Day 53). (before milk).

[Pages:1]I

i

By VANCE H. MARCHBANKS

Captain, Retired

IT WAS on March 7, 1899--just about 46 years ago--that I first arrived at Fort

Huachuca. I had re-enlisted in Nashville, Tenn., on the Ist day of March for Cavalry, unassigned, with the hope of being sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to join Troop

"H," 9th Cavalry, but the A.G.O. advised the R.O. that there was no vacancy in Troop "H," but that there were vacancies in the 9th Cavalry stationed at Fort Huachuca. I was, therefore, drafted to

come out here somewhat against my will.

There Is nothing here that resembles old Fort Huachuca except the everlasting hills, scrub evergreen oaks, and the pestle holes in the rocks behind the warehouse west of the Apache Sentinel Office where the Indians pounded acorns into meal to make puddings perhaps a thousand years

ago.

There were two or three buildings south of the old Post Library and none north of

the Finance Office. The Post Exchange

was located in an old adobe building standing in the woods, where now stands

the beautiful stone quarters occupied by Colonel Bousfield ' and Lieut. Colonel Thatcher. There were no swimming pools, tennis courts, and not even a baseball field on the Post in these days. No electric lights, no automobiles, no radios. The nearest railroad and telegraph station was at Huachuca Siding, seven miles north of the Post, which was a branch line and connected with the train line of the S. P. railroad at Benson.

There was one train daily which arrived about 9:00 a. m. This train brought mail, rations and supplies for the troops stationed here. The train was met by a Doughtery Wagcn which was a stout spring wagon, a sort of a "drag and four," resembling the old stage coach that we see in the movies. It was drawn by four mules and could carry as many as ten passengers. An escort wagon would also meet the train to haul the freight and baggage, which was also drawn by four mules, and if the Doughtery wagon was over crowded with passengers, the escort

wagcn would haul the over-flow.

When I arrived on this Post in company with seven other recruits, we all rode up

from the siding in the Doughtery wagon. There were also two Mexican girl passengers, making a total of eleven including the driver. As I remember, the girls were small and good looking, and they both sat on the front seat with the driver; he put them off at the Chinese restaurant which

THE APACHE SENTINEL

was located just west of the Commissary,

where Mar Kim now lives. And then we

(the recruits) were taken to Post Head-

quarters which was then located on the

Officers' Line where Lt. Colonel Giles

and Major Teabeau now live (Qtrs. No.

53). The Post Amusement Hall was the

building where the Lakeside Officers'

Barber Shop and Beauty Parlor is now

located. The adobe building consisting of

three or four apartments across the street

from the swimming pool was then known

as the Civilian Employees' Quarters. The

Post Plumber, Post Carpenter, Post Black-

smith,and Post Painter lived in this build-

ing. At that time there were Post non-

commissioned Staff Officers consisting of

Post Commissary, Post Quartermaster, and

Post Ordnance Ser-

geants. These non-coms

ran their departments

in those days. Line of-

*

*

ficers from some of the

organizations on the

post were detailed as

Commissary, Quarter-

master, and Ordnance

Officers to sign papers,

and that is about all

they had to do because the Post non-com staff

had to pass a rigid examination to be appointed. They were also required to have ten

years in the service, and consequently were very

efficient in their line. They were allowed separate querters and lived

in the three adobe quarters south of the Civilian

Quarters No. 37. The Post Ice Plant

and Saw Mill was located just across the street from the Colonel Young School where the NonCom Officers' Club now stands; this was in the woods too. There were board side-

walks in front of the line of barracks and

also on the Officers' Line. There were also high board fences in the back of the

Officers' Line, and stables for the officers' cows and horses where there are now

garages.

When I first arrived on this Post, "A"

and "H" Cos. of the 25th Infantry and

Troops K, L, and M of the 9th Cavalry

were stationed here. At Lt. Colonel Dag-

gett cf the 25th Infantry was Commanding Officer. I remember him well because in April or May, 1899, he was ordered to the-

Philippine Islands and he had his horse

shot. I thought that was such a cruel thing

to do, but he thought so much of the

horse that he would rather have him de-

stroyed than to fall into the hands of semeone who might mistreat him. Nearly all of the officers kept a milk cow in those

days. This was BCM (before canned milk).

They tell a story about a 25th Infantry

soldier

it seems that this soldier was

orderly for the Commanding Officer. In those days at Guard Mount, which was

always formal, the neatest appearing soldier was selected as orderly for the Com-

manding Officer. He could stay at his

quarters at night, but during the day he

would accompany the Commanding Officer

about the Post. When the C.O. was in his

quarters, the orderly

would walk up and down

in front of the quarters,

or sometimes sit on the

front porch. He would, of course, do whatever

he was ordered to do.

On this particular occa-

sion, the C.O. staked his

milch cow on the front

lawn to eat the grass,

this was even before

lawn-mowers, and the

orderly was directed to

mind the cow while she

mowed the grass and to

not permit anyone to

walk across the lawn except the cow. One of

the other officer's wives

happened to be calling

at the C.O.'s Quarters,

and upon leaving she

started to cut across the

lawn; the orderly stop-

ped her, saying, "Lady,

you can't cut across the

Colonel's lawn--you must keen to the walk --it's the Colonel's orders." Whereupon the

lady, who was a new arrival on the Post,

became very indignam, placed her hands

on her hips and said, "Do you know who I am, soldier?" The orderly replied, "No,

ma'am, I don't know your name, but I do

know you ain't the Colonel's cow."

During the early days of Fort Huachuca,

there was a babbling brook that had its

source in Huachuca Canyon and ran north

through the Post. It was clear and cool the

whole year 'round. It disappeared in 192829, when the water wizards began setting off blasts of dynamite, trying to get a larger flow; they cracked the bedrock,

and the entire stream went below. We al-

ways got the bulk of our supply from Garden Canyon, nine miles southeast, until the wells were sunk down near Fry

Gate.

There were no moving pictures in the early days, and the only amusement the soldiers had on the Post, they created themselves. We usually had Saturday night dances; and out near Fry there was

a resort which had about everything a soldier seeks when he goes on pass. Game was plentiful and hunting was good. There

was a silver mine being worked then out near Pyatt's Ranch, about nine miles

west of the Post, and many civilians passed through the Post going and coming

from the mine.

I left the Post in May, 1899, but we had a little target .practice before we left with Troop' L, 9th Cavalry. The target butts were located about 100 yards northeast of where the PX Cafeteria now stands near Knoxville. Shortly after this we went on a trip to Fort Brown at Brownsville, Texas, which was then 160 miles from the railroad, except for a short line running from

Brownsville to Point Isabella.

After staying away from the Post thirteen years, I returned with the 10th Cavalry in December, 1913. This regiment had been stationed at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, for four years before coming down

here where it was to be stationed for eighteen years. Actually boys who had been born in the Regiment were reared here, grew up and enlisted in the Regiment during" the time it was stationed here. I know of many boys now in the

service who were partly reared here at Fort Huachuca, among them is my own

son, Major Vance H. Marchbanks, Jr., now with the 332nd Fighter Group Air Corps somewhere in Italy. Lt. Jack Harner, Jr., Leslie, King, Jr., "Giggs" Thomas, Lt. Booker Carter, son of the late Chaplain, Colonel Louis A. Carter, whose widow, Mrs. M. N. Carter, is Hostess at Guest House No. 1 in the New Cantonment. Lt. William Melton of the 99th Pursuit Sqr., and he has a younger brother also, and Ross Anderson, son of Mrs. Gantt (who is employed at the Civilian Personnel). Master Sgt. McLurkin, retired, has three sons in the service who were reared here, and besides those to whom I have referred there are many sons of officers, civilian employees, and enlisted men cf the 13th Cavalry and Twenty-fifth Infantry whom I do not knew by name, but who are now in the service of their country. Huachuca has not only been a training center for soldiers, it has been a sort of incubator for them over a period of many years.

iIL

;?:

.jfflfflPjTMTM?!""!

jSBBm mm

SHHHHHHHP&;:'.- JHHHBHHHHK

C. M. PETTIBONE

A LETTER from ? Claude M. Pettibone to the Apache Sentinel office brought to our attention the fact that he had served at the Fort away back in 1901 and a subsequent meeting with the retired sergeant brought to light interesting facts about the Fort in those days of nearly half a century ago.

Sgt. Pettibone was a duty sergeant with the 14th Cavalry during the Philippine Insurrection, -and when that was quelled, his outfit was stationed here for several years.

The sergeant resided in the building now known as Post Headquarters. He recalls the trip to Benson as a day and night jaunt on horseback and remembers that when he suffered a bad toothache one day, he repaired to the Army surgeon stationed there and was told by the young doctor, "I haven't even got a pair of pliers to pull your tooth with."

Sgt. Pettibone's chief assignment at Fort Huachuca was teaching school to the Fort's illiterates. There was no gradation into classes, and students from five to fifty years of age comprised the sergeant's pupils. Some of the sergeant's

problems in teaching school here are re-

ported in the Army and Navy Journal of January 7, 1903, and will certainly make interesting reading for the present teach-

ers on the Post who have a school room, books and even blackboards for the use cf their pupils.

In Sergeant Pettibone's soldiering days at Fort Huachuca, the boundary of the Fort was somewhere near the stone building by the band barracks on the Old Post. That building was used as a hospital. The officer, then Capt. Charles M. O'Connor, who commanded his regiment, is now known as Brigadier General O'Connor. The corramnder of the Colorado, Arizona and Texas Military District was Major General Arthur MacArthur, father of General Douglas MacArthur, and was a frequent visitor at Fort Huachuca.

Sgt. Pettibone spent his twenty-third and twenty-fourth birthdays at Huachuca, returning to civilian life during the latter part of 1903, from the Fort. He celebrated his sixty-sixth birthday on February 26, in Tucson, Arizona.

He has spent most of his later life in

Seattle, Washington, becoming an influential official of the Coolidge Steamship Lines and their affiliates in transporta-

tion. He retired in December, 1941, ajnd is

taking his ease among scenes of his ear-

lier adventures.

His experiences at Fort Huachuca are some of the most memorable ones of his life and his visit here in early February, brought him a great deal of pleasure.

Still strong and full of vitality, he has been organizer and founder of the Fortson-Thygsen Chapter of the American Legion and was for many years head of the Seattle District.

His youngest son serves in the Army, "somewhere in the Southwest Pacific."

jBHM:

Jr|j|-

J. H. GAILLARD

A SOLDIER most of his life, S/Sgt. Joseph H. Gaillard at 52 years of age is as tough as he might have beeri in 1915 when he joined the Army. On the first assignment he had, he "captured a German light cruiser," the Gregg, although he was an infantryman. ? It happened when he was stationed in Honolulu in 1917. The ship, out of food and supplies, chose to land at the island where Sgt. Gaillard was corporal of the guard.

Readying all shore defenses, the then

corporal took over the vessel and marched

its complement of officers and men to Schofield barracks, 26 miles away, after seeing to it that the ship was impounded. Contrary to logic as it may seem, Japanese seamen led the doomed Gregg into the Yank trap. Japan was our ally in

World War I.

Not many medals since then have been claimed by the sergeant. He is loathe to talk about himself. Much talk, however,

he expends about the exploits of his

buddies in service. He calls them "soldiers," which to him

means "angels." On asking what recompense a soldier received for soldiering in the older days of the Fort when there were no promotions, no medals being bestowed, Sgt. Gaillard answered that the recompense was "in each man's heart."

"To be a good soldier," said he, "was enough. We had pride in our outfits; we had pride in ourselves; we had pride in belonging to the Army."

Sgt. Gaillard, known affectionately as "Geech," is a judo artist. He was taught to kill with his hands by Japs in far-off places. "Geech" now offers to fight the most robust man in the company, but nobody takes him up on the challenge because of his toughness.

In demonstrating to new students, he butts stucco walls, tearing holes in the stucco. He strikes steel lockers with his fists, denting the lockers.

"Geech" is rated an expert in every weapon the Infantry uses. He rates with the best in rifle marksmanship. During the last range' session of the Post Hq. Det.,

he served as 'a cadreman on the range.

Most of his pupils, although unused to the weapon which they were called upon to fire, qualified, through his tutoring. A certificate in his locker testifies to his

expertness.

But it is not in the field of fighting that Sgt. Gaillard is included in the lists of Fort Huachuca's "greats." He has been a musician (a clarinetist) for many years. He played in the 25th Infantry band when that band was rated by John Phillip Sousa as one of the best Army bands in the country.

He recalls that its director, first M/Sgt., then Lieutenant King, was its leader. He bestows upon band leader King the title of "gentleman," which to him means much. An admirer too of S/Sgt. C. A.

Andrews, who leads the Post Miilitary

band at present, Sgt. Gaillard states that Sgt. Andrews is one of the best military band conductors in the Army, barring none.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download