Corporal Earl J. Heckel, 4th Div., 1st Bn., Co. D, 22nd Inf.
Letter from Earl Heckel in museum files:
In the fall of 1943 November & December the 4th Infantry Division was sent from Fort Dix, New Jersey by train to Camp Gordon Johnston, Carrabelle, Florida. The reason the 4th Div. was sent there was for amphibious training. We did not know at t time that it was for getting us ready for the landing on Utah beach in France, June 6th 1944.
At Camp Gordon Johnston the barracks were just a 1 story building with just sand floors and very little lighting. We had double deck bunks to sleep in, and the bottom bunk would sink in the sand almost touching the sand, but we were there only 60 days so it served the purpose to keep us out of the weather.
The training consisted of learning to swim which was on our schedule just about every day. It was required that every one had to learn how to swim. Another part of the training was going out in landing craft boats and come in and land in all kinds of weather. In one particular time the water was so rough that some of our small boats sunk and were lost.
We learned a lot at Camp Gordon Johnson in the 60 days of training we were there. We had to wash our clothes by hand, as we had laundry service in all other camps. After our 60 days of training there we were sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey — the port of embarkation to go to Europe and finish our training for the invasion of France — June 6, 1944.
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From “Deeds Not Words: A Narrative of the 22nd Infantry Regiment During World War II,” by David Paul Roderick (1997):
Evidently, Army Command had chosen the 4th Infantry Division to be an invasion assault unit as we were sent in September, 1943 to Camp Gordon Johnston near Carrabellé Florida on the Gulf Coast for beach assault training. We trained to Florida and as we slowly coasted in to the siding, we were curious about wild pigs along the track. We saw no bathing beauties or palm trees in this area. The base was unlike any base we had seen before. This Amphibious Training Center (ATC) covered 165,000 acres stretching twenty miles between St. George Island, Carrabelle, and Alligator Point and included the villages of Lanark and St Theresa. I now know that Walter Winchell referred to it the “Alcatraz Of the Army.
2Lt. Martin King and 2Lt. Bob Stodgell arrived on October 28, 1943 and were assigned to Company H. Ist Lt. Tommy Harrison, company commander, assigned King to the second platoon, heavy machine guns where he was fortunate to have the assistance of two fine Sergeants, Guin and Pike. Stodgell was assigned to the 81 mm mortar platoon, 3rd section, where I had the pleasure to assist him in settling into the finest company in the regiment. They later received commendations for their leadership and performance for action on D-Day and in Normandy. Both officers, along with 2Lt. Ordway Cisgen, Ted Turchin and William Delozier of our mortar platoon, received battlefield promotions to 1 Lt. on 1 July 1944.
Realistic amphibious training with the use of a variety of landing craft of the 4th Engineer Special Brigade became familiar in anticipation of the invasion of Europe. We held many problems where we embarked in early morning hours in assault boats and hit “Dog Island” beach or the Florida coast at sunrise. On one exercise we lost five small assault boats during a storm. Fortunately, all the men were rescued by adjacent craft. We made 25 mile hikes, through sand. Night marches were held. Our motor pools learned how to waterproof vehicles so they could be driven under water. The nights were chilly and spending hours on the water never appealed to those of who were not efficient swimmers. Swimming lessons were held for those of us who were not efficient swimmers. We were tested to see if we could swim 15 to 25 yards with our clothes on.
We were all pleased when this two-month phase of our training was completed! The 4th Division was the third and last division to go through the ATC program. It later became a POW camp and was declared obsolete in the summer of 1945. We were not completely aware that the training was a major rehearsal for Utah Beach, Normandy.