The Wilmington morning star., 1944-10-22
Davis Prepared Troops
For Every War Theater

north of Wilmington, N. c., and
five miles from the Atlantic ocean
The camp and its related installa
tons, covering a total of "A, 434
acres, were built at a cost Of
about S42, 100000 under the super
vision of the Army Service Forces
Progress was greatly hampe-ed
during the early days of construc'
ton by heavy rains and complete
lack of drainage in the sandy soil
of the trackless swamp. At this
time our air force was small and
inadequate and the need for trained
antiaircraft artillery troops was ur-
gent. So, on January 9, 1941, flood
lights were obtained and construc-
ton crews worked around the
clock. BY April 20, 1941, the camp
was about 80 per cent completed,
and on that date Gen. Crawford
moved his headquarters from Will.
mington and prepared to receive
an advanced detachment of ESQ
men, a station complement Of 500
men, eight regirnental cadres to-
falling 1900 men, and eight regi.
ments of selectees of 1900 men
each. This was total of. 20, $50,
the designed capacity of Camp Da-
Wis.
The eight regiments were acti-
waited April 10, 1871, but due to
lack of facilities, selectees did not
begin to arrive until May 7, 1941.
The first guns on the post were
twenty-four 155-mms which arrived
with the 54th CA commanded by
Col. o. c. Warner from Camp Wal
lace on May %, 1941.
Meanwhile it had become fore.
seenable to Gen. Crawford that, due
to the added range of new antiair.
craft artillery weapons (4Gmm and
90mm), larger firing range was
needed than that originally plan
ned. Everything possible was done
to expedite construction Of route
to Sears Landing and erect facili-
ties at that point.
BY May 81, 1871, Camp Davis
had a total strength of about 1000
men, and, while construction was
not yet complete, the men we're
fairly comfortable. For recreation
an outdoor theater was set up,
pending the opening Of the post
theater, service club and que t
house. It is interesting that in
those days Wilmington was a very
religious town, allowing no movies
on Sunday, and forcing all Satur-
day dances to quit promptly at
midnight. This added urgency to
the problem of providing ample
recreation facilities for the men at
Camp Davis.
While the post had a Protestant
chaplain it was found that large
proportion Of the men were Ro-
man Catholics. So, arrangements
were made for priest to come
out from Wilmington to say Mass.
Shortly thereafter, arrangements
were made to take care of those
Of Jewish faith.
Mosquito control started about
April 10, 1941, under control of
two C.C.C. companies, and has con-
tlnued under control of the post en-
gineer and medical corps since
July l, 1913, at cost of about
S., 900 per month.
On May l, 1941, the Balloon Bar
rage Training Center and School
were activated at Camp Davis un-
der the command of Col. Robert
Arthur. It remained there until
january, 1912, when it became ap-
parent that the constantly flying
balloons were interfering with the
coastWise air traffic. It became
necessary to move the Balloon Bar
rage Training Center and School
to Camp Tyson, Tenn. During this
period five Balloon Barrage Bat
tallons were activated and trained.
April 81, 1912, the Antiaircraft
Artillery School, under the COM
mand of Brig. Gen. Oliver l.. Spill
Ter, ard on May 20, 1912, the Anti
aircraft Artillery Board under the
command of Brig. Gen. Robert w.
Crichlow, then a colonel, NJ Q d
from Fl. Monroe, Va, to Camp
Davis. This left the AAATC with
only about one-haf the camp avail
able for its use, and thus made it
necessary to develop new area
known as Maple I'LL formerly
'Buzzard's Roost'') to accommo-
date six battalons. About this time