TheTroubleshooters.com Home                   Catalog                   World War 2                   World War 1                  Links

Patton's Troubleshooters Book                        Patton's Troubleshooters DVD

"We are now in the center of platoon training, and are getting a great deal of tactics.  I sometimes think the Germans would give up if they only knew our training schedules.  They are enough to frighten anyone to death."

Of S/Sgt. Frank "Pappy" Ream (as the men of 3rd Platoon, Company B referred to him, in deference to the father-like image this old man of twenty-nine held in the eyes of these young boys of eighteen years), John "Bucky" Weaver wrote:

"I remember Sergeant Frank Ream very well.  He was the tank commander of our tank "This is It", so named because Sgt. Ream used this expression excessively, ending every briefing with it.  None of us were very close to Sgt. Ream.  I never recall us calling him Frank.  . . .he was not universally popular, although I thought him fair, and while he might chew out the crew for some shortcoming, he was unyielding in defending us within the company and battalion."

Captain Carl Nordstrom writes:

"In November and December we were I think, on Tennessee Maneuvers.  I remember them as the coldest I've ever been in my life.  With no heat all week, we were under blackout conditions, we would get progressively colder.  My wife, Jane remembers spending Christmas in Nashville, Tennessee that year near the maneuver area."

Tennessee Maneuvers Camp Area

The 702nd Tank Battalion, Medium, had been reorganized on October 20, 1943, to include Company "D" with men from the other companies transferred to this new company of light tanks.  The designation "Medium" was thereafter deleted from the battalion name.  November 16, 1943 brought the 702nd to a new phase of its existence.  The battalion departed Camp Campbell, Kentucky, with all its equipment over the highways of Kentucky and Tennessee to the Tennessee Maneuver Area at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, near Shelbyville.  The battalion braved rain, sleet, snow, dust, mud and fog through the maneuver phases and received high praise for its action and reaction in the various maneuver activities.

Attacks on farmyards, towns and white lightning stores in various towns such as Columbia, Lebanon, Gallatin, Springfield, Murphysboro, Nashville and Camp Forrest ended abruptly upon departure from the Tennessee Maneuver Area at Gallatin, Tennessee.  During the Tennessee Maneuvers, the battalion worked with a division on offensive and defensive modes.  The 702nd Tank Battalion was highly successful in both modes.

As the 702nd was getting ready to leave Camp Campbell to go to the maneuver area, an event took place, which was recounted to me by former Lt. Mike Blaesing:

 ". . .McCabe, Capt. Stover's driver, broke an axle.  On the day before leaving for Tennessee, no replacement was available.  McCabe wanted to drive the Captain in the Jeep, a maintenance sergeant goes after an axle, and half an hour later returns with the axle fixed.  What happened was the sergeant and three of his buddies went to the PX and stole the axle out of some officer's Jeep.  They just lifted the Jeep by the fenders and swapped axles."