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Of these early days at Camp Campbell, 1st Lt. Carl Nordstrom, later to be the Battalion S-2 or Intelligence Officer, wrote home to his parents:

"Feb. 8, 1943:

At the moment we are engaged in instructing the non-commissioned officers of another battalion in the subjects to be covered in basic training. . . . our work at the present time is controlled overly from the top.  There is too little chance for personal initiative and I think the outfit is suffering.  I have never heard so much griping and fighting.  Everything is in a constant state of reorganization and disorganization.  We are preparing for our civilians now."

"March 22, 1943:

We received our tanks.  We are now expecting our men.  We have a maintenance shop to construct, tanks to clean and a company area to get in shape for the coming of the men.  Right now we have just about finished the job and are almost out of work."

"April 8, 1943:

We are going to get our men Saturday (April 10) and have already started to work."

On April 10th a trainload of inductees arrived from the New Cumberland Induction Center, Pennsylvania.  These men came from the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Southeast New York and Delaware. On April 18, 1st  Lt. Nordstrom wrote:

"I have never been as busy in a long time. . . . We met and bedded our men and starting this week, put them on the road to training. In fact, we have already covered as much as I covered in my first five weeks of [basic] training.  The boys are from Pennsylvania and they are very young.  Many of them are just out of high school.  . . . They are so enthusiastic and driving, we have to work to keep ahead of them.  They just love to learn. . . . We have coal miners  sprinkled in with Philadelphia school boys." 

The men of the 702nd were housed in wooden barracks at the southern end of Camp Campbell with their assigned motor park at the western end of the cantonment area.

Lt. Wm. B. “Bull” Miller’s Crew

On May 10 the now Captain Nordstrom wrote:

"Right now we have had a little good training weather and are much further advanced in our training.  The next two weeks are our last for basic and then we start unit crew training. The seventh week will be a show explaining all parts of a functioning battalion."

On May 26 he continued,

"During this week (the seventh) we are giving our men instruction on the way a tank battalion works. We are running what we call a 'County Fair'.  each company puts on three displays of its duties and every 21 hours during the week a different platoon of the new men observes one of those displays.  At the end of the week, all the new men will have seen every display and in that way will have a complete picture of what a tank battalion does . . . individual personalities are starting to show.  Instead of a mass of basic privates, we are beginning to identify specific individuals with unique skills."

On June 2  Captain Nordstrom wrote:

"An eventful week.  On Sunday one of the officers had taken another and two girls out for a tank ride.  A tree fell on the turret and killed the Lieutenant as well as one of the girls.  I was Duty Officer.  Then on Tuesday, I broke my first sergeant to private.  He had been one of the original cadre but had never fit in.  Before I did it, I discussed my decision with the company officers and with Colonel Talbot.  The Colonel then transferred him out of the battalion."

On June 8 he continued:

"We are in the ninth week of preliminary training. In seven more weeks our unit is supposed to be prepared for battle, but it usually takes an additional six months or more of seasoning before a unit is really ready.  . . .during the last few days the weather has been very thunderous.  The sun has been sultry and then it would rain.  For this reason we never go anywhere without our raincoats.  It is going to be very hot down here during the real summer to come."