Troop B Second Training Squadron, 1st Training Regiment
One of these days I’d like to write
a second book, this time, about a simple story of the little guy in World War
II and what he saw. Stories of the big
shots like Patton, Eisenhower, and Bradley bore me. They get plenty of coverage, but the little
guy, like my father, who did the heavy lifting, got oblivion. Stephen Cherry’s story would be worth telling
and certainly not because he was my father.
His story has all the makings of an Agatha Christie
novel: religious conflict, fear, danger,
death, irony, and mystery set against a backdrop of global war. The broader appeal lies in the fact that
10-12 million other ordinary people were sent through the same thing or worse.
It all began when Dad was chosen by
Draft Board # 1 in West Plains, Missouri.
From there he was inducted in Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis on October
21, 1941 and sent to Ft. Riley, Kansas to the Cavalry Replacement Training
Center or CRTC of the Second Cavalry Division.
Incidentally, even though the CRTC is
cavalry, it generally parallels the order of battle of Army infantry units: the
Second Cavalry Division consisting of four “provisional” regiments with two battalions
(squadrons) per regiment and four companies (troops) of 220 men in each
battalion. Four platoons were in each company
or troop. Thus, the photo of Troop B Second Training Squadron of the 1st
Training Regiment is basically a company photo commanded by Captain Jose A.
Castillo.
The training of the draftees focused
on three areas: Weapons like the 30
Caliber machine gun, Garand rifle, and mortars; Horse; and Motor. At one point he was the lead rider on an
artillery caisson. He remembered parades
at Ft. Riley with 18,000 horses and how he hated the stable fire drills. What determined his fate with the
Mediterranean Base Section in Oran, North Africa and the Peninsular Base
Section in Leghorn, Italy was his training with the new GMC 2 ½ ton trucks.
Dad was on the edge of his bunk on December
7, 1941 one day before graduation when he heard the newscast of the bombing of
Pearl Harbor. Commanding General Donald
A. Robinson in a letter in the CRTC graduation book expressed faith (in
prophetic words) in the future of his graduates under “. . . any and all
circumstances.” Dad was temporarily retained
as a member of CRTC. In the photo he
sent to Grandpa Ike in West Plains, Private Stephen Cherry wears the General
HQ. Reserve Patch.
