughout the war. According to the National Archives’ Army Enlistment Records, Army enlistment during the war reached its highest rate in 1942. Below is a breakdown of the participation statistics for each of the 4 active military branches during the war.*
Discussion Questions:
- What can you infer from these statistics about the success of recruitment and the draft?
- Why do you believe the numbers changed the way they did? Do they follow a pattern? What were the reasons for the changes?
Image: "U.S. Army Recruiting Station." Courtesy www.atomicheritage.org
There were four classes in which one could be placed upon being drafted or enlisting in the military, as well as numerous subcategories within each class. These classes dictated whether one could actively serve, in which roles, and outlined any restrictions.
- Class I- Acceptable for military service (in some capacity)
- Class II- Deferred because of Occupation
- Class III- Deferred because of Dependence
- Class IV- Unacceptable for military service
Those who were considered unfit for the front lines had opportunities to work in other roles such as maintenance, technology, research, and intelligence.
In order to be considered acceptable for service without restrictions, recruits had to pass both a thorough physical examination and a fitness test. If they were approved for service, the men were subjected to more rigorous fitness testing at basic training to ensure they were prepared for the battlefield.
Image: "Physical Check of Enlistees." Courtesy National Archives
"It was true we were all volunteers and all of them were young men—18, 19 years old—and all of them wanted to prove that they were men and that they were part of the best and that they were the best. That was true. We were." - T. Moffatt Burris, 504th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division
The Transformation
“I was eighteen. I was real young. I had been away to college for about, I don’t know, seven months before I was drafted, and coming into an environment where all these adult men were different walks of life. You didn’t know who what or where. And for the first one or two nights you were just scared to death until you become accustomed to the environment that you are around. And I ... I actually cried the first night, because I was scared, you know. Strangers. I never saw any of those guys in my life and all walks of life, all sizes and all shapes. Lonely for your parents, your home, your friends. No one in the barracks that I knew. And so it was just an eerie feeling to be in that situation.”- Walter Thompson, PBS
Image: "New recruits move in." Courtesy National Archives
The massive influx of new recruits demanded new facilities and an abundance of training before they were ready for battle. Training camps popped up all over the country. Buildings and large plots of land were often repurposed for military use and often served multiple purposes.
Where new recruits were sent depended on the military branch to which they belonged. The Marines trained in San Diego and Parris Island, South Carolina, while the Coast Guard endured basic training in Government Island at Alameda, California, at Curtis Bay, Maryland, and in St. Augustine, Florida. The Navy operated primarily out of Norfolk, VA, San Diego, and a few other locations. The Army as the largest branch operated an incredible 118 training centers across the United States.
Watch the training video "After the Cut":
Discussion Questions:
- What does this training video appear to be attempting to show new recruits?
- Do you think the cartoon style of this video enhanced or hindered the message of this video?
Image: "US Navy recruits at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, on October 9, 1942." Courtesy National Archives
“Basic training often started with newcomers exiting a bus with their cheap suitcases and filing into the barracks for breakfast with a serenade of ‘You’ll be sorreee!’ from every Marine not in formation that they passed,” Eugene Sledge, from the book "With the Old Breed"
Basic training, better known as “boot camp,” was required of every branch of the military. Upon arrival, recruits were given uniforms, assigned serial numbers, and their heads were shaved. Structure and compliance became the norm. William G. Dabney of Virginia recalls the experience: “It was a little scary at first… The main thing was to obey orders … as long as you did that you’d get along.”
Basic training was intended to give soldiers the foundational skills that they would carry with them into more specialized training and onto the battlefield. The new recruits spent nearly every moment of the rigorous training together, which promoted a strong sense of kinship within units.
Discussion Questions:
- How do you believe this stricture affected the morale and mentality of the new recruits?
- For many, this haggling and criticism was considered integral to the training progress. Do you believe soldiers performed well because of the aggressively collective mentality or in spite of it?
- What sort of attitude toward training is depicted in this video?
Image: "San Mateo, California. Tying knots is part of training at United States Merchant Marine Cadet Basic school." Courtesy Library of Congress
“We got to MacArthur and we got to be cursed out all the time. ‘You bastards, move those things over there.’ And so on. The first thing I was assigned to do was to work in a uniform warehouse carrying big bundles of overcoats around and so on. And being harangued and brutalized by a cruel sergeant. The main thing it did was to show me what I really was underneath.” – Paul Fussell, PBS
To prepare prepare new soldiers in the shortest amount of time possible, the Army introduced a fitness program and test in 1942. It was designed to ensure that American soldiers were properly prepared for combat using a systematic physical development program.
The test, called the “Army Ground Forces Test,” was implemented to assess how successful the new training program was. The Army Ground Forces Test assessed the training program's success in improving soldiers' mobility, strength, and battlefield readiness.
Image: "Nobody ever said it was going to be easy." Courtesy National Archives
“Growing up is a series of tests, inevitably, motivated partly by curiosity, about what it’s like to do things that grownups do that you’ve never done before. And partly, a series of tests of your readiness to be an adult, I think. That you, by passing the tests, you earn admission to this class of people that you think all know what they’re doing and are adults.”- Sam Hynes, PBS
Training Camp Spotlight: Camp Howze, TX
This infantry training camp, spanning 59,000 acres of Cooke County, TX, was named for decorated war veteran Major Robert E. Lee Howze. The base was activated shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack. Camp Howze trained hundreds of thousands of soldiers over the course of the war.
By the end of the war, Camp Howze doubled as both a training facility and a POW camp for captured German soldiers. A former trainee recounts how demoralizing it was seeing German soldiers playing games while his unit endured grueling training: “The war was over for them, but it hadn’t even started for us.”
After the war was over, Camp Howze was deactivated and its materials sold as scrap.
Discussion Questions:
- What are your thoughts on the dual nature of this camp?
- Why might the military have used Camp Howze as a POW camp?
Image: "Bridge Building at Camp Howze, Texas." Courtesy The Will Beauchamp Collection
Training Camp Spotlight: Camp Kearns, UT
This training camp was originally created as an Overseas Replacement Training Center, eventually evolving into a Replacement Depot in the city of Kearns.
Its arid location proved challenging for trainees. Sand storms covered soldiers and their belongings in thick layers of dust, sometimes resulting in health issues for the soldiers. The dust seeped into barracks and sometimes scraped off skin during training, leading to wounds and infections.
Upon its closure, Kearns was reconfigured into a rural community. Its first residents arrived in 1949.
Discussion Questions:
- Consider the conditions at Camp Kearns. Why might that location have been selected? What might be done differently today?
- How does the featured image compliment or contradict what you know about Camp Kearns?
Image: "Main Gate to the Army Air Base Kearns, Utah." Courtesy campkearnsutah.weebly.com/
Bill Lansford volunteered for Carlson’s Raiders, a Marine commando unit specially trained for guerilla warfare, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Below he recounts his training experience in a PBS interview:
“The training was very difficult. [The drill instructor] started us by walking because he knew we were going to have to walk or run wherever we went. And in the mornings before breakfast we might go for a 10-mile hike. Eventually a 20-mile hike. And they would give you maybe raw food and you had to learn how to cook it. Once a week we would have to go out and hunt our food or else we would go hungry. He concentrated on anything that was close combat like knife-fighting, fighting without any weapons and he armed us with automatic weapons, so that every squad had the fire power of potentially of a section or a platoon in an ordinary Marine unit.”
Soldiers had to be prepared for anything and were trained in various styles of combat as well as in basic survival skills such as hunting and first aid. While weapons training was a major part of the curriculum, a significant portion focused on man-to-man combat. Soldiers never knew quite what they would be faced with on the battlefield. It was vital to learn how to bring enemies down without weapons.
Watch the weapons training video "Rifle US Cal .30 M1: Principles of Operation".
Image: "Recruits train in man-to-man combat." Courtesy National Archives
Take a peek inside the daily life of a U.S. Army trainee. Follow Private Harold Grove Moss as he tells the story of basic training and beyond in this series of letters home. Moss was a soldier in the United States Army in World War II. His letters cover his journey from his first steps off the bus to training camp in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to his return from Okinawa. Review some of the transcribed highlights about his time in the training facility in the October 9th, 1941 letter below.
If you would like to continue learning about Harold Grove Moss, the full collection of letters can be found here:
Discussion Questions:
- After reading this and other Moss letters, what do Moss’s expectations appear to be upon arrival and in these early days of his training? How does he convey his thoughts and concerns to his family?
- Does Moss seem shocked by any of his interactions? Do you believe his experience was typical of a World War II trainee?
Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire
Basic training was a transformative experience for soldiers, but training did not end there. Once soldiers completed “boot camp,” they went to a new location for specialized training within their branch of the military. Soldiers were rarely deployed overseas after completing basic training. For the war effort, soldiers must be well trained in both military basics and in specific roles.
Image: "Ordinancemen loading belted cartridges into SBD-3." Courtesy National Archives
“Soon as we were with this unit — it was a combat unit — and the whole perspective of the Army changed completely. I mean, you were getting ready to go to war, which had not been the case before this. And, almost everyone felt the same. They trained and trained and trained. This unit had trained almost two years before we got there even. So these people were tired of training and wanted to use what they’d been doing. And I think we who came in from school sort of caught this fervor, and we also felt that this was an experience. This was going to be a major experience of everyone’s life. And the more of it that you could handle, the more enriching and the more exciting and the greater stories you’d have to tell.”- Sam Hynes, PBS
While all U.S. soldiers underwent extensive training, they were never sure quite what they would encounter when faced with the real war. The military training could not simulate every situation. Research conducted by U.S. Army Brigadier General S.L.A Marshall found that only 15-20% of American soldiers fired their weapons in conflict. Despite the assumption that U.S. soldiers would be able to kill when it became necessary, the research showed that 80% never used their weapons in combat.
Discussion Questions:
- Do you believe the widespread inability to engage enemies with weapons was due to a failure in training or a human predisposition?
- Note the soldiers’ quotes. How do they appear to have felt about moving from training onto the battlefield?
Image: "Camp Lejeune, New River, North Carolina. Target practice by engineers of the 51st Composite Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps." Courtesy Library of Congress
“That’s one thing that everybody worries about. They may be so afraid that they can’t do their job. But the way the Marine Corps trains you, they trained you to do the job regardless of how afraid you are. Everybody’s afraid. And the ones that’s not afraid, they get killed.” -Ray Pittman, PBS
Spotlight: The Tuskegee Airmen
Until 1941, the military did not allow African American soldiers to learn to fly. The Tuskegee Airmen began as an experiment at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama primarily as a political maneuver by President Franklin Roosevelt. In response to an opponent’s promise to desegregate the military, Roosevelt allowed a flight school for African Americans to be opened in Tuskegee, Alabama.
The squadron was officially established March 19, 1941. To christen the unit, C. Alfred “Chief” Anderson took First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt up in his plane.
Many officials in the military expected the Tuskegee Flight School to fail. In spite of low expectations, the Tuskegee Airmen became a vital element of the eventual Allied victory.
Image: "Tuskegee airmen playing cards in the officers' club in the evening." Courtesy Library of Congress
Thirteen cadets joined the first class of Tuskegee pilots, however, only five cadets graduated the next year. Regardless of their small beginnings, the unit quickly expanded to include a number of other squadrons. By the end of the war, the program had graduated 992 pilots. A majority participated in the war effort accompanying and defending bombers. The Tuskegee Airmen were responsible for destroying over 260 Axis planes.
The movie Red Tails follows the Tuskeegee pilots through their time in World War II. Watch the scene "We Fight" below:
Discussion Questions:
- How do you believe the success of this unit might have influenced racism in the United States?
- How do you think the Tuskegee airmen’s experience, both in training and in battle, differed from the experiences of white trainees?
Image. "Photograph of Tuskegee airmen attending a briefing in Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945." Courtesy Library of Congress
Concluding Research Assignment:
Using the information you have learned in this unit, use the series of Moss letters linked below to take a deeper look into the early military career of Harold Moss. Take note of the ways in which he describes his facilities, training exercises, and campmates. Choose two or more early letters from his time at basic training and write an essay comparing them to two or more letters from his time overseas. How did his training contribute to his time in active combat? What about his training, his attitude, or his experience could be considered uniquely “American?” Feel free to incorporate other sources into your essay.
Image. Portrait of Harold Moss in Uniform, 1942. Courtesy mossletters.com
This digital lesson was curated and designed by Rachel Locke from Christopher Newport University in collaboration with staff from the Museum of History and Holocaust Education at Kennesaw State University.