Other Papers

Other Newspaper Accounts

the Franklin Evening Star - 23 May 1945
Train Wreck Injures 24 Overseas Vets.
Derailment of a troop train on an embankment near Piqua, Ohio, resulted in injury to 24 returning overseas veterans. Wreckage of the cars, en route to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, with 400 officers and men aboard, is shown above. (There were several killed) (See 31st Division for details)

the Franklin Evening Star - 02 June 1945

Post Headquarters, Schoolhouse Rd. and Division St., is in the heart of Camp Atterbury. From here, Col. Welton M. Modisette, post commander, directs the activities of this big, busy, military installation. The headquarters building houses the administrative units of the post and many of the major branches, sections and divisions.

This was Headquarters, Camp Atterbury in June 1942. This brick farmhouse is still standing in camp on Schoolhouse Road, across from the Bus Station. Camp offices were on the second floor while the Area's Engineer staff occupied the ground level.

Post Adopts "On To Victory" Slogan As Fourth Year Of Operations Is Started

With "On to Victory" as its slogan. Camp Atterbury enters its fourth year with all personnel, both military and civilian, striving to make tile road easier to the Jap capital for our fighting men. The post's three-year history includes the training of three divisions which helped bring about the collapse of the Axis in Europe and more than a hundred smaller units which are now scattered throughout the world.
As a training center. Atterbury did its part in securing final victory in Europe and Africa and now is going all-out in its efforts for a similar victory in the Pacific. Today the post is one of the large War Department Personnel Centers, besides having a Prisoner of War Camp and being a huge shop and warehouse point.

In pre-war years. farm lands occupied the area now comprising Atterbury. But with the advent of World War II. a modern military city grew up. Actual construction started on Feb. 2, 1942, when work was begun on an eight-mile railroad spur off the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks just north of Edinburg. From then on the post's expansion was rapid.

Before the post was fully completed ground force units were receiving their initial military training. The 83rd Division was activated on Aug. 15, 1942, with more than 25,000 persons witnessing the formal activation. And as the years passed, the 30th and 106th Divisions moved In for training-later to blaze their names across European battlefields and to aid in the crushing of Germany.

First word of a military camp in this area came in a news dispatch from Washington, D. C., on April 28, 1941, which said, "A cantonment for 30,000 men will be established outside of Columbus if the size of the Army increases." Then came the infamous Dec. 7. 1941, sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Plans for Atterbury moved swiftly.

The camp site was approved on January 6, 1942, and less than a month later actual construction started. Tile reservation was to sprawl over 40,000 acres and into three counties -Bartholomew, Johnson and Brown. Hard and consistent rains during spring and early summer delayed the work of approximately 14,000 workers, who referred to their place of employment as -"Camp Mud-berry."

However, most of the construction was completed ill five months and toward the end of the job it was often a race between tile men completing the buildings and troops moving in.

Col. Welton M. Modisette, post', commander, arrived here late in May, 1942, and was followed by members of his staff in early June. The first Special Order was issued on June 2, 1942. First headquarters were set up on the second floor of the brick farmhouse located across from the present Bus Station.

In early July, 1942. service units arrived and were incorporated into tile former 1560th Service Unit. On July 16, the cadre of tile 83rd Division moved in and just a month later the Division was formed.

Even with soldiers in training it was some time before all the streets were paved. Board walks built from scrap lumber provided the only paths. Today there are scores of miles of crushed stone walks, paved streets, and gravel roads in the camp area. The water, gas and electrical utility systems total several hundred miles.

Today the camp is still undergoing improvement and expansion.

the Franklin Evening Star - 02 June 1945
New Wakeman Commander Arrives
Col. Frank L. Cole, new commanding officer of the Wakeman Hospital Center, paid a visit to Col. Welton M. Modisette, post commander, Tuesday. Col. Cole (right) arrived in Atterbury Monday to assume his new command. He formerly headed the Woodrow Wilson General Hospital at Staunton, Va.

Franklin Evening Star - 18 October 1945
Suggest Atterbury As United Nations Capital Location
Camp Atterbury, one of the nation's largest war camps, has been proposed to the United Nations Preparatory Commission now meeting in London, as a location for the establishment of the capital of the. United Nations, by Governor Ralph F. Gates. The governor cabled the commission urging action to be taken in considering several Hoosier sites as possible centers for the capital. including Camp Atterbury.

Other locations proposed are French Lick Springs Hotel at French Lick. Bunker Hill Naval Training Station near Peru, one of Indiana's various state parks, or a 288-acre farm in Brown county offered by Bert Dingley, president of Marmon-Herrington, Inc. Other possible sites were being discussed today by the Indiana department of commerce and public relations with the Governor.

The Columbus Republic
4/2/2001

Berenstain sketched Atterbury scenes
By Staff Reports

During World War II, Stan Berenstain was sketching scenes of a far different nature than the warm and cuddly Berenstain Bears that made him rich and famous.

Six days a week, the Philadelphia artist sketched the stages of surgical procedures in the plastic surgery wing at Wakeman Army Hospital on the sprawling Camp Atterbury military installation.

His assignment at Camp Atterbury was recalled by Hope resident Betty Randall, who had been reminded of the artist through a story in The Republic earlier this year about the 40th anniversary of the Berenstain Bears children’s books.

“I was a secretary on one of the plastic surgery wards at the time,” she said. “Stan was well known to everybody on those wards.

Berenstain, who has combined with his wife, Jan, to provide countless stories for children through their bears over the past 40 years, came to his unusual wartime assignment by accident.

Drafted out of a Philadelphia art school midway through the war, Berenstain was assigned to an artillery unit. He became ill during training and was sent to Wakeman Hospital for treatment. During his stay, the head of surgery learned of his art skills and drafted him as a surgical artist.

In addition to his work recording details of surgical procedures, Berenstain also sketched dozens of scenes around the military base and surrounding communities.

This scene of a “rubbish area” at Camp Atterbury during World War II was sketched by Stan Berenstain who, after the war, would combine with his wife, Jan, to create the world-famous series of Berenstain Bears books. Berenstain was stationed at Camp Atterbury during the war and was assigned to sketch surgical procedures undergone by soldiers wounded in battle.

Jim West holds open a bound volume of the old Franklin Evening Star newspaper from 1942 while standing next to a stack of other volumes at the Camp Atterbury Museum.
DAILY JOURNAL PHOTO BY JASON CONNEL

County Treasure

By BRYAN CORBIN
Daily Journal News Editor
bcorbin@thejournalnet.com

Jan. 13, 2001

Saving local history before it is lost, Jim West sifts through copies of the old Franklin Evening Star newspaper for articles about the early days of Camp Atterbury.

His search through World War II-era newspapers has uncovered a treasure trove of other tidbits about Johnson County life in the 1940s.

“You can’t turn a page that you don’t find something interesting,” West said.

Paging through bound issues of the old Evening Star, West uses a computer scanner to copy articles about Atterbury; then he posts them onto the camp’s Web site. The yellowed pages are fragile, but republishing some articles on the Internet ensures they will be preserved.

About 20 large, bound volumes of the Evening Star — from 1942 to 1945 and 1950 to 1953 — were donated to Camp Atterbury a few years ago by Russell Cutsinger, an acquaintance of West’s, and remain in storage.

West, a veteran and a volunteer at the Camp Atterbury museum, borrows one volume at a time and scans articles at his Shelby County home. He has finished poring over the first volume, 1942.

By that time, the United States had just gone to war against Nazi Germany and Japan. In southern Johnson County, family farms and small communities were forced to uproot and relocate to make way for a huge new Army base and military hospital, Camp Atterbury. There, G.I.s received basic training before being shipped overseas, into combat.

The Evening Star chronicled all those events.

Daily headlines tracked the Allies’ progress in the Pacific and pronouncements from President Roosevelt in Washington. But the paper was packed with quirky local stories about the goings-on in what was then a farming community.

Since the Evening Star made no attempt to organize national and local stories by topic across its eight columns of text, it sometimes juxtaposed headlines in bizarre ways. A wire story about a Nazi general in North Africa — “Rommell stopped 70 miles from Alexandria: Peril to Egypt is lessened as British 8th Army clamps down” — might appear next to a local story about “Six pawpaws on one stem exhibited here” or “Mrs. Redman’s arm is broken in fall.”

Eight pages thick and 3 cents a copy, the Evening Star published stories in tiny type with no bylines and few photographs — but ran the occasional editorial cartoon on the front page.

“It’s harder to read; but at the same time it’s a paper you can sit there for two hours and read,” West said. “Page 6 might be something about the community: who had a euchre party last night. People wouldn’t care about that today.”

Noting the effort it took to painstakingly composite the type every day, West said: “It must have been some job to get that paper out.”

The Franklin Evening Star was founded in 1885 by W.W. Aikens; and he and partner Raymond Sellers and Sellers’ widow published it well into the 1940s. The paper was absorbed by the Daily Journal in 1969.

Beyond the news articles, Evening Star advertisements from 1942 also shed light on household budgets as Johnson County emerged from the Depression. Round steak cost 39 cents a pound, said one grocery ad; cantaloupe went for 15 cents each. Men’s Van Heusen shirts sold for $1.49.

Movie listings for the Artcraft Theatre described a double-bill: Milton Berle in “Whispering Ghosts” and Lloyd Nolan in “Blue, White and Perfect.”

Wartime propaganda ads encouraged readers to buy war bonds or donate scrap toward the military effort.

A typical ad from 1942 made sense in the context of the times but is politically incorrect today: “You can help to trap a Jap. Give — and sell — your rubber scrap.”

In reviewing the wartime papers, West concluded, “It’s kind of amazing how everyone was behind it. It was total dedication to the war effort.”

West, 60, grew up in Bartholomew County and got a taste of war himself. He served as a sergeant in the Indiana National Guard at Camp Atterbury from 1963 to 1968; then joined the Air Force Reserve and served in Vietnam as a master sergeant in the 71st Special Operations Squadron.

Working as a project engineer for many years at Indiana Gas Co. sparked West’s interest in computers. “I had the first desktop computer at Indiana Gas. I was always after the latest, and my bosses usually gave in,” he chuckled.

Retirement gave him more time to indulge his interest in Camp Atterbury history and post articles about it on a Web site, www.IndianaMilitary.org. West, who is half-Cherokee Indian, also operates Web sites for the Cherokee Nation and for gas company retirees.

West — who lives in Shelby County with his wife, Sharon, and has two grown children and two grandchildren — often spends a couple of hours a day scanning old articles. He’s also tracked down old issues of military newspapers once published at the base and at Atterbury’s Wakeman Hospital: the Camp Crier, the Wakeman Probe and the Splint-and-Litter.

“Anything I found out about (Camp Atterbury) is interesting, I guess,” West said. “I like computers and I like history, and they came together pretty good.”

As a volunteer one afternoon a week at the new Camp Atterbury Museum, West walks amid display cases of old photos, flags, weapons, uniforms and other base memorabilia. But the old bound volumes of the Evening Star — though fascinating — are too fragile to put on public display. Some of the tattered pages are deteriorating.

“The main thing is, they’re here in these books. No one ever sees them,” West said.

Republishing the Atterbury stories on the Web site preserves them for readers too young to remember the war.

West estimates it will take him another year to sift through all 20 wartime volumes of the Franklin Evening Star, but it’s a labor of love.

“It keeps me at home and out of trouble,” he said. “It keeps me from buying things on eBay.”

Franklin Evening Star - 16 August 1945
Post is calm with arrival of surrender news.
Camp Receives News Of Jap Acceptance Of Potsdam Terms

Unlike most places Atterbury took the news of Japanese acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration quietly and with little excitement. However, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday night every barrack had its radio on. anxiously awaiting President Truman's statement. And when it came, only words of thanksgiving and sporadic shouts of joy filled the camp.
Actually soldiers celebrated some but as one Service Club hostess put It.. "The boys were thankful for the war's end but remembering all that they went through to achieve it, they were willing to just sit around and talk about the past and plan for the future.

"Victory Dances"

Service Club Nos. 1 and 3 held "victory dances" and both clubs were crowded. But the GIs took the end in their stride and just had a good time. Miss Eunice Steinke, Club No. 2 hostess, declared that "miles of confetti a foot high covered the dance floor and everybody was happy."
The various NCO Clubs held small victory parties for members but these came to a halt by 11 p.m. and nothing unusual was reported "except a good time was had by all."

The Reception Station. where overseas returnees are processed for furloughs and reassignment, reported "business as usual with no undue excitement." However, the night shift had its hands full when a huge contingent arrived. "Naturally the returnees: were a happy lot, but well behaved. too," according to a sergeant in charge.

Other Comments

Personnel in the Separation Center also were thrilled with the news. However a good portion of their conversation after peace was announced centered around the expected increase of activities in the center.

In the Reception Center inductees' main interest concerned their future role in the Army. A PX clerk heard one recruit declare, I want to be with MacArthur and see how he makes the Japs toe the mark."

The MPs at the gate declared that few soldiers left the post to celebrate in town. "Guess the rain scared 'em," was the MP's deduction.

All in all, Atterbury remained calm on hearing the news of surrender. Everyone was thankful but most didn't feel the day called for excess celebration and as one GI put it when he entered Chapel No. 701 about 15 minutes after the end was announced. "I'm just thanking God' for everything and everybody." !

Franklin Evening Star - 18 August 1945
Atterbury is preparing to meet the future.
Post's Role Is Increased With End Of Conflict; More Help Needed

The end of the war does not mean any letdown in the work here at Atterbury. On the contrary; it means an increase of all activities in all departments of the Post and Wakeman General and Convalescent Hospitals.

"The tempo of our job is being stepped up tremendously." Brig. Gen. Ernest .A. Bixby, Post Commanding General, declared. "Our big reconversion problem will be to process many more overseas returnees al the Reception Station and to release a larger number of eligible men at the Separation Center;" he slated. Hundreds of additional civilian employees are needed at camp immediately. This is in line with the War Department's policy to utilize civilians instead of military personnel at all Army installations wherever possible. Both civilian and military personnel now in Atterbury are urged to tell their friends and relatives of job opportunities here.

Typists, clerks and laborers are required in all departments: the Post Laundry needs press operators and other help; seamstresses and shoe repairmen are wanted in the clothing and equipment repair shops; the Post Ordnance Branch needs auto mechanics, sheet metal workers and junior armorers; carpenter,, plumbers and painters are required by the Post Engineer. Cooks are wanted for the hospital.

"Urgent" List of Jobs

Included in the "urgent" list of jobs open are semi-tractor bus drivers, electricians, typewriter repairmen, stationary firemen and a key maker. Vocational instructors in a number of trades are needed at the Wakeman Convalescent Hospital and academic teachers at the Atterbury Special Training Unit.
Qualified persons are urged to contact their local U. S. Employment Offices or Civil Service Commission or write, phone or come in person to the Civilian Personnel Branch at Post Headquarters. Discharged servicemen are especially urged to apply.

Exchange Positions

The Post Exchanges have openings for several managers and assistant manager, preferably those with variety store or other retail experience. Also wanted by the Exchange is cafeteria help, including managers, clefs, cashiers, fountain. counter and bus girls, janitors anti kitchen helpers. Applicants should come to the Exchange Personnel Office located in Bldg. 907, near 32nd and Lawton streets.

Following represents the Korean War Era

Franklin Evening Star - 11 April 1952
Mass Airlift Is Slated To Start At Dawn--Monday
9,000 Men To Arrive At Atterbury Base !n Two-Day Period

Final plans for the arrival of the Infantry Division, scheduled to be airlifted from Texas to Indiana early next week, have been completed. The first plane-load of Dixie Division men is schedule to take off from San Angelo (Tex.) Air Force Base shortly before dawn Monday (Apr. 14) and to launch the around the-clock air movement of nearly 9,000 combat-dressed men.

First Plane Here al 8 a.m.

The men in the first plane will touch Hoosier soil, at the Atterbury Air Force Base, about 8 a.m. that morning and will be taken immediately to Camp Atterbury, their new home. Lt. Col. Frank Reagan, who commands advance elements of the 31st. now at Camp Atterbury, said that his men have completed their mission to prepare the camp for the arrival of the Division. Maj. Gen. A. G. Paxton, the Division's Commanding General, is expected to arrive on one of the first planes, Division officials said.

Will Use 277 Sorties

Planes carrying 31st Division men from Texas will be from the 18th Air Force Troop Carrier Wing, Air Force officials said they would fly "about 277 sorties" on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to airlift the 31st.

An Airlift Coordination Committee, headed by Col. R. J. Halada, Deputy Post Chief of Staff and Lt. Col. W. G. Stotlar, of VI Corps Transportation. has been organized to carry out the final phase of the air movement.

Thirty busses will transport 31st men from Atterbury Air Force Base, 10 miles south of here, to the camp. Camp Atterbury Military Police and Indiana State Police will work together to control traffic on highway U. S. 31 between the air base and camp.

Equipment Comes By Rail

The Division's heavy equipment and a few other men will travel from Texas to Indiana by rail. Meanwhile, a motor convoy of about 4.000 men is scheduled to leave Camp Bowie, Tex., next Tuesday. Included in the group will be the Division's 102-piece marching band. The motor convoy will cover the 900-mile distance in approximately a week, with first units arriving Apr. 21. The Dixie Band is scheduled to parade in six cities or the way north. They include Dallas and Texarkana, Tex.; Greenville, Miss.. Memphis. Tenn., Ft. Campbell, Ky., and Louisville, Ky.

REFER TO THE 31ST INFANTRY DIVISION SITE FOR FURTHER 31ST DIVISION NEWS ARTICLES AND INFORMATION.

Franklin Evening Star - 17 April 1952
Atterbury Truck Unit Is Enroute To Flood Area

Camp Atterbury Transportation Truck unit raced toward St. Joseph. Mo., today to give assistance to civilians in that flood -threatened city.
The 343rd Transportation Truck left Camp Atterbury late yesterday on "Task Force Flood." It is expected to arrive at. St. Joseph, which is 158 miles south of Omaha, Neb.. on the banks of the Missouri River late today. Capt. Henry Blackwell, of Johnson City. Tenn., the unit's commanding officer, said he was told to report to the District Engineer at St. Joseph upon arrival and to offer any help needed.

"I have no idea just what we'll be doing when we arrive there," Capt. Blackwell said. "I imagine we'll help the engineers hold the flood waters back and haul sand bags and other equipment. "And, if the waters aren't. checked. we'll help civilians evacuate the area."

56 Trucks in Unit

The 393rd, a small unit of less than 150 men, has nearly one truck for every two men in the outfit. In all, it took 56 trucks - 50 two and one-half ton trucks, including a kitchen truck and a maintenance truck, five jeeps and one three-quarter ton truck.

Capt. Blackwell said that his men "were pretty excited" about the trip to St. Joseph and "hoped they'd be able to do something worthwhile for the flood victims."

The 393rd, a reserve unit from Gadsden, Ala., left Camp Atterbury less than five hours after it was ordered to make the trip. It had been alerted a day earlier, however, end members of the outfit worked nearly all Tuesday night preparing for the 525-mile journey. Several other Camp Atterbury units have been alerted to go to the flood area and may leave in a day or two, it was announced.

Franklin Evening Star - 14 May 1952
County Residents Invited To Attend Parade, Concert, Displays At Camp

One of the largest displays of military equipment ever shown to Indiana civilians will highlight Camp Atterbury's observance of Armed Forces Day, Saturday. Elements of every unit stationed at Camp Atterbury. with members of the 31st Infantry (Dixie) Division playing a leading role, will participate in the gala day-long Open House program which will 'Include displays, band music. free lemonade, and demonstrations of some of the Army's newest equipment.

Military equipment valued at more than $2,000,000 including every type of weapon used by an Infantry Division in combat, will be displayed. Maj. Gen. Alexander G. Paxton, Commanding General of both Camp Atterbury and the Dixie Division, extended a cordial invitation to all Hoosiers, and especially those living near the camp, "to come and visit us on Armed Forces Day." "I am sure that every civilian who visits Camp Atterbury Saturday will enjoy our program and will leave with a better understanding of what we are doing to protect their American freedoms," Gen. Paxton said.

Plan Two Exhibits

The display of military equipment will include two separate exhibits -one indoors and the other out of doors. A "miniature combat Division" will be set up by members of the 31st Infantry Division on one of Camp Atterbury's large parade grounds. Elements of the Dixie Division's Infantry, Artillery, Quarter
master, Engineer. Medical Signal, Tank, Ordnance and Chaplain units will be represented. Civilians will see how an Infantry Division operates when it is in combat They will get a close-up look at every Infantry weapon, ranging from small 45 caliber automatic pistols to medium tanks, and will be allowed to operate themselves walkie-talkie radio sets, field telephones. switch-boards and other types of communications equipment.

A complete field kitchen will be in operation and members of two companies will eat two meals at the exhibit. A field chapel, consisting of altar vestments and ornaments mounted on the front of a jeep. will be set up by the Dixie Division Chaplain Section. By using a jeep as an altar, a Chaplain can bring religious services vices to men wherever they are in the field or combat.

To Show New Jeep

A major attraction of the day will be the actual operation of the "eager beaver" jeep which operates under water by use of a Snorkel breathing tube device. A jeep will be submerged in a water-filled tank for the demonstration. A demonstration by the Division's Air Section will demonstrate how messages are relayed and package. picked up from ground units. This display will be canceled, however, if the shortage of gasoline becomes worse by Saturday. In addition, a medical aid station 1 of the type used for emergency treatment of wounded soldiers and a bridge construction demonstration will be included in the colorful display.

The second exhibit. set up in Camp Atterbury's sprawling field house, will include more than 300 pieces of military equipment. Each item on display will have a price tag showing what it cost the Army.

Children To Get Rides

Two special attractions, one for adults and the other for children visiting camp, are planned.
Free jeep rides from one exhibit to the other will be conducted throughout the day. The rides will include a brief tour of the camp with a brief stop at Camp Atterbury's 1,300-bed U. S. Army Hospital. For the children, a special circus ride in a jeep is planned. The jeep is picked up by a crane and twirled, much like the thrill-rides at fairs.

The Open House program scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. A parade of units stationed here be held at 10 a.m. and a one and one-half hour hand concert. featuring the 31st Division Band and the 276th Army Band, will start at 2 p.m. The parade will be held on a parade ground at North rind Gatling streets.

Franklin Evening Star - 26 June 1952
Atterbury G.I.'s Will Get Increase In Pay on Monday

CAMP ATTERBURY, .June 25 Atterbury soldiers will be "loaded" (with money that is) next Monday.
They'll receive more $10 and $20 bills over the pay table than at any time in recent months. Congress passed a bill last month to give all servicemen a four per cent pay hike. The increase was effective May 1. However, it was passed too late for Finance Officers to give Atterbury soldiers the increase in their pay. So they'll pick up the difference for May plus a full new scale pay for June all at once.
Married men will benefit more from Congress' action because it ,gave then a 14 per cent increase in their family allotment. They'll get the difference at the pay table for several months until the Army can start writing the bigger allotment checks which go to their wives.

Franklin Evening Star - 26 June 1952
Franklin Foreman at Camp Has Key Role in Making Carbine Sight Gauge

Joseph Stevens, of Franklin Indiana (left) holds a complicated gauge formerly used to set the front sights of 30 caliber carbines. The job is now being done by the light-weight gauge held by Lt. Fred

H. Evick, Camp Atterbury's Small Arms Officer. It was developed by Erick Stephen and Bob Lucas, of Seymour. Ind., and corrects the sights 15 times faster than before.

CAMP ATTERBURY, June 26.-A Camp Atterbury civilian worker from Franklin played a key role in the development of an Ordnance gauge that is saving American taxpayers thousands of dollars annually.

He's Joseph Stephen. of 398 N. Main St., Franklin, Mr. Stephen, an Ordnance Officer, and another civilian worker from Seymour, combined talents to do one particular job 15 time faster titan before. The savings in dollars and cents is hard to convince but it would easily go over the $1.000 mark during a 30-day period.

This story has its start. nearly a decade ago when war plants across the country were turning out. thousands of 30 caliber carbines. a small semi-automatic rifle. 1n the rush to produce enough carbines to equip every American soldier. some mistakes were made. One was on the height of the front sight.

All carbines that went overseas were corrected before a soldier had an opportunity to use it in combat But other thousands. earmarked for training purposes. were not corrected. Today. Army Ordnance shops still are changing the sight to its proper measurements.

Used Complicated Gadget

Here at Atterbury. Ordnance worker,; were using a complicated "gadget" to make the correction It took a man about 15 minutes to make the change. There always was the chance he would file t too much off the sight, and it would he an additional expense to replace the sight with a new one.

That was until 1st Lt. Fred H. Evick, Atterbury's Small Arms Officer, spent an evening studying the problem. He came up with an idea of building n smaller gauge that would do the same job. He told his idea to Stephen who is foreman in the Small Arms shop.
Lt. Evick nod Mr. Stephen borrowed nearly 100 carbines and expert marksmen fired them on a 100-yard range for accuracy. By doing this. they were able to determine as accurately as possible the average height of the front. sight from the center of the barrel.
Then, they called in Bob Lucas, of Seymour. Ind.. the shop's head machinist and described their plan to him. Adding a few ideas of his own. Lucas made a small Gauge that'll do the same job within 1 /1000th of an inch as the larger

Franklin Evening Star - 27 June 1952
Camp G.I. Gets Highest Award
WASHINGTON. June 27 (INS)
President Truman today presents the 19th and 20th Congressional Medal of Honor to be awarded heroes who have returned alive from Korea. One is a soldier now at Camp Atterbury. Ind.

Cpl. Ronald E. Rosser, of Crooksville. Ohio, now stationed at Camp Atterbury. and Cpl. Jerry K. Krump, of Lincolnton, N. C., now at Camp Rucker, Ala., are to receive the nation's highest honor in a White House rose garden ceremony. Before the presentation. Cpl. Rosser, his parents. grandparents and brothers and sisters were guests of Sen. Bricker (R) Ohio. at a luncheon or Capitol Hill.

Evening the Score

Cpl. Ronald E. Rosser, 22, of Crooksville, Chip,. 50th man to win the Medal of Honor for action in Korea, is seeking to avenge the death of his brother, killed in combat. He is placing the 13th notch on his carbine stock, to record his "kill" during an engagement in this year.

Page last revised 04/15/2022
James D. West
www.IndianaMilitary.org
imo.jimwest@outlook.com