Camp Atterbury

My first duty assignment as an officer was at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, some 20 to 30 miles south of Indianapolis. It was a training camp for newly drafted soldiers and some National Guard units called up for the Korean conflict.

My duties included teaching some classes, military courtesy and other non-technical information required in basic training. But as the newest officer in the battery, I got all the unwanted duty, such as mess officer.

That wasn’t so bad but older officers didn’t like it because it entailed daily inspections (some times early in the morning) and other boring work. One day, the first cook told me he found evidence of a mouse in the mess hall so I told him I would handle it.

I got out the phone book and found just what I needed, the post exterminator. I called and they said they would take care of it. Three days later a pickup truck with three men backed up to the kitchen. Two got out (I assume the driver felt compelled to stay with his vehicle). One carried a mouse trap and the other a piece of cheese. They deposited their cargo without a word, got back into the pickup and drove away.

My turn as weekend duty officer seemed to come up quite often also, but the new man doesn’t question orders. This duty, again, was not so bad. You just had to be available during your weekend in case of an emergency in the battery area.

On my first duty weekend I stopped in at the enlisted men’s day room on Saturday night to see how things were going (part of my responsibility). They were having a party and invited me to have drink with them.

I said no thanks because I was on duty but it didn’t take much persuasion to have just one. An hour or so later (and a good deal more than one drink) I made it back to my BOQ It was morning before I woke up with a hangover and the realization that had an emergency arose, I may not have been able to handle it. Fortunately the night passed without incident and I avoided a situation that might have called for a court-martial. My relationship with the enlisted men in the battery was quite good after that, however.