Evening star., 1939-08-18
Guard Kept on Jump
By Headquarters
Fictitious Reports
Revelation Comes as
Divisions End GrueIing
Bottle Muneuvers
BY ROBERT A. ERWIN,
Star STAFF Correspondent.

Star Stan Correspondent
GROvETON, Va, Aug. 18.-The
Army grapevine telegraph" re-
vealed today that the high command
of the Sd Corps Area kept National
Guard troops of the 28th and 29th
Divisions on the jump during the
battle maneuver that ended yester-
day by sailing" message reports to]
division headquarters.
For example, there was that re-
port the teletype machine carried
yesterday into the 29th Divisions
command post hidden in the woods
near Bristow. "Twenty-six enemy
tanks on highway No. % west OF
Manassas" was the gist of the COM
munication. If true, it meant the
command post of the division, as
we'll as the 54th Field Artillery
Brigade and the l76th Field Artil-
lery Regiment posts nearby, were IN
danger of capture. And the main
forces of the 29th we're we'll down
the road fighting the final engage
ment.
Trucks Rushed Up.
Mai. Gen. Milton A. Reckord of
Baltimore, division commander, Or
dered out Army trucks. Two OF
them sped to the Broad Run Bridge
and blocked the highway. Another
big truck blocked the narrow en-
trance that leads to the command
post.
Pretty soon, traffic was we'll
snarled up down the road. Civilian
automobiles mingled with other
Army trucks and nobody could go
any place. Gen. Reckord knew the
tanks could never capture his base
nor him, either, for that matter.
However, the tanks never showed
up. Furthermore, nobody on the
telegraph" that instrument that
needs no wires to broadcast its revel-
ations, revealed upon unimpeach-
able authority that the Sd Corps
headquarters at Manassas undoubt-
edly had cooked up" messages now
and then and served them to the
28th and 29th.
The war fought here this week
was just game. and, so it seems,
these "salted" messages are part
of it.
Guardsmen Back in Tents.
Meanwhile, 29th and District
Guardsmen were enjoying the bless
ings of wall tents and shower baths
in their hillside tent cities here today
preparatory to jumping off for home
after two weeks of training and
test warfare.
BY tomorrow afternoon this sector
will be turned back to the farmers
who leased their lands for the ma
chickens and sheep that were driven
to more peaceful and less disturb
ing pastures when the guarGsmen,
1900 strong, rolled in from the
District, Maryland Virginia and
Pennsylvania on Saturday, August 5.
In a press conference late yester-
day, General Reckord said the ma
neuver had taught Regular Army
and National Guard officers three
object lessons
The first" he said, lis that some
unit with power weapons Of all types
must be established for the defense
of the command post in all
echelons."
Newsmen chuckled at this COM
ment, recalling the capture of a
brigadier general near his own COM
mand post the day before.
I'VE must realize" continued the
general, that after an order is
issued, it takes time for it to be
carried out, for the message to
reach the troops on the ground.
Takes Time to Entrain.
"And the third lesson is that even
when we move by truck, it takes lot
of time to execute orders. The
troops, in some cases, must be To-
Gated. They must march to the
trucks, and it takes time to entrain.
THE only way these things can be
driven home is by actual experience"
he said. The whole maneuver has
been very helpful, quite successful,
and I am quite pleased with the
health of the men and the absence
Of serious accidents"
While the 104th Medical Regiment
and the 10th Field Artillery, Mary
land National Guard, were scheduled
to go home to Baltimore by truck
today, District units will not depart
until tomorrow. They are the 121st
Engineers, the 260th Coast Artil-
lery, 29th Division Special Troops
and 1st Battalion, 104th Quarter
master Regiment. The District
troops will have Army pay day when
they reach the Pennsylvania avenue
armory tomorrow.
One of the units that won COM
mendation for its performance in
camp is the 29th Military Police
Company, part of the Special Troops
led by Maj. William T. Roy. Capt.
Donald Falk is company commander.
One of the District "MP's," Sergt.
Morris Violin, saved the day for a
distressed motorist and hospital
bound patient in the rush of mill
tary and civilian motor traffic on
Lee Highway yesterday. He sighted
car sandwiched between the ar
tillery guns and caissons of an
Army convoy, stretched for mile or
moro along the road
Clears Road.
He investigated and found there
WAS woman, quite i'll, in the back
seat of the car, Sergt Violin footed
his whistle, jumped on the side of
the car bound for the hospital and
cleared the way down the road to the
head of the convoy From that point,
the driver had clean road.
Sergt Violin has been a military