When the Second Air Force assumed jurisdiction of the station on October 1, 1943, the function of the Training Command installation, which was to remain at Kearns temporarily, became the training of the overseas replacements. While an Overseas Replacement Training Center had been in operation during the Basic Training Center days, the training program of the organization was, more or less, a refresher course of basic training. It obviously would not meet the new requirements. There were not enough subjects to physically harden and mentally prepare men to the degree needed for combat duties.

Devising two new schedules of training, one for officers and the other for enlisted men, was the greatest problem which confronted the Plans and Training Department in the first weeks of operation as an Overseas Replacement Training Center. Many of the officers and key administrative personnel both enlisted and civilians had been transferred to the Second Air Force or to other stations in the Training Command. The task of mapping the new training schedules, applicable for training overseas replacements rested with only a few experienced officers and enlisted men.

However, the problem was met by conducting the training on a day-by-day basis and a trial and error method. Few directives were available on the required training for overseas replacements in early October and it was necessary for a great deal of research to be done before a formal schedule could be set up.

Nearly a month passed before the first schedule was completed on October 28. It was designed for enlisted men and provided for twenty-four days of training. The first two days of the program were devoted to processing. That phase of the Overseas Replacement Training Center‘s function will be treated in another chapter. In the remaining forty-six days a rigid physically hardening program was provided.

After setting up a training schedule for enlisted men, another problem confronted the Plans and Training department. Although the station covered more than 3 1/2 square miles in area, additional space was needed to carry on the new training. Two bivouac areas had to be found one for twenty-mile hikes and the second for overnight camps. After a short delay a suitable area was secured in a mountain canyon for the 20-mile hikes. An area within the station, station formerly used for temporally housing casual troops sent to Kearns for small arms training was converted into an overnight bivouac area. Since the primary mission o f the new Overseas Replacement Center was to physically harden men for combat duty, 86% of the program was conducted out of doors. The War Department and Army Air Forces requirements were 80%.

Firing of small arms, hikes, marches, and calisthenics were the tree most important subjects in the program. Marksmanship and actual firing of pieces on a 600-target rifle range were combined under the first schedule. Sixteen hours were devoted to instructions on the proper method of sighting and aiming and the nomenclature of the various pieces. Two and half-hours of allotted to firing the .22 caliber rifle and the .45 caliber the Thompson sub-machine gun and 16 hours to the .30 caliber carbine. Twenty rounds were fired with the .22 rifle, 25 rounds with the sub-machine gun and 120 rounds with the carbine.

Hikes and marches consumed 34 hours of the 189-hour schedule. On all such maneuvers conditions as near actual combat as possible were simulated. Where time permitted other phases of training were carried out during mid-day halts.

The original schedule set up a physical training course of 32 hours of supervised calisthenics and men were encouraged to participate in athletic games during off duty hours. The remainder of the schedule was devoted to refresher coursed in bayonet and grenade, chemical warfare, camouflage, entrenching methods, pack making, first aid. Field sanitation, Map reading, scouting and patrolling and lectures, parades and inspections.

During November changes in the original schedule were made at almost a daily rate. As new training methods and subjects were prescribed by higher headquarters they were added to the schedule. By mid- November the training program had been increased to (48) forty-eight days. Changes continued to be made and further additions and the regrouping of subjects became necessary. By years send the Plans and Training department had set up a schedule which provided all essential subjects in the first twenty-four days of training. In that way men were available for shipment as qualified replacements at the end of four weeks of training.

In the new forty-eight day schedule inaugurated in November, there were seven days devoted to marches and overnight bivouacs. The overnight training caused the only serious setback in the program. Three of every four men in training were hospitalized because of respiratory infection due to exposure. This exposure was a result of the overnight bivouacs. (A very simple temporary camp that is set up and used by soldiers, a short stay, usually overnight, often with minimum equipment) Several requests were made by the director of training to temporarily eliminate the overnight outings because of cold and extreme damp weather. The requests were denied by the post surgeon, the only officer authorized to call off phases of training. It was not until facilities of the station hospital became taxed that overnight bivouacs were canceled for the winter

Under the revised schedule which became effective December 1, greater stress was placed on field tactics and problems. Whereas, field training had consumed only a minor part of the original schedule under the new program 196 hours were devoted to that type of training. In addition, 80 hours were taken up with hikes and marches. The same amount of time, thirty-five hours, was required for small arms instructions and firing on the range.

Much of the time on field tactics and problems were devoted to defense methods of encampments and air fields. On hikes and marches simulated air attacks and actual gas attacks were conducted. The gas used was either smoke or tear gas. Increasing the field training permitted a decrease in the number of hours required for calisthenics but maintained a continued high standard of physical hardness and fitness. Calisthenics were reduced to 41 hours in the new schedule.

Airplane recognition was a new subject added to the program as set up on December 1, with 15 hours being allotted for the course.

In the case of the original schedule and the one in effect at year’s end preliminary instructions first were given by means of lectures and War Department training films. Following the lectures and films, trainees put those instructions into practice during hikes, marches and on bivouacs.

Results of the hardening program were obtained by means of a physical fitness test conducted twice during the 48 days of training. Trainees were first given the test on the 6^th day of the schedule and again on the final day. An improvement of better than 6 percent was recorded on the average rating. The initial test showed an average rating of 44.71 percent and the final test showed a 51.15 rating.

Schedule for Officer

While working out a training schedule for enlisted men it also was necessary to set up a schedule adaptable for preparing officers for combat duty.

The first schedule was set up November 5, 1943 was patterned after that of enlisted men and required 15 days to complete. The first 2 ½ days were devoted to processing, the remaining 13 to actual training. The program called for a 12 hour course on 3 weapons - .45 caliber pistols, the Thompson sub-machine gun and the .30 caliber carbine. Only 3 ½ hours were provided for sighting, aiming and nomenclature instruction. Actual firing of the 3 pieces was allotted to 8 ½ hours.

In carrying out the physical hardening mission of the Overseas Replacement Training Center, officers in training were required to devote 15 ½ hours to calisthenics, 26 hours to road marches and 11 hours to drill.

The remainder of the 135 hour schedule was devoted to chemical warfare, camouflage, entrenching methods, bayonet, scouting and patrolling, pack making and first aid.

The officers training schedule was changed three times during November and December. The schedule in effect at the close of 1943 was more streamlined and included more subjects that the original. Time allotted to processing was reduced to one day and more time was devoted to firing small arms. The time for instructions on sighing and aiming and nomenclature was unchanged, but actual firing time was increased to 12 ½ hours for the .45 caliber automatic pistol, the Thompson sub-machine gun and the .30 caliber carbine.

Calisthenics was reduced to 13 hours but a 3 hour course in judo was added to the hardening program. Road marches were removed from the program but drill and parades were increased to 15 hours, and field problems and tactics took up another 15 hours. A 2 hour course in malaria control was also added to the schedule.

For the most part it appears through our research that the year 1943 was perhaps one of the busiest times at the base. Kearns was now experiencing a exceedingly high turn over of men. This was due to a couple of factors.

Kearns was now at its prime, conducting basic training and special training. Trainloads of men were pulling into Kearns sometimes as much as 4 times a day dropping off men and picking some men up. Replacements were also being deployed from Kearns to California and Washington. Others were being assigned to Units out of Kearns and being deployed to those units. War causalities were also being sent to Kearns. Although Kearns had two major duties that was to train replacements, and a place to regroup and form.

It was well known among the ranks in the military as having the largest 600 target firing range, the best the country had to offer at that time. It was built of modern technology with lights, sirens and moving targets. And they were turning out the best trained men on the firing range, only 25% fail to qualify once the highest rate ever at Kearns. If the men failed to qualify it meant a lot to them, they had to start over and start over without pay. New programs were always being put implicated at Kearns to improve the chances of the men returning home.

By the end of June 1943 specialize training and basic training was in full force at Kearns. The headlines on the Kearns Post Review for June 22, 1943 front page read like a map to what’s what for the training efforts. A new eight-week course to airdrome training to the new camouflage training. Still truckloads, and train loads of men were coming in each day and leaving as well full of young soldiers ready for combat duty.

  “Such methods have been very successful in making the enemy waste about half his bombs,” he added.

  In battle areas, camouflage is used to protect field dressing stations and other relatively. Small medical stations, but in the rear larger hospitals are left unconcealed and plainly marked with red crosses.

  “In North Africa the German and Italians refrained from bombing marked hospitals,” he related. They not only were obeying the rules of the Geneva Convention, but also were keeping in mind that they had hospitals of their own.

  As yet we do not know how the Japanese are going to act. But aside from the moral aspects, there is no point in killing injured men, for removing them removes a supply problem. The more injured men an army has, the more energy it has to devote to caring for them.”