Fort Drum History Extras
Feres Doctrine
An incident at Pine Camp established a legal precedent that has continued to this day. First Lieutenant
Rudolph J. Feres was one of four officers killed in a barracks fire there in 1947 leaving behind a young
widow and their one year old son. Although the fire was blamed on the negligence of a maintenance crew,
a lawsuit brought by the widow against the government for damages was disallowed by a 1950 Supreme
Court ruling (FERES vs UNITED STATES 340 U.S. 135). Justice Robert H. Jackson in a unanimous
opinion ruled that the death of Feres was an “incident to service.” His widow and son would receive his
pension as compensation.
Now over fifty years later, the “Feres Doctrine” is routinely cited by the government and courts to evade
damage suits involving men and women in military service, no matter how blatant the negligence
involved might be. “…The United States is not liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries to
members of the Armed Forces sustained while on active duty and not on furlough and resulting from the
negligence of others in the Armed Forces…”
Attempts to repeal the doctrine have been brought before Congress occasionally over the last twenty
years. But each time the efforts have failed to move legislators. Jonathan Turley, a Law Professor at
George Washington University is quoted by reporter Bill Sizemore writing for the Virginian-Pilot in an
article from May 17th, 2009 on why efforts to change the ruling have failed…”Because it would cost a
huge amount of money to upgrade the military medical system to meet basic civilian standards. Congress
simply doesn’t want to spend the money. Soldiers and sailors are a real bargain to kill and injure in the
United States…”
Secret Units
After World War Two, the existence of two secret units that formed at Pine Camp was revealed. The
3132nd Signal Service Company pioneered the development of “sonic deception” techniques at the Army
Experimental Station established at Pine Camp. The 3132nd served later in Italy. They practiced using
large speaker arrays to broadcast the noise of a moving armored column or other sounds on the battlefield
to confuse the enemy in the area. This group was one of four in the U.S. organized as the 23rd
Headquarters Special Troops, who went over to Europe and actually employed a number of various
deceptions to fool German units along the front lines.
2nd Medal Of Honor Awarded For 10th Mountain Soldier
After 58 years a second 10th Mountain Division soldier has been posthumously awarded the Medal Of
Honor. Sgt First Class Jared Monti, 31, of 3rd Squadron 71st Cavalry Regiment was given the award for
giving his life in repeated attempts to rescue a wounded soldier while under fire. The incident occurred in
the Gowardesh region of Afghanistan on June 21st 2006. His parents were presented with the medal in a
White House ceremony on September 17th 2009 by President Obama. The first 10th Mountain Division
Medal Of Honor recipient was John D. Magrath, 20, for an action in Italy on April 14th 1945 during the
last year of World War Two. He was officially recognized posthumously with the award on July 17th
1946.
Congressmen Who Funded Pine Camp
The two upstate Congressmen who pushed the funding for Pine Camp to become a permanent military
training site: “Sunny” Jim Sherman or James Schoolcraft Sherman was born in Utica on 10/24/1855. He
attended private schools, studied law and graduated from Hamilton College in 1878. He worked in a Utica
law firm and served as the mayor of Utica in 1884. Elected to Congress in 1886 he served four years until
losing the election in 1890. He would return two years later winning eight consecutive elections starting
in 1892. He served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the New York 27th
District from March of 1903 until March 1909. He was the 27th Vice-President of the United States under
President William Howard Taft from March 1909 until his death at age 57 in October 1912.
Charles Luman Knapp was born on a farm in Harrisburg NY on July 4th, 1847. He attended Lowville
Academy and later studied law, graduating from Rutgers College in 1869. Elected to fill a vacancy to the
57th Congress in 1901, he was reelected to the 58th Congress and served three succeeding terms until
March of 1911, when he declined renomination in 1910. He resumed his law practice in Lowville, dying
there in January of 1929.
“A nation‟s greatness lies in its possibility of achievement in the present, and nothing helps it more than
the consciousness of achievement in the past.” Theodore Roosevelt
Darby’s Rangers and Fort Drum
The William O. Darby Rapid Deployment Facility (RDF) at Wheeler-Sack Airfield is the place where
troops check through customs and receive last minute briefings when preparing to fly in and out of Fort
Drum. The facility is named for the creator of the famed “Darby‟s Rangers” of World War Two, the 1st
Ranger Battalion. Colonel Darby was named Assistant Division Commander of the 10th Mountain
Division in Italy near the end of World War Two. He was killed by German artillery fire in the Lake
Garda area on April 30th 1945, two days before the end of the war in Italy. Darby was posthumously
promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. A 1958 movie, “Darby‟s Rangers” starring James Garner
recounted, in Hollywood style, some of his exploits in World War Two.
Deadly Range Accident For The 10th
A deadly incident for the 10th Mountain Division on post March 20th, 2002 as two artillery shells are
misdirected landing a mile and a quarter short near a mess tent killing one soldier outright and wounding
14 others. The soldier killed was Pfc. William Hamm, 34, of Ocala, Florida. A second soldier, SSgt. Eric
Hall, 34, of Phoenix, Arizona, later died from his injuries. Five of the wounded men were treated and
released. They were all members of the 110th Military Intelligence Battalion bivouacked near the Indian
River and were just having breakfast when the 105mm shells struck. The artillery company, C Battery of
the Second Battalion 15th Field Artillery was preparing to fire into the main impact area with M119
howitzers from a battery of six guns. The two shells were registration rounds to help in adjusting the
targeting, but the computerized system relayed faulty data that led to the misfires.
An investigation by the Army Safety Center at Fort Rucker Alabama resulted in an artillery captain being
relieved of command for his negligence and “demanding, demeaning behavior” which contributed to the
deaths. The report issued by the center also included inadequate training, operator error, and complicated
fire-control software as contributing cause.
The Crystals Of Quarry Pond
In 1906 a lime quarry near Natural Bridge yielded a geological prize: the largest calcite crystals ever
discovered, up to that time. A state geologist supervised the removal of many samples some described as
being nine feet tall. This from a cave roughly ten feet high by four feet wide and about twenty feet deep
until it became gradually narrower. The New York State Museum‟s Crystal Cave exhibit featured these
crystals for many years. By the 1930‟s continued mining operations went below the water table and
flooded the quarry. Today Quarry Pond is within the boundaries of Fort Drum. In 2008 a Lewis County
Sheriff‟s Department dive team made a practice dive in Quarry Pond to see what might be hidden there.
They found a network of railroad track and a railroad car left from the mining operation. Also discovered
were a steam shovel flywheel and a 53‟ Chevy. The team also located the entrance to the Crystal Cave
some sixty feet down. A wooden platform still remains in the cave entrance apparently used to remove the
famed crystals that would be exhibited in the state museum.
Traveling On Its Stomach
The 1940 maneuvers in upstate New York tested more than weapons and tactics. Troops in World War
Two and beyond would become very familiar with the new standard field ration known as “Type C”. The
three mixed meat and vegetable components along with the cracker-biscuit in C-Rations was supplied to
First Army troops in the war games of 1940. On November 1st, 1939 the Army announced the adoption of
C-Rations but they would not get their field trials until the 1940 maneuvers involving the First, Third and
Fourth Armies. The additional packet of cigarettes, chewing gum, matches and toilet paper was the
favorite of troops who would continue to refer to the meals as “C-Rations” even after 1958 when the new
generation of MCI‟s (Meal, Combat, Individual) replaced the 1939 version. By the 1980‟s troops were
receiving the current issue, known as MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat).
World War Two Trainer Crashes At Wheeler-Sack Airfield
(Unless otherwise noted)
10/30/41---#35-182…Douglas 0-46A (Pilot-Frederick J. Ziegler)
10/30/41---#35-184…Douglas 0-46A (Pilot-Claude W. Smith)
12/21/41---#35-184…Douglas 0-46A (Pilot-Raleigh E. Sherman)
12/21/41---#40-2858…..Curtiss 0-52 “Owl” wrecked at W-S-F when landing gear collapsed on landing
(Pilot-Claude W. Smith)
12/31/41---#40-3111….Stinson L-1C “Vigilant” (Pilot-Woodrow W. Ramsey)
01/21/42---#40-2856….Curtiss 0-52 “Owl” crashed two miles south of Boonville, NY
(Pilot-Homer T. Hill)
02/26/42---#40-2800….Curtiss 0-52 “Owl” (Pilot-John R. Gilmore)
2/26/42---#40-2860…..Curtiss 0-52 “Owl” nosed over on landing at W-S-F
3/8/42---#40-2707…..Curtiss 0-52 “Owl” wrecked at W-S-F (Pilot-James E. Crane)
3/13/42---#40-2721….Curtiss 0-52 “Owl” (Pilot-James E. Crane)
3/14/42---#37-310….North American 0-47A crash near Rockport, Canada (Pilot-John R. Gilmore)
4/29/42---#40-2710…Curtiss 0-52 “Owl” wrecked at W-S-F (Pilot-John R.Gilmore)
5/16/42---#42-36409….Piper L-4A “Grasshopper” (Pilot-Jack Lyons)
5/31/42---#40-2864….Curtiss 0-52 “Owl” at Felts Mills, NY (Pilot-Jack Lyons)
5/31/42---#40-2840….Curtiss 0-52 “Owl” crashed at Pine Camp two crewmen killed
Excerpt From News Of The 45th By Sgt. Don Robinson With Art By Sgt. Bill Mauldin
Published By University Of Oklahoma Press
“Rumors bristled around Fort Devens in those days. Everyone thought we were going somewhere, but
nobody knew where. We got into trucks and wound up late one night at Pine Camp, New York, after a
drive through some of the most awe-inspiring country any of us ever had seen before. There was food
ready. After chow, the men soon discovered there was an electric light over every shaving mirror. Some
of the camp command told us it would soon get down below zero; but we didn‟t worry.
The 45th Division News started again and quickly became the most frequently quoted newspaper in
northern New York. The Watertown Times, the Syracuse Post-Standard, the Rome paper, and others were
delighted with our gripes about the weather, which had plunged to forty degrees below zero and dumped
so much snow on us that the telephone operators couldn‟t go home from camp. We printed in the plant of
the Carthage Republican-Tribune, which was run by some very fine people. They were shocked,
however, when we put a story five columns wide above the name of our paper.
Our Indians danced to new audiences, our Puerto Ricans broadcast, our news enterprise went on, but too
much of our time was taken up in throwing snowballs on mild days and trying to keep warm on the cold
days. Some of the boys-not many-got tanked up in town while trying to thaw out and raised a little
rumpus right at the start. The Watertown Times, a staid and comfortable paper which believes no local
news is important enough to merit a page 1 position, carried a “tich-tich” editorial. Maybe we were a bit
touchy, but this had been the first evil to appear in print about our division. The 45th Division News
carried a story quoting every civic leader we could find to the effect that we were a model bunch of
soldiers. We were somewhat embarrassed when a shooting occurred in the public square, but the PostStandard rallied to our cause, contending such could happen in the best of families.
Irv Parmenter, of the Post-Standard Watertown Bureau, printed everything good he could find about the
division, and that was considerable. The Times did too, for that matter, but it infuriated us by clucking
when nineteen men out of our entire strength, having been curbed all week in their barracks by the cold,
managed to get arrested over the weekend for drunkenness.
We printed the results of a survey of the rest of the week, when practically nobody had been tight, and
were pretty stern with “a certain newspaper” about making people feel ill toward us. It wasn‟t until we
were in Sicily that we learned that the Times’s attitude toward us was that of an indulgent father with a
headache and a house full of noisy youngsters. The British were making little headway toward Catania at
one stage of the campaign, prompting the Times to editorialize wistfully:
“If General Eisenhower wants Catania taken, let him shove the Forty-fifth into the battle. They will
deliver any town, mussed up perhaps, but thoroughly conquered….”
…Having wintered in Pine Camp, where blizzards rage, we were ordered to Camp Pickett, Virginia, for
the summer. We packed thirty or forty crates of eagle feathers, a dozen musical instruments, and a box of
typewriters, and entrained. We never found out whether snow ever melts at Watertown.
Prison Camp
Apparently from some who lived at or near Pine Camp during World War Two, it became a large POW
camp after the 5th Armored Division finished training and moved out. Not only were over 1,000 Italian
prisoners of war kept there, but later an estimate of between 4,000 and 8,000 German POWs moved in,
and a separate stockade or complex was established for dozens of American detainees who were caught
while absent without leave or having deserted their units.
Gerald Hoard, former Assistant Superintendent of General Brown School in Brownville, New York lived
at Pine Camp while growing up and described the huge numbers of German soldiers marching in with
their grey uniforms, and at night the sirens would blare usually for American escapees as the Germans
had nowhere to go if they were to escape.
Mq-9 Reapers To Be Based At Fort Drum
March 6th, 2010 saw the end of an era has the last manned fighters left Syracuse for the Air Force
boneyard in Arizona. For 62 years the air wing flew various fighter aircraft from the P-47 Thunderbolt to
the F-16 Fighting Falcon. The 174th Fighter Wing of the New York Air National Guard in Syracuse is the
first air guard unit nationally to convert to flying the MQ-9 Reaper UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).
The Reaper is the improved 2nd generation version of the Predator drone that has been used extensively in
the Afghanistan-Pakistan region with deadly results. Although the 174th will train and control the aircraft
from their base in Syracuse, the Reapers will be physically based at Fort Drum, as the Syracuse area is too
crowded with civilian air traffic from nearby Hancock International Airport. They will practice flying and
ground attack training on the remote impact areas of Fort Drum, and will be used for patrol work along
the U.S.-Canadian border.
“Battle Of The Bulge” Movie Planned For Camp Drum
In the fall of 1962 it was announced that Gotham Rhodes Enterprises and producer Tony Lazzarino were
making preparations to shoot a major Hollywood war movie at Camp Drum in collaboration with MetroGoldwyn-Mayer (MGM). It was to be a historically accurate version of the World War Two engagement
of December 1944 known as the “Battle of the Bulge.” Camp Drum was chosen as the site to film the
movie as the weather and terrain resembled Western Europe in Belgium and Luxembourg where the bulk
of the real battle took place. The film went through several working titles including “COUNTER
FORCE,” then was called “WHEN THE HOUR IS THE DARKEST,” and also a second script called
“THE MORTALS.” Finally it was known as “THE 16th OF DECEMBER” and Henry Fonda would star.
Fonda had recently played Theodore Roosevelt Junior (Teddy‟s son), a World War Two general who
landed at D-Day, in the movie “THE LONGEST DAY.”
Area villages like Antwerp and Champion would stand in for locations in the battle, and the Army
Ordnance depot in Pueblo, Colorado would ship six half-tracks to the North Country for the film.
But before plans could get underway, a second project, the film that was actually released to the theaters,
called “THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE” began shooting in Spain with a six-million dollar budget. The
second movie was a joint production between Warner Brothers, Cinerama, and United States Productions.
This movie also starred Henry Fonda. “THE 16th OF DECEMBER” was scrapped.
Looking back, you can only wonder that if the original film had been produced it would have been a more
historically accurate and less “far-fetched” tribute to the soldiers in the battle than the “Hollywoodized”
film that we remember today…
Fort Drum Based Company Rebuilds Helicopters
A division of Lear-Siegler started business in the World War Two hanger at Wheeler-Sack Field in 1989
refurbishing Army helicopters for the Reserves and National Guard as well as for foreign sales with just
ten employees. The company soon grew to a work force of four hundred and became a for-profit arm of
the Defense Department selling used OH-58‟s, including the “D” model, plus rebuilt Hueys, AH-1 Cobras
and AH-60 Black Hawks to overseas allies such as Taiwan, Bahrain, and Turkey. The Fort Drum shop
became the only location to work on the Cobra fleet which amounted to nearly 470 helicopters built since
the end of the Vietnam War. Over 150 airframes were stored nearby waiting to be taken into the shop,
where new wiring, electronics and various internal parts were replaced, creating a “good-as-new”
refurbished aircraft. The operation was reorganized and for several years now the Foreign Military Sales
(FMS) has been run by DS-2 contractors who recently completed work on the last four Cobras left to be
restored, which were purchased by the Royal Thai Air Force in Bangkok.
1978 Study for a New Division at Fort Drum
January 1978…. A study conducted by Saratoga Associates looked at the future of Fort Drum if it became
home to a division sized force. The expansion of Fort Drum to accommodate military and civilian
personnel associated with the redeployment of the Second Infantry Division (in Korea) could mean an
increase of as much as 38,500 in the population density of the North Country, according to initial findings
of the report. The study was commissioned by the Watertown Foundation and Community Savings Bank
as a follow to state efforts to persuade the Defense Department to make the under-utilized Fort Drum
home to a large Army unit.
In the study, four models were envisioned for the base. Model 1 (Mechanized Infantry Division minus a
Brigade) an increase of 38,500 in population, Model 2 (Brigade Size Force Maximum) 16,600, Model 3
(Brigade Sized Force Medium) 13,600, and Model 4 (Training Size Force) 6,500. Other figures in the
report noted that new housing for military and civilian personnel would need to accommodate from
15,742 in Model 1 to 4,898 in Model 4. New school children could range from 6,469 to 1,223 depending
on the extent of the redeployment of the Division at Drum…
754th Tank Battalion
Another armored unit was formed and trained at Pine Camp about the time of the 4th Armored Division.
The 754th Tank Battalion was at Pine Camp from May 1941 until January of 1942. They operated
independently and were not permanently attached to any larger unit. One of their members recalled, in an
article from the Watertown Daily Times in 1974, a road trip the unit took with their Stuart Tanks to
Auburn, NY in December of 1941: “We were going around the square in our tanks, when the lead driver
hit a patch of ice and started to slide. This guy was pumping gas at his station and the tank slid right up
and almost hit him. The guy dropped the hose and ran. From then on, we always kidded the driver about
having to stop for gas…When we went into Auburn, they gave us a parade with ticker tape and
everything. But when we left, people were crying in the streets. What a change…”
They rolled out with their 60 tanks on January 23rd , 1942 and embarked aboard ships for Australia. They
moved to the island of New Caledonia and being the only tank battalion in the Pacific at that time, landed
with the Marines at Guadalcanal in August of 1942. They continued on to the New Hebrides and
Bougainville. By the time they helped liberate the Philippines in 1944 and 1945 they had lost nearly a
quarter of their ranks, not counting disease and jungle rot. They were disbanded in South Korea in 1946
and received a Presidential Citation for their service.
Notes On Hugh Drum: With Patton In Hawaii
In his 1995 Book, PATTON: A GENIUS FOR WAR (HarperCollins Publishers), author Carlo D‟Este
noted this telling incident between General Hugh Drum and Lieutenant Colonel George S. Patton…
It was also during his second tour in Hawaii that Patton had his famous clash with his commanding
general, Hugh Drum. During World War One Drum was a trusted member of Pershing‟s AEF staff and
also his First Army chief of staff before being reduced to major during the postwar cutbacks. By 1935
Drum was a major general commanding the Hawaiian Department, and it was at his instigation that
Patton was invited to become his G-2. Yet the ambitious Drum, whose background was humble, deeply
resented Patton‟s wealth and lifestyle. Lieutenant Colonel Patton was a friend of the most important
people in the islands and was invited to every social gathering of any consequence. By contrast, Drum, as
the senior officer on the island of Oahu, was accorded only pro forma invitations, and was decidedly not a
favorite of the socially important. That he came to resent George S. Patton was perhaps inevitable.
The Inter-Island Polo Championships, a weeklong series of matches, was one of the major social events
of the year for the elite of Hawaii. In 1936 Patton‟s army team was playing the Oahu team, captained by
his dear friend Walter Dillingham, in front of a large audience that included General Drum, who occupied
a front-row seat in the flag-draped VIP box.
Patton‟s voice was high-pitched, and did not carry particularly well. He regarded it as a curse and
compensated by a tendency to yell often. What he shouted was a 1930‟s version of what is commonly
called “trash talk” among modern-day athletes. On this afternoon horses and riders furiously banged into
one another, and amid the banging of mallets and the pounding hoof beats, many four-letter words could
clearly be heard emanating from Patton as he attempted to ride off his friend Dillingham. After numerous
expletives, Patton could be heard screaming: “Why you old son of a bitch, I‟ll ride you right down Front
Street.”
Without warning the humorless Drum ordered the match suspended and summoned Patton to his box.
Patton rode up, dismounted, and in front of the large crowd was reprimanded by an irate Drum for using
foul language and for conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. “I‟m relieving you of the
captaincy of the army team, for using offensive language in front of the ladies and insulting your
competitors. You will leave the field at once.” Patton‟s daughter recalls: “There was a stunned silence.
All you could hear were people and horses breathing.” An equally shocked Patton drew himself stiffly to
attention and, with a “Yes, Sir,” saluted Drum, and began to lead his mount from the field.
Walter Dillingham and Frank Baldwin, the captain of the Maui team, quickly conferred in the middle of
the field. Dillingham then rode up to the General‟s box, followed by Baldwin, and inquired if it was true
that Drum had just relieved Colonel Patton. When Drum replied that he had, Dillingham turned to
Baldwin and announced in a loud voice heard by all that this meant the end of the matches for the year. If
Patton was relieved his team would not retake the field, and the tournament would end right there.
Baldwin informed Drum: “I have never heard George Patton use foul language of any kind.” There was
another moment of silence as the two most powerful men on Oahu, Drum and Dillingham, stared each
other down. Faced with the responsibility (and embarrassment) of ruining the matches and earning the
permanent enmity of the islanders, Drum blinked. He summoned Patton back, and after warning him to
watch his language, gathered his family and drove away.
Although Patton would later repay Drum in kind during the 1941 Carolina maneuvers, there is no
evidence to support the notion of a feud between the two officers. Certainly the polo incident severely
strained their relationship, and neither ever forgot it, but to their credit, each behaved with professional
decorum…
Notes On Hugh Drum: The Carolina Maneuvers 1941
From PATTON: A GENIUS FOR WAR by Carlo D’Este 1995 HarperCollins Publishers
To Hugh Drum‟s acute embarrassment, early on the first day of the final phase of the exercise, he was
captured at a roadblock by I.D. White‟s 82nd Reconnaissance Battalion (part of Patton‟s opposing force.)
With great politeness a captain greeted Drum: “Good morning, general. Will you join me?” Drum was
spared the humiliation of being taken to the rear (and no doubt an encounter with Patton) when McNair,
the exercise director, ordered him released an hour later on the flimsy grounds that he could not have been
spirited successfully through First Army lines. Drum, who cried foul, complaining that Patton‟s action
was a violation of the maneuver rules (obviously ignoring his own casual disregard of the same rules),
was actually released so that the exercise could continue. A civilian telephone operator who spoke with
him during his brief captivity observed: “My, but that man was sure having a hissy-fit!” A great deal has
been made of the incident as an example of the antagonism between two longtime enemies. While it is
true that the maneuvers generated animosities and rivalries that played out during the course of the war,
Patton himself never commented either publicly or privately on the matter, and the stories that circulated
were more fantasy than „cause célèbre.‟ Nevertheless, although Drum was the senior officer, his
embarrassment at Patton‟s hands during the Carolina maneuvers is thought to have crippled his chances
for high command, relegating him to obscurity and retirement in 1943…
Notes On Hugh Drum: The Billy Mitchell Court-Martial
The court-martial (of Billy Mitchell) was one of the great public trials of the 20th century. Convicted,
Mitchell subsequently resigned from the U.S. Army (and died within several years.) The court-martial
and his resignation made him into both a martyr to the cause and a legend in the history of air power…
Mitchell‟s choice of a civilian defense counsel, Congressman Frank Reid of Illinois…was actually a good
choice…despite Reid‟s ignorance of military culture and tendency to show disrespect for the army in the
courtroom: “anyone in uniform had now become „You People‟ to Reid.” Through most of the trial, Reid
was able to avoid a ruling on whether defense testimony was to be offered only for mitigation of the
sentence, or could be considered as absolute defense of the charge against Mitchell. If the court had ruled
that testimony could only be offered to mitigate the sentence, it would have been pointless for Reid to call
witnesses. Thus by avoiding the ruling, Reid was able to put government management of air power on
trial instead of Billy Mitchell, and to turn the court-martial into an expensive, lengthy national carnival
that enthralled the newspapers and public…
Review of the book “A Question of Loyalty: General Billy Mitchell and the Court-Martial that Gripped
the Nation” by Douglas Waller, HarperCollins Publishers 2004. Article by Roger G. Miller in Air Power
History Vol. 51, 2004…
December 15th, 1925……..
Frank Reid had seventy pointed questions typed out that Mitchell had prepared for Hugh Drum when he
took the stand… “In all your statements before congressional committees, did you fully and fairly present
every argument to show the full effect of the air force with relation to national defense?” Reid began.
“In my statements before the congressional committees, I expressed the view of the War Department,”
Drum said. “Were you sent before those committees to oppose a separate or unified air service?” Reid
asked. “I was sent before the committees”. “Can you answer that question yes or no?” Reid cut him off.
“I was sent before the committees to carry out the instructions of the Secretary of War,” Drum continued,
ignoring Reid. And War Department policy “was against the united air service.”
“You tried to carry those [instructions] out faithfully, did you not?” Reid asked. Mitchell and his allies
thought Drum had been too enthusiastic in following his orders.
“I did,” Drum answered, making no apologies.
[The cross-examination dragged into the next morning with Drum answering questions with a long
“dissertation” instead of a simple yes or no. He again testified about how a bomber could be held off with
a dozen antiaircraft guns.]
What kind of experience did Drum have with bombers in the [1st] World War to make such a statement?
Reid finally asked, fed up with the general‟s “weasel-worded” answers.
“Tell me what your war experience was!” Drum shouted defiantly, sticking his chin out and his Roman
nose up. Drum had already had his aides look up Reid‟s draft record. He‟d gotten a deferment because he
was married with children.
“Sure, my war experience was just as much in my line as yours is in yours!” Reid shouted back. “I was
not chief clerk of the General Staff, and I was not a handy boy either!”
The two men were about to come to blows. Spectators stood up, ready to roll up their sleeves. Graves
interrupted and had Howze recess the court and clear everyone from the room before there was a brawl.
When the trial resumed a few minutes later, Howze said he hoped “these proceedings will be continued
with proper decorum.” Reid again asked Drum about his duties in the war to see if he was qualified to
speak about antiaircraft defenses, but Drum began reciting a week-by-week account of his jobs in
France….
Reid couldn‟t get Drum to shut up, and finally gave up. In view of Drum‟s “refusal to answer the
questions I have propounded to him, I refuse to examine him further,” the representative said angrily and
sat down…………
Excerpt from “A QUESTION OF LOYALTY General Billy Mitchell and the Court-Martial that Gripped
the Nation” by Douglas Waller 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers
Camp Drum Sprayed With Agent Orange In Test
The infamous defoliate sprayed over much of Vietnam and causing much disease and pain, not only
among our own troops but among the Vietnamese people as well, was tested over Camp Drum in the late
fifties. Commanding General of the First U. S. Army (from 1957-1960) , Lt. Gen. Bryan M. Blackshear,
requested that Fort Detrick, MD, assist with defoliation efforts at Camp Drum. Thirteen drums (2,700
liters) were sprayed over 1,035 hectares (about 4 square miles) from a helicopter spray device between
May and October of 1959. The chemical, known as Herbicide Purple, was applied to the deciduous
forested areas. The U.S. Army Chemical Corps conducted the test with the surplus herbicide
manufactured in the 1952 period.
(From US Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards, and The
History, Use, Disposition and Environmental Fate of Agent Orange by Alvin Young, Springer Science &
Business Media, LLC 2009)
Death of Private Russell Makes Negro Troops Shiver
Lowville Press Republican, Thursday July 9th 1908
Pine Camp, July 6th. Since the body of Private Russell of Company K, of the Twenty-fourth Infantry was
found in the shallow water of Black River near Great Bend, it would take nothing less than a direct order
from an officer to send any one of the black soldiers who make up the Twenty-fourth into the dismal sand
desert of Pine Plains.
The Twenty-fourth is one of the finest infantry regiments in the service, and the Negroes, most of them,
strapping big fellows, straight and strong and broad-shouldered, are as courageous a lot as you‟d care to
see anywhere. They have shown in the Philippines what kind of stuff they are made of, but the lonely
Pine Plains is a different kind of proposition altogether, and the stories told by superstitious natives of the
countryside have worked upon the nerves of the blacks.
You would find it pretty hard to make them believe that there isn‟t devil work afoot away out in the
tangled thickets and the miles and miles of scrub oak and weed-grown sand of which the big reservation
that General Grant‟s army is trying out for military purposes is composed. They have heard the stories of
the dancing lights, of the men found dead without a stab or shot wound to tell the story of their end; of the
eerie voices that the old inhabitants solemnly aver are heard every now and then; and of a strange and
fearsome beast with fiery eyes and long white hair that lurks in the jungle not many miles from the camp
itself.
These yarns, widely current in the country, you could hear the black soldiers telling any night while they
were clearing up after a long hike with the blue army or the brown, or while they were lazying before
taps; but after Russell‟s body was found in the Black River and there was hardly any clue as to how he
was murdered, the stories took on a darker significance. Buck Russell was alive on Thursday and on
Friday he was dead. It looked mighty queer, that‟s all, mighty queer, so they thought over in the Twentyfourth‟s camp.
“Co‟se we don‟t take no stock in all the fool stoahies we heah, boss,” said Private Thomas of H Company
this afternoon, “but dis yeah place don‟t look like no healthy campin‟ spot foh cullud folks. Seem‟s to be
goin‟s on „round dis yeah Pine Plains what ain‟t jes‟ natchul…” The Twenty-fourth, like all the rest of
the army, began to hear creepy tales about Pine Plains when the negro soldiers first arrived from the
Sacketts Harbor barracks several weeks ago. Apparently some of the stories have been handed down in
old settlers‟ families for a hundred years or more, and a lot of folks up this way accept them as gospel
truth. It is only now and then that you can get one of the graybeards to admit that he has seen anything
himself, although once in a while, if properly urged and the refreshment is satisfactory, he will oblige
with a narrative that is interesting, no matter how true.
Usually it was their grand-fathers or great-grandfathers who had followed the dancing lights to the edge
of a precipice over the Black River, or who had glimpsed the shaggy white beast with the red eyes, or
who had come suddenly upon the body of a man out in the desert, or who had been frightened by shrill
screams in the middle of the night. But the descendants of the old settlers hold by the tales and will tell
you quite simply that nothing would persuade them to travel the sand wastes late at night. Old Tom Fuller,
considerably on the far side of eighty, has a few acres of huckleberry land and a farm shack not fifteen
miles from General Grant‟s headquarters on the hog back, and you may be sure that old Tom Fuller
believes in the truth of these weird happenings.
“I call to mind when I was a young buck,” said the old man today, “not skeered of nuthin‟ with a legs or a
tail, and I used to laff at the tall stories the Frenchies told about the Plains. Country was chock full of
Frenchies in them days. There‟s still a passel of „em about, but nuthn‟ like what there one‟t was. Ef you
step out behind the house you can see where Jerome Bonaparte‟s mansion used to stand, grand house it
was, too, with chiny and paintin‟s and velvet carpets on the floor and flunkies in blue and gold trimmin‟s.
Then there was the Deferiets, and the Le Rays and the Le Barbiers and a lot more that had to skip out
when the Napoleon family lost their property.
“One of the Frenchies told me that he was ridin‟ to his home, which was where De Feriet is now, joggin‟
his hoss along through the piney woods—it was all big pines them days—when he sees a light ahead of
him, maybe a mile, just glimmerin‟ now and then, or dancin‟ up and down maybe. Pretty soon he heard a
woman‟s scream, very high and clear, like she was plumb scared to death. Frenchy hit up his horse and
rode toward the light and the place where the screams seemed to come from, but he couldn‟t ketch up
with the show. Light kept movin‟ ahead, jigglin‟ up and down, and every time he heard that screamin‟ it
would be a little farther on. Frenchy was so much took up with the queer doings that he didn‟t notice that
he was ridin‟ his hoss off the road and was followin‟ what seemed to be an old trail. It was black dark,
too, though Frenchy had a lantern swingin‟ from his saddle.”
“He must have kept on like that for three mile, never getting‟ any closer to the light, when his hoss
suddenly rared up and nearly fell over backward. Frenchy got off in a hurry, you can bet, and what he saw
the next minute lasted him the rest of his life. The light of his lantern showed Frenchy that he was right on
the edge of a straight up and down stone cliff over the Black River. If his hoss hadn‟t sensed it Frenchy
would have been layin‟ down among the rocks, a good hundred feet from the top. Yes, and when he
looked over across the river, he saw the same light dancin‟ up and down, and pretty soon he caught the
screamin‟ again.”
“Now, that‟s what he told me in dead earnest, and I know he wasn‟t lyin‟. I could call the names of a
dozen old folks around here what has seen them lights and heard a woman yellin‟ like she was bein‟
murdered. I s‟pose that I‟ve heard about twenty bodies, men and women, bein‟ found in the river bed or
out on the plains somewhere, people what had followed the lights, I reckon, until something happened to
„em. Funny thing, though. I never heard tell of any marks on „em to show how they were killed.
Sometimes there would be bruises from where they had fell on the stones, but there wasn‟t any signs of
shootin‟ or stabbin‟.” “All right, if you believe that you‟ll believe me when I say I‟ve sighted them very
identical lights or light. It looked just exactly like somebody was carrying a lantern slowly over rough
ground, now going up a little, now droppin‟ down a little where the trail humped. I heard the screamin‟
on‟t, and it was just like what Frenchy said, just like a woman hollerin‟ cause she was afraid she was
goin‟ to be killed.”
It must have been forty-odd years ago that I myself saw the white animal, saw it away over back of
Philadelphy, when I was helping Mr. Fournier, who‟s dead now, with his maple sugar run. It came out of
a patch of pine woods long about evenin‟ and stood in a clearin‟ long enough for me to size it up. It was
about as big as a Merino ram, but it had whiskers like a cat and eyes that were red as fire. Its hair was
long and shaggy and fell clear to its feet. I‟d like to know if the beast had cloven hoofs or claws, but I
figured I had better get to cover without takin‟ chances, so I lit out for Fournier‟s house. Just as I took it
on the run the shaggy thing bellowed like a bull. Other people have seen it, or one like it, young man…”
The younger generation laugh at these yarns and say they are old, foolish tales set in motion a century ago
by superstitious French Canadians who came down to lumber in the Pine country, but there are not many
people who would like to travel over Pine Plains late at night. There could hardly be found a lonelier or
more desolate stretch of country, with its constant winds, its roads that are merely scratches upon the
surface of the sand desert and are obliterated by the first sandstorm as easily as a child wipes out its toy
houses on the seashore, its miles of untenanted jungle and its utter absence of animal life. The curious
death of Private Russell of the Twenty-fourth is sure to revive all of the old and weird stories that have
given Pine Plains its uncanny reputation.
Camp Drum UFO sighting
A UFO sighting was reported over Camp Drum in 1952. The Associated Press (AP) in an article taken
from the Gloversville, NY Herald newspaper dated September 27th, 1952 stated: “STRANGE OBJECT
INSKIES TAKES HALF-HOUR PEEK AT CAMP DRUM INSTALLATION”…..Camp Drum (AP)---Who or what took an uninterrupted 30-minute peek at this Northern New York Military installation from
the heavens? Military authorities said yesterday an unidentified object zoomed through a half hour of
weird aerial gyrations over this base last Monday. The incident was classified as confidential military
information until yesterday. The object was described by camp officials as 20 feet in diameter with an
exhaust tail of “reddist”(sic) orange sparks. Eight soldiers who saw the object reported it sounded like the
whine of a generator or rotating disks. Griffis Air Base at Rome was notified of the incident immediately,
officials stated. The observers said the object hovered, circling rapidly, and occasionally stopped
completely. It was noticed by a soldier firing boilers about midnight. He notified the others who all
claimed they saw it in a starless sky. A duty officer was among the witnesses. Air Force officers from
Griffis Base questioned the men about the characteristics of the object the next day. The Air Force would
not comment…