Omaha, Ft. Leavenworth, Camp Robinson, Little Rock, Louisiana
Simon was only 21 when he went into the service on the 20th of February 1941 at Fort Omaha in Omaha and was assigned number 37,034,842. Everyone was required to stand up and swear to do everything for the service. There were almost enough men there to make a company, so it was an impressive sight. Simon went into the service with two friends--Joe Riegle and Louis Dema. Once they were sworn in, they were transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where everyone got their shots and clothing and stayed in barracks. After a short while there, he was transported to Camp Robinson, Arkansas and his first experience with the 4-man tent. He was then transferred to Little Rock, where a soldier was assigned to certain companies based on where he was from. Simon’s company (“I” Company) was mostly from around Lincoln. "K" & “L” Companies were Omaha; "M" Company was Seward. Simon completed his basic training there. He was taught how to march – and march – and march. There were close order drills and everything that went along with it. There were long marches, too, to keep everyone in shape. A typical day was pretty boring. He would start every morning with calisthenics until reveille, at which point he went out and stood at attention. After that he fell out, went to breakfast, cleaned up his part of a 4-man tent. The rest of the day was spent on a march, or in the field where they would teach him about his rifle. Marches were extensive with full field packs just to test the men’s endurance. Sometimes marches would last 20 miles with a full field pack as quick as they could make it. All this was intended to get the troops seasoned for battle.
Sometimes he would be given the opportunity to go out on the rifle range and practice. The gun that he used was an 03 bolt action rifle. There was a little clip on the backside that held the shells together that he would discard once the shells were loaded. When he pulled the bolt back, that put a shell in position so that when he shoved the bolt in, that put a shell into the chamber, ready to fire. Simon got the opportunity to practice quite a bit on the rifle range, to the point that he got a medal for marksmanship. After about 3 months basic training was completed, Simon and another soldier were assigned to base headquarters as guards to take care of prisoners -- GI's that had gone AWOL and committed other offenses. They were given a sawed off 12 gauge 00 shot.
The 00 shot means that instead of having about 25 or 30 very small bb-like projectiles in the shell casing, there were only about 3 or 4 large round projectiles. When these shells were fired at a person, it was almost impossible to get away from the gun. They were lethal like a rifle shell and really meant business. Fortunately Simon never had to use that shotgun, because he kept close tabs on his prisoners and didn’t allow them to get away with anything.
After he completed his guard duty assignment, the entire company went on maneuvers in rainy Louisiana. Maneuvers for a foot soldier meant lots of walking. Simon estimated that he must have walked 500 miles in that maneuver in a month’s time. One day, while on maneuvers Simon was sitting on his steel helmet rather than sit on the ground, and one of the other soldiers said there's a little snake hole under your helmet. It didn’t take long for Simon to abandon his helmet. One of the sergeants knew someone from the local university who killed the snake. The snake was only about 15 inches long but it was a coral snake. One bite from a coral snake is deadly. Occasionally the soldiers would see rattlesnakes that were 4 in. in diameter and 7 ft. long. So, it was important to be very careful where he placed his feet, decided to sit, etc.
Although a war raged in Europe, Simon had not enlisted with any thoughts of going to war. In fact, on December 7th, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Simon only had two months left to go before he could be officially discharged from the service. (Minimum service requirements were 1 year at that time). Simon was walking down the street in Little Rock, Arkansas when he overheard people talking about the attack on Pearl Harbor and knew he would not be going home after 1 year in the service. He had completed basic training and the entire company was just marking time to get through the year, getting closer and closer to the time when they were going to get out. Everyone was counting the days.
The counting stopped when they received orders transferring them out of Little Rock. He can't remember exactly when they boarded the train, and they didn’t tell anyone where they were going. He learned part way there that they had traveled through Nebraska although it still wasn’t clear which route the train took. Later in the journey, everyone got together and figured out where they were going--California.
