And my favorite statement ever made; -  "You know Honey, after being here for a week I can really understand why the Indians gave up this land without  a fight. "

Camp Kearns Had a Mascot

     In 1944 Camp Kearns, by this time had become known as an Overseas Replacement Depot, No. 2. Kearns was in the prim of its life, complete with a base full of young boys on their way to war. It was a time when Salt Lake City hated Friday and Saturday nights knowing full well those ruff military boys from Kearns was coming to town and God only knew what they would be doing next.

   On a hot summer night of 44 a truckload of lonely Kearns GI’s made their way back from Salt Lake City to Kearns. Intermittently stopping here and there to check the tires give them a swift kick, but never by electrical fences.  On one such stops one of them found this beautiful goat at the side of the road. Now this goat wasn’t in danger per say, after all it was in a fenced area that just happed to be next to the road. Well ok, so it was fenced up no matter the goat wanted so much to go for a ride that it found itself in the truck. Now as most rides go when one is racing the clock to get somewhere, things were moving at a very fast rate of speed in this jeep.  Why before the jeep had gotten out of park into drive the goat had obtained a name; “Billy” taking just seconds Billy was promptly promoted to “Sergeant Billy” and his first order of business was to order the private to Camp Kearns at once before lights went out. At that the Private carried on with soldiers business, driving directly to Kearns just as fast as they could go and not disobeying the orders of a Sergeant.

  As per the new Sergeants orders they stopped at northeast end of the base, as to prevent any detection from the other soldiers who were on guard duty.  The two men and Sergeant Billy disembarked from the jeep over the fence and into base with very little trouble at all. They then proceeded down the dark road and resting at a predetermined location. Meanwhile the others went through the main gate checking on post they then preceded down the main road past the Officers club when they were out of sight they made a right hand turn and down the road in search of the Sergeant and his two men. After the pick up was made they all headed back to their barracks with Sergeant Billy Kearns in toe.

  Billy was real happy with his new home, and made friends real fast with his other comrades. Billy only had one problem; he was so happy the first night with his new home the meaning of "lights out" for him meant, "time to play." And play he did, he made the rounds of talking to each one of them, dragging their blankets off when they wouldn’t talk back. Why he even made the rounds to see which of his men had been drinking that night, sniffing at their noses. Two hours into this game some of the soldiers didn’t take real kindly to Sergeant Billy, especially when the Sergeant forgot where the latrines were located. OOP’s! The little fellow was then demoted, kicked out of his barracks and taken down to the post vets office. Again Billy found a new home and was taken in the wee, wee hours of the morning. For Sergeant Billy it seemed that he was moving up in life, and he aimed to please. The vet on call took Sergeant Billy in found him some sleeping quarters fed and watered him. And off to bed they all went snug as a goat.

   This is where Sergeant Billy lived for almost three weeks, and he loved every minute of his new home. Why the Sergeant was the happiness recruit found in all of Kearns. He had came along way from his enlistment date, learned lots of new things and took a special course on how to detect and seize flying objects. He had by now learned his name all to well and always in high gear when his name was called. His airborne stops could have been a better landing at times, he was never able to hit the target right on, and at times it was like he was sliding into home plate. But for Sergeant Billy the proper form of saluting just wasn’t learned and it sometimes got him into trouble.

   His little life took quite the turn one day when Colonel Siegmund heard about this new Sergeant Billy Kearns, a new recruit from back east somewhere and went in search of one Sergeant Billy. Having been told about this new Sergeant by a barrack snitch, who couldn’t have been unhappy about this guy, especially after Billy mistook his boots for chow. After asking several men about this new recruit that was in the "no" Colonel Sigmund started to smell a rat. This led him to the Vets office asking to meet this Sergeant Billy. Outraged, by the doctors horror and shock the doctor could only slow dance around the questions of this Sergeant Billy the Colonel demand at once to meet this Billy. The vet was finally able to form the words, "Sir, you must mean our new Mascot, Billy. That’s all it took, one time too many of saying "Billy" and the real Billy Kearns came a bounding out of the back room in high gear, and slide across the room stopping on top of the Colonels shoes. He quickly stood up and doing the old Billy goat salute proceeded to jump on the Colonel just as he had done with his fellow comrades. Billy was demoted once again and booted off base. As the Colonel was storming out the door, Billy took a firm stand, not real happy, he bowed his head and made a run for it, at that he politely bid the Colonel farewell.

   That night just after sundown, Sergeant Billy Kearns who so proudly served his country was taken back east somewhere in the area of which he was first located and was returned to his owners, a farmer just east of Camp Kearns.