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60 chapter eight The War Years In late 1941 army surveyors scouting for locations for a post large enough to train multiple infantry divisions checked out a Civilian Conservation Corps camp near Blackstone, a small town in south-central Virginia. It did not take them long to realize they had found a site—Camp Pickett was all but perfect. It had enough land and enough water, and it connected by rail to mountain and coastal training sites. By December the army had cleared nearly forty-six thousand acres. On December 7, when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor, Fort Pickett became a national priority. Construction sped up, and within a year more than fourteen hundred buildings and a four-runway airfield had been completed. On December 5, 1943, Lt. Col. Elbert Tuttle reported to Fort Pickett, where he took command of the 304th Field Artillery Battalion of the Seventy-Seventh, or Statue of Liberty, Division—named for the patch emblazoned with the Statue of Liberty that the soldiers wore. Tuttle mentally gave his new unit high marks: they were well trained and capable. The men, for their part, welcomed the new commander. At forty-six, trim and fit, he stood five feet ten and weighed 145 pounds. He carried himself with dignity and treated his men with respect . Something about Elbert Tuttle inspired confidence, and the men of the 304th were happy to have a commanding officer in whom they could repose confidence. They were awaiting orders to ship out to the Pacific theater, and they would not wait long. In January, Buddy went to the Pacific, and Sara joined Elbert at Fort Pickett. “Of course, I was a wreck,” Sara remembered, “but I had to carry on.” She found a garage apartment at the home of a young couple, the Matthewses, who had just adopted a baby girl. Sara was charmed by the child; she was a happy diversion. In March the orders for the 304th arrived, sending them to the Pacific theater. Sara managed to throw a party for the division before they left. Elbert got a last-minute chance to call Sara, just The War Years » 61 before the troop train pulled out. “Good-bye, honey,” she said, “Have an interesting time.” In later years, Elbert would often tell that story—that the last thing that his wife said to him as he shipped off for World War II was “have an interesting time.” It always got a laugh from everyone, including Sara. Once in a while she would slip in a quiet but pointed reminder that “we had already had our good-byes.” The Statue of Liberty Division, along with the rest of the 304th Field Artillery Battalion, shipped out from Fort Pickett in March. Elbert and Sara had agreed that while they were apart, they would write every other day. Elbert broke that rule, as he explained to her in a letter written later that month from a ship crossing the Pacific. “I have not written earlier at sea, Sweet, because there was so little I could tell you. And, as you know, our mail travels with us until we arrive at our destination.” Besides, he explained , “I really have felt as though I were living in a hiatus, if such a thing is possible. I really have felt that way since the moment I left you, and I know it will continue until we are together again.” Not until April 15 could he disclose their destination—Hawaii. “Now it can be told, at least part of it,” he wrote. “We are stationed on the island of Oahu. . . . I can’t tell you more about the exact location.” It was near enough to Pearl Harbor that he went by there as soon as he arrived, looking for Mac. Mac Asbill Jr. by then was an aide to Marine Maj. Gen. Holland M. “Howling Mad” Smith. When Mac, fresh out of Princeton and Marine Corps training, had showed up to interview for the position with General Smith, Howling Mad howled. Mac had a terrific résumé, but he was very young. “I’m not running a G-D kindergarten,” the general roared. Mac Asbill won him over and got the job. This proved handy to Sara. Neither Elbert nor Buddy could tell her where he was, but occasionally one of them wrote that he had seen Mac. Sara knew that Mac was with General Smith, and General Smith’s movements were often reported in the American press...

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