West Point ’41: The Class That Went to War and Shaped America

4 | Pass the Ammunition

22 4 Pass the Ammunition As they neared graduation, the cadets selected their specialties, with top cadets getting first pick in a manner that reminded some of a football draft. Top graduates like Ed Rowny and Spec Powell grabbed coveted engineering slots. Paul Skowronek opted for spurs, while Henry Bodson, Joe Reed, Herb Stern, and Charlie Fletcher all chose artillery. Jerry La Rocca aimed for the Air Corps but needed a base branch as backup in case he didn’t pass flight training; he opted for coast artillery—anti-aircraft artillery. Charles Canella selected infantry, as did Jack Norton, who wanted to pursue infantry jump school. Having been continually ranked, and in some cases courted by field officers , the cadets’ choices were no surprise to most. Only the quartermaster slots, that is, logistics, were shunned, since few wanted to be “supply men.” As a result, bottom-ranked cadets were usually relegated to the Quartermaster Corps. The talented flanker, Walter Woolwine, saw it another way. Since the United States was not yet at war, the Army’s enlisted soldiers remained mostly ill trained. Many were just farmers doing military drills on the side—not the type of units Woolwine wanted to command after four years of officer training. What a sad outfit, thought Woolwine of America’s Army, an infantry growing vegetables. He saw the Quartermaster Corps in a different light, as a business outfit with money and contracting operations, with transportation and construction corps. Woolwine opted to be part of it. He also knew that an Army marches on its stomach, and the importance of orchestrating food and other supply lines would grow exponentially in wartime. The day prior to their graduation, ’41ers attended a requiem Mass for Kelleher and Jobes. By then, a memorial arch stood for the two, its solid stones and shape signifying the unity, strength, and stability of the corps. The curving arms of the adjacent benches welcomed friends to the site, Kazel-Wilcox - West Point.indb 22 3/19/2014 5:40:09 PM pass the ammunition ★ 23 which had been so carefully chosen—a shady glade at the end of beloved Flirtation Walk. The class paid homage to those promising lost officers as Europe became ever more embroiled in war, and FDR insisted that America would stand up to Hitler. Class members, in the words of their corps song, began readying to tread where “sons of an earlier day . . . pointed the way,” each faced with the possibility of joining the Long Gray Line in war, a reference to men in gray who’d earlier gone to their graves. The ’41ers knew the risks, but all had chosen to serve their country. As the cadets tossed their caps on June 11, 1941, they officially became Regular 2nd Lieutenants in the U.S. Army, expected to help lead their nation in battle. Most were only in their early twenties. Each man filed up to receive his diploma, with the customary ovation greeting the top and bottom graduates of the class, Ace Moody and Earle “Bud” Brown, respectively . Another class member received an ovation as well, a man who for four years had shared a room with no one, had never been welcome on corps squads, and had never been accepted at the hops—Jim Fowler. Now, classmates who had once resented his presence congratulated him with genuine sincerity. He had displayed courage, tenacity, and dignity in bucking efforts to discourage a black man from graduating from West Point. His spirit had not been broken. The processions to the chapel began the next day, cadets ducking with their brides under the arched sabers of friends, seeking to cement their legacies. Joe Reed, on the other hand, was packing his bags for Brazil for an extended vacation with a couple of classmates, ready to tango in Rio. There was just one small glitch: the day before leaving, he discovered that his months of language preparation were all for naught. He had been studying Spanish; the girls in Rio spoke Portuguese; Reed’s best-laid plans had gone astray. ★ ★ ★ Volunteers and conscripted soldiers on U.S. bases soon swelled into the tens of thousands, but the ’41 class was hard hit by a new War Department directive: to capitalize on the training of Regular Army officers, as compared to Reserve officers or conscripted soldiers, Regular officers were to be dispersed throughout the Army to serve as cores around which new units could be built. Class members were disseminated across...