The Lexington advertiser., 1944-06-01
Thut Van Dorm
Phone Fire

When the U. S. Army. the southern
Bell Telephone Company and the West
ern Electric Company get together to do
job, nobody ought to be surprised at
the results-but plenty people were fol-
lowing fire at Camp Van Dorm, down
near Centreville, which recently DESTROY
ed the camps Exposition long distance
switchboard.
Since communication is constantly
necessary within the camp to keen up
the rigid training schedules in force,
it was necessary that a complete new
telephone exchange be assembled, trans
ported to out-of-the-way Camp Van
Dorm and installed speedily.
1t was.
For the first time in history. the
army flew complete long distance
telephone exchange in a fleet of big
army air transports and within four
days from the time the fire. had the
whole plant, including the lonp-distapce
system, operating again.
The fleet of planes whipped the eouip-
ment from Atlanta to Baton Roupe
from which point it was trucked to the
camp. Earlier, the army co-operated with
Southern Bell and Western Electric
staffs to fly in replacement eouipment
to the Atlanta Army Air Base. where IL
was assembled and loaded onto the big
transports, which came from Memnb;sl
Dayton, Atlanta and Washington and
were part of scheduled service for emer-
gency use in connection with tho war
effort
Including the Opposition long g-distance
switchboard, the shipment weight about
Is tons and was Grated in 152 separate
containers.
The fire was discovered in the tele-
phone building about 10:40 p. M, April
13, and was rapidly extinguished by the
official camp fire department. Although
the Opposition long distance switch
board was completely destroyed and the
dial equipment badly damaged by water
and smoke, the telephone workers were
able to Immediately reestablish long dis
tance service at the camp by connecting
two temporary toll circuits to Gloster
and Baton Rouge. BY s o'clock on the
morning of April Id there were estab-
lished three long distance circuits to
Jackson, three to New Orleans, three to
Gloster and three to Baton Rouge.
The army engineers started repairing
the fire-damaged telephone building on
the morning after the fire and complet-
ed restoration Of the building by 500
p. m. Of the same day.
In order that the key personnel of
the army would be able to make and
receive long distance calls from their
offices, fifteen telephones were connect
ed direct to the Centreville, telephone
exchange by 10000 a. M, April H. The
army signal corps installed two army
switchboard positions by noon and con-
nected to them about seventy five field
telephones located throughout the camp.
This allowed intsrcommunication within
the reservation as we'll as placing and
receiving long distance calls.
When the planes arrived at Baton
Rouge, La, the army had trucks waiting
to transport the telephone equipment
to Camp Van Dorm. At 800 a. M, April
10, the trucks began to arrive at the
camp, loaded with the needed equip
ment. Waiting to receive this equip
ment and start its installation were %
Western Electric men, rushed in from
New Orleans and about 90 telephone
engineers from all parts of Mississippi.
Personal long distance telephone serv-
ice was made available to the service
men at the two telephone centers locat-
ed in the service club. These centers
were held open "a hours day and at
tended by women telephone employees
to assist the soldiers in placing and
completing calls to their friends and