Page 45 - The History of Veterans at Highland Springs

GORDON DEMPSEY
HIGHLAND SPRINGS RESIDENT, ARMY
After getting into Advanced ROTC for my junior year at the University of Oklahoma we were ordered to report to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, for induction as privates. This was after we had been told the previous year that if we volunteered for the Army Reserve we would finish our education and go on duty as Second Lieutenants. Anyway, in May 1943 we reported to Ft. Sill. From there the Ordnance group was shipped to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland. We went through Basic Training, had some delays, and finally graduated from the Officer Candidate School (OCS) on 22 July 1944.I then went to the 239th Ordnance Ammunition Company in Camp Breckenridge, KY. The Company had just been converted from a Chemical Decontamination Company. We were there 6 weeks, went to the Boston Port to load ammunition ships two months, then to Ft. Bragg, NC, for three months, and then shipped to France. I was Depot Officer for an ammunition dump that covered most of the small roads near Verdun, France, until a few weeks after VE Day when we went to Marseilles for shipment to the Pacific. Our ship went through the Panama Canal and 10 days later the Japanese gave up. We went to the Philippines for a while and then went to Japan in November, 1945. I was assigned as Depot Officer for a Japanese Naval Ammunition Dump south of Yokohama. We removed the Japanese ammo and replaced it with American ammo that was being recovered from all the places in the Pacific that American forces had fought. Most of it we stored in caves and warehouses but a lot of it had to be dumped in the ocean. We supplied the American Occupation forces with ammunition for their training. In September 1946 our turn came up and we returned to the U.S. to Seattle. It was a long but happy train ride to San Antonio, TX, for our separation from service and return to OU. After graduation I moved to Dallas where in 1949 I joined the 49th Armored Division of the Texas National Guard. Served as the Division Ammunition Officer for several years before changing civilian jobs and leaving the NG.
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