First-hand Recollections of Camp Adair

The last post gave a brief history of Camp Adair.   Among the many items in the Benton County Historical Museum related to the camp is a first-hand account of his time there by James K. Robbins.  In his own words, he was “a twenty-year-old from a small town in East Texas who had never been out of the State but once....” He was a member of the “70^th Infantry Division “which was activated at Camp Adair, Oregon on June 15, 1943, with Major General  John E. Dahlquist commanding....The “Trailblazer” 70^th was to see combat in Europe.  I was assigned to Company D.”

U. S. Army 70th Infantry Division
"Trailblazers" insignia patch

“After I had been in camp a few days, the call went out from my captain—did anyone in our company know how to play a bugle.  I had played a trumpet in high school and in the Texas A & M “Aggie” band.  I could blow a bugle.  My captain...immediately informed me that I was Company Bugler. The next day, Division Headquarters asked that any Company Bugler that knew bugle calls report to Division Headquarters.  There were only three men from the entire division who reported:  a man named Smith from Missouri, Carl Raponi from New York City, and me... We reported to a regular army sergeant, Lem Hendly...who had been a bugler longer than fifteen years.”

All three passed Hendly's test.  After training with him for a week, they were assigned to start a buglers school for each company of the division.  Robbins, in charge of the school, wondered “How to teach men from ch ages of 20 to 35, most of whom had no experience in this area? We had to start from scratch.”

“About the middle of September the first class of 30 men reported.  Many of the students were there  not because they wanted to be, but because they had been assigned by their company commanders.... We had some students who were eager and tried hard to make a success while others made  no attempt to do anything. On the second day, one man...sat down and said he would not try, even if he was court-martialed.  After several hours of trying every method we knew to proceed with the task at hand, I was forced to call the Military Police. The striker was taken back to his company and the next day a replacement for him was at the school.  We never found out what his punishment was.”

“One interesting extra duty we had was that  Smith, Raponi and I had to play all the bugle calls for the division over the loud speaker system.  The most important calls that are used by a bugler are Reveille, Assembly, Mess, Retreat, and Taps.  The buglers' day started with 6 o'clock reveille and last until the midnight taps with all other calls in between.  We each took turn doing this every third day for the month of September....I think many times of the thrill of playing taps in the setting of Camp Adair.  The Willamette Valley floor surrounded by the majestic, snow-capped Mt. Hood and Mt. Baker made a beautiful sight.  The bugle's sounds in the night air, with the aid of the loud speaker system, could be heard for miles.  It was an experience I will never forget.”  

After three weeks, they certified their first group of 30 buglers. “The Infantry Company Bugler has other duties besides that of blowing a bugle.  When the company is in the field, either for training, maneuvers, or combat, the bugler stays at the side of the company commander at all times.  His duties are to sound calls when needed and to deliver the company commander's messages where they need to be sent. When the company settles in for the night, the bugler sleeps next to the commander's tent.  A bugler who performs his duties as they should be performed is the right-hand man of the company commander.”

The 70^th Trailblazers were sent to Europe and encountered heavy fighting near the Saar River.  Robbins says, “ In the heavy fighting, as the bugle class carried out the orders of the company commanders, I like to think that the graduates of the 70^th Division Bugle School did the job they were trained to do.”

Mr. Robbins' account of the rest of his time at Camp Adair will continue in the next post. 

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon