The picture above is a real-photo card of Camp Upton, on New York's Long Island. Camp Upton isn't there anymore; in its place you will find Brookhaven National Laboratory. Camp Upton was built hastily in 1917 as an induction and training center for World War I soldiers. One of the soldiers at Camp Upton was Sergeant Irving Berlin who wrote
Yip, Yip Yaphank while he was there. The commanding officer at the camp wanted to build a community center at the camp and thought that Berlin could help raise $35,000 to build it with a musical revue. The
Yip, Yip Yaphank production included the famous song,
Oh! How I hate to get up in the morning, and made $80,000 for the Army, which never built the community center.
The camp was deactivated after World War I, and the land was designated Upton National Forest and reforested by the Civilian Conservation Corps. With the advent of World War II, the camp was reconstructed and put back into service. Camp Upton was then declared surplus on June 30, 1945, but it was decided that the base would not be dismantled. Instead, it was converted into a research center for the peaceful uses of atomic power. These are all world War II era cards.
How cool is that! I love the mess hall PCs!
ReplyDelete'Winterized' tents, hmmm, I'll betcha they got a little chilly on occasion in January! I like the color coordination in the mess hall pic, the cooks wearing white makes them look like the 'good guys'. My uncle was an army cook in WWII and I have pictures of him in his whites, I'm guessing they don't make the cooks dress like that anymore. Actually, I hear the cooking duties are usually subcontracted out now... And I feel sorry for the guys that had the cots in the middle of the bunk house, I would imagine it was tough to get a good night's when you had a corridor on either side of you!
ReplyDeleteAnon. above: mess duty was indeed "subbed" to a contractor back in the 1970s at Ft. Huachuca (Arizona), home at that time of the Army's Intelligence Center and School. It's a cliche to grumble about chow---but I'm very confident the U. S. military's attention to food for the troops is among the best in the world, for the sake of nutrition, combat effectiveness, and morale. Jack/Youngstown
ReplyDeleteBTW, Anon., there's no problem that I recall getting shut-eye in the military. After 15-16 hours under supervision, and often hard physical activity, I clonked out the second I hit the rack. Beetle Bailey is sometimes portrayed as sleeping while standing up---with good reason! Jack/Youngstown
ReplyDeleteJ/Y, I'm sure it was just the Tempur-pedic mattresses and 600 thread count sheets that made slumber so easy...
ReplyDeleteAnon., you musta been Air Force, right?:-) Jack/Youngstown
ReplyDeleteYa got me J/Y, I suppose the servants feeding me grapes and massaging my feet didn't hurt either!
ReplyDeleteTent city. Are you sure this card isn't futuristic, bordering on the prophetic? Now that our dream of home ownership has been debunked:) Hmmm... de-bunked. Ok, a bit of a forced pun, but ....:)
ReplyDeleteYou're right - that could me next. I sure hope I get a nice tent.
ReplyDelete