Omaha daily bee., 1918-07-21
HOW ENGINEERS
ARE INSTRUCTED
FOR U. S. ARMY
Camp Allen A. Humphreys, IN
Virginia, Will Soon Have a
Capacity for Training
10000 Men.

Washington, July 20-Transforn1s-
tion of forest into great military
camp in four months is one of the
achievements of which the American
Corps of Engineers boasts.
Early in February, Camp Allen A
Humphreys at Belvoir. Va, was vir-
tually unknown. But American en-.
gineers were put on the job and to.
day it is thriving, pulsating camp
4 great city in itself, housing some IL
300 men, and growing day by day ufi.
iii by August it will accommodate 80
700.
Camp Humphreys, named for the
first chief of engineers of the United
States army, is some 20 miles
south of Washington, just below the
town of Acotink, Va. Its confines
cover the historic Lord Fairfax tract;
TO one side is Mount Vernon, home of
George Washington, and in the other
direction is Gunston Hall, plantation
and typical old Southern home of
George Mason, illustrious Virginian,
author of the Bill Of Rights, the FAM
Gus document which Thomas Jeffer-
son made the cornerstone of the
American Declaration of Independ-
ence. Camp Humphreys is peculiarly
adapted for an engineer training
school. In the hills and valleys
Americas citizen-soldiers are tunnel
ing, mining, quarrying, excavating.
fitting themselves for work on for
eign battlehelds. .=-.
Big Capacity.
The camp is the only engineer re.
placement camp in the country, and
it is here the vast supply of engineers
is to be kept, upon which General
Pershing will call for men to expand
and replace engineer units working
with the American overseas army. AL
ready replacement units have been
sent across. Early in June $500 men
trained in all branches Of engineering
work were sent to Pershing. The
camp can train, equip and dispatch
men to France at the rate of 5000 q
and by the first of the year
the capacity will be raised to 5000
Washington newspaper correspon-
dents recently were guests of the
corps of engineers on an inspection
TRIP to the camp and its vicinity. Ev-
cry detail OF the work was explained
to them by headquarters officers of
the staff of Lt.-Col. Richard Park, u.
S. A., an engineer of engineers. who
has been placed in charge of the
greatest replacement camp.
Seventeen thousand men are at the
camp at present, most of them drafted
men, and new ones are arriving from
civil life every day. There is con-
tinual ebb and flow of troops, men be-
ing sent across the Atlantic as fast
as they can be accommodated in
France, and new ones arriving to take
their places at the schools. Even
after the war it is the governments
intention to make Camp Humphreys
a permanent training camp for engin-
eers, and all work is being done with
that scheme in mind.
Combat Railway.
One of the most interesting features
Of Camp Humphreys is the light, COM
bat railway which has been con-
structed for the carrying of supplies
through the reservation, as well as for
training men in the construction, op-
Grafton and maintenance of battle-line
A 60-centimeter, narrow
gauge road IL miles in length, similar
to the French roads, covers the camp,
and all day trains of fiat cars and
gondolas run back and forth with
materials and supplies.
The locomotives are built especially
for foreign service, and the power ID
furnished by four-cylinder, 50-horsc-
power, gasoline motors. So we'll
trained are the Humphreys engineers
that the construction gang lay track
at the rate of half mile day.
These railways will be taken to
France with the railroad engineers.
and it will not be long before they
will be running from the rear lines
to the front, loaded with shot and
she'll and guns for American infantry
and artillery. As rapidly as the battle
line changes, the combat railway can
be moved to conform with it.
All phases of engineering are taught
at the camp. When the recruit arr
rives, he Is put through the three
principal schools, the sapper, gas de-
tense and pontoon schools. in order
that he may get the rudiments Of the
engineers work. II he, is found to
possess special qualifications or tech
nical ability he 10 sent through one or
more of the following supplementary
Highway and trench con-
struction. railroad construction and
operation, water supply work, for
estry, animal transportation, camou-
Aage, surveying, map production, cleo
trio wiring, reclamation, gas and
flame, gas offense, mining, quarrying,
bridge building, trestle work, and
others.
Quick Work.
On the correspondents inspection
trip, three regiments of half strength
were marched in review--approxi-
mately 1000 soldiers filing past the
commandant, his staff and his guests.
with healthy stride and military oear-
ing, marching to lively music of the
camp band. In the outfit was one
regiment whose drilling was specially
attractive. With snap and precision,
the men of this regiment marched
across the parade ground, heads high.
eyes front-men who eight days he
fore ewere engaged in civil pursuits.
They were the latest arrivals, and
eight days after they had answered
the nations call for men, these Young
Americans were, to the civilian eye,
a trained outfit of American engi-
neers, apparently ready to face the foe
to do or die for the freedom of the
world. Negro troops of the service