Bernie Shankman is drafted

BS: I was drafted in 1943.

TM: Did you get to choose which branch of the military you were drafted into or were you drafted specifically into the army?

BS: Specifically into the army.

TM: More specifically, how did you become part of the infantry?

BS: Well, I was drafted, and I was inducted into Fort Myers, Virginia. And then they shipped me to Fort Lee, Virginia, and then from there they shipped me to Camp Hood, which I was with the tank destroyers and they knew I could ride a motorcycle so they made me a scout on a motorcycle. So I had the experience of being a scout for the artillery. And from there they moved me to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which was an artillery school, and stayed there. They decided they needed me in the infantry, so they put me in the infantry, and I went to I think it was Fort Breckenridge, Missouri. While there, I volunteered to be a pilot in the army airforce at that time, and I was accepted, and then they sent me to Buckley Field, Colorado where they put me in the air force and sent me to Washington State College for pre-flight training. And while there, the Battle of the Bulge broke out in Germany, and they needed infantryman, so those that were drafted were put back in the army and the infantry, which I was, and those that were listed in the air force remained to become pilots, so I was sent back into the army to Camp Adair, Oregon, and while I was there I thought I’d be there for a while. My parents shipped my motorcycle to Camp Adair, Oregon, and I was there about a month, and they gave me orders to report back to Washington. And I rode the motorcycle back in 1944 all the way from Oregon to Washington, DC in three and a half days. There were no interstates then, just rural roads and it was quite an experience. From there I went to Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and they asked me if I’d like to go to OCS, Officer Candidate School, and I said yes and they said I’d be accepted and I was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, and there I went through the infantry school, and got a commission there, and then from there I was sent to South Carolina. There used to be a camp in Spartanburg- you know where Spartanburg is?- Used to be Camp Croft, South Carolina, and there I was an instructor and an executive officer in a company. I taught infantry basics, to recruits that were coming in. I taught them, and the war ended in Germany and they decided they were gonna close Camp Croft, so they shipped me to Camp Roberts, California where I was doing the same job instructing, and from there I was in the army, and they sent me back to Maryland to Fort Meade, Maryland, and they released me from the army, but I stayed in the army reserves there. And it was in 1946, and from ‘46 to ‘51 I was a civilian, but in ‘51 they called me back for Korea. I was shipped to Fort Breckinridge, Kentucky with 101st Division. From there they shipped me to California, where we boarded ships and went to Korea. I was in Korea ‘51 and ‘52. I was in (unintelligible) third battalion of Custer's Last Stand. He was in the seventh cavalry, so we were pretty famous. They called it the Garry Owen Regiment. We fought in Korea not against the North Koreans, but the Chinese. I was wounded there pretty good, and they shipped me back to a hospital in Busan, Korea, where I recuperate and [they] shipped me back to the front lines. When I got back up to the front lines, they put me in division headquarters and assigned me to G3 in division headquarters. They made me a liaison officer between the British commonwealth division and the first cavalry division. We had divisions from Greece and Turkey and the British commonwealth division which consisted of soldiers from Canada and Great Britain, and I lived with the British commonwealth division. I did liaison work between the first cav and the British commonwealth division, and in ‘52 they shipped the first cavalry division to Japan for occupation of Japan, and we were in Sapporo, Japan, which is a northern island of Japan, which is just like Alaska- in fact they had the Olympics there one year- and while we were there I was the liaison between the first cav and the airforce in Chitose, Japan, which was right on the border of China Sea. While flying to Chitose, we could look over the ocean and see Russia, Vladivostok, in Russia, while we were in the air. But I was a liaison between the airforce and the first cav. And they asked me if I wanted to stay or go home, and I was a little homesick so I decided to come home. They shipped me back to California and I was discharged there. So that was about the essence of my military then, but it was an interesting life, and very memorable life, and very instructive life, and it taught me many things that carried through my lifetime now.