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On
January 19, the men of the 78th
began packing equipment for there
move to the Tennessee Army
Maneuvers. The trip for the 78th
took several days and Dad recalls
stopping for the night in
Jonesborough, Tennessee, it was
Sunday and the men pitched there pup
tents in a large field, the towns
people came out and watched just
like a circus had come to town. The
General order the division band to
get there instruments out and play
church hymns, and the chaplain
invited the towns people to join
them in worship that night. In the
morning the ladies handed out a bag
of homemade cookies to each truck in
the convoy.
These maneuvers were to last for nearly 3 months and have 4 divisions plus additional supporting units competing against each other in tactile exercises. The maneuvers took them all-round the state of Tennessee. With lots of rain the maneuver areas were quite muddy and sometimes deadly, Dads knows of 2 incidents were 78th men lost there life's, one was a man who was ran over by a truck at night while they were simulating blackout conditions, another time a pontoon bridge over the swollen Cumberland River collapsed while 3 trucks were crossing, 3 men drowned that day and a fourth man who dove into the river and saved several men died later from pneumonia. He did receive some sort of medal for his bravery that day.
Once
again it was not all work for the
men they did have the opportunity to
visit Nashville, TN. and did the
usual things soldiers did on there
free time.
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