Designated first as an Overseas Replacement Training Center and later as a Replacement Depot, Overseas Replacement Depot No. 2 at Kearns, Utah was an outgrowth of Basic Training Center No. 5.

  The facilities at the Center, which had been operated by the Training Command of the Army Air Forces from July 20, 1942, were turned over to the Second Air Force on October 1, 1943. However, the Training Command maintained a transitional Overseas Replacement Training Center as a separate installation at Kearns. The Overseas Replacement Training Center (ORTC) was placed under jurisdiction of the Second Air Force for post administration, but remained under the Army Air Forces Western Technical Training Command for all other administration and training.

  Much of the personnel, both officers and enlisted men, which had aided in the operation of Basic Training Center No. 5, were transferred to the new Overseas Replacement Training Center.

Strength

  Authorized strength of the Overseas Center was 100 officers and 1401 enlisted men. After seven organizations were reduced to one officer and one enlisted man each the Overseas Centers was made up of a headquarters squadron, a guard squadron, and Air Forces band, two training wings and an Ordnance detachment. Each training wing was set up to include a headquarters detachment, mess squadron and four training groups.

  The entire Overseas Replacement Training Center was housed in eight blocks. Headquarters of the Center was established in a building once used by the Corps of Engineers as an office during the construction period of the Basic Training Center No. 5. Many of the departmental offices were established in barracks buildings that had been used as offices when the basic training center was in its infancy.

Mission

  Receiving personnel from all major continental Air Force Commands, it was the mission of the replacement depot to process and physically condition and harden men for duty in combat zones. To accomplish the mission a high standard of military courtesy and discipline was required.

  On September 12 the base held its first formal review for the new commander. Colonel Leo F. Post was the first commander of Kearns and was here only long enough to open the base on July 17, 1942 and make sure things were going good. The base was officially dedicated on July 21, 1942. On September 12, 1942 the base held it first official review two days later Colonel Post was transferred to another location, turning the base officially over to Colonel John W. Monahan. By the end of September Colonel Converse R. Lewis took over the command and Colonel Monahan left for another destination. Kearns was only one of six temporary bases built during W.W.II of its kind, it was the first to open and the last to close.

  After Kearns was established and fully operational soldiers began to embark on Kearns, sent mostly as individuals who required specialized training and basic training. By now the Rio Grande Train spurs were going through Kearns. During the A.M. hours on the hour trains full of no less than 280 men per car filled to capacity with limited amount of standing room only. On the half-hour a train load of men would leave the same way as what a train came in. Somewhere during mid morning a train hauling building supplies, and food would pull in unload and reload with men. From September through November the last two trains of the day were referred to as special trains.

  Half as long as the other trains one of them were full of enlisted orphan boy’s being sent to Kearns for either basic training or specialized training while here some were selected for other wings and or squadrons.

  After the American government determined that the costal American Japanese people were a threat to the safety of this county those trains also passed through Kearns full of American Japanese people who were now heading for internment camps with only the cloths on their backs. As these trains entered Kearns, the people were taken from the trains in single file with armed guards watching. They were given food and allowed to walk around in a fenced area. The younger male’s between the age’s of 17-20 years old were given the opportunity to work, since Kearns at this time was still under construction. After the work had been completed they were then sent off to join their families. They remained there until the development of the 442 Unit the only American Japanese unit during WWII.

  POW’s were also sent to Kearns to work on the base, these people were mainly used in the kitchen duty and ground keeping, but they too were always under the watchful eye of guards. The POW’s that were allowed to come to the states were those who had helped the Americans and wanted to become US Citizens. There were 12 such soldiers that came to Kearns, and who received their citizenships while at Kearns. They were of no trouble mainly because they knew they would return to the country and be placed in POW camps there.

  One of the first troop trains that made it to Kearns was full of 210 men enlisted “Limited Service.” They had all had basic training at St Petersburg Florida, now being shipped out to the temporary bases to help open them up and make sure things ran true to form. They all had some form of a disability or slight birth defects, making them ineligible for combat duty, but a necessity stateside. They came to Kearns the Sunday before Thanksgiving Nov. 1942. These soldiers were used in the Post Office, Banks, and shops being placed in the quartermasters unit.

  Conditions in the early days were rugged. It was dusty, desert land aggravated by puffing steam shovels, road plows and thousands of trucks. Dust flew about thickly, covering soldiers from head to foot with grim and grit. It filtered into barracks and rolled around in the bottom of mess kits.

  Each barracks had three strategically placed potbellied stoves mounted in a box of sand. Soft black coal from Price Utah was the usual fuel for the stoves. This was very poor quality soft coal that turned to “clinkers” in a matter of hours. To keep the stoves working it was necessary to let them die down and cool for the “clinker” could be removed. Inside the tarpaper barracks were two rolls of beds. Above every other bed there was a large window that was improperly sealed. They opened downward and inside form the top. The wind blew sand that would filter through the windows on to the beds and through the clothing. When it rained the floors soon turned to mud. When it snowed at night the soldiers always awoke with red snow piled on them. The latrines and showers were combined, and were rather large equipped to accommodate up to half a block of men. This meant that there were nine to six hundred men that all wanted showers the same time as you did. Each latrine had only fifteen shower stalls, by the time the men had finished with their showers those in waiting had the ultimate pleasure of a steam bath first.

  It’s impossible to have a proper count of the amount of men that was sent to Kearns. Few today remember going to Kearns, only that they were sent some place in Utah for a few days and never knew the name of the place. The wind blew all the time, there was thick black smoke that filtered through the air if the wind didn’t blow. With all the dust and smoke they were glad to be getting out of the area. A statement that is often made from those that were in transition to the war was the following -

”I don’t know what the name of the place was called for sure, don’t think I ever was told the name. I stopped off for a day or two on the train, waiting for the rest of a group to come in and from there I was shipped out to San Francisco.”