Training Part 2: Fort Ord, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mines Field

The train was the mode of transportation that was used to move large quantities of men long distances, but this was no ordinary train. These were steam locomotives powered by coal. If the men had been cattle, they would have had better cars than they traveled in on this trip. There were only narrow wooden bench seats like a swing with solid slats that two skinny soldiers could sit on. That's how small the car was. This train was so old it hailed from days of the cowboy, when the Indians used to attack the cars. The windows didn't close very well and whenever someone opened the window coal dust would blow directly into the car. There were no bathrooms or anything other than a stool on the train.

On the way to California, Simon and some other soldiers were placed on guard duty. Whenever the train stopped their responsibility was to get out of the train and stand on the ground at the end of the car and make certain that no one got on or off. All the guards took turns whenever the train stopped. Simon had successfully taken his first turn as guard but before his next turn, the train had been jerking and lurching along awhile until it finally stopped. Simon was concerned because they were traveling in the mountains and it was nighttime. When he opened the door to step out he just happened to look down and he could dimly see the tops of trees. The car he was in happened to stop on a trestle. If he had stepped out there was nothing to break his fall. It turned out this was an unscheduled stop resulting from a broken coupling on one of the cars. The train engineer used the safety chain to keep the train together and slowly nursed the damaged train along until they reached a point where the coupling could be repaired and they could safely complete the trip to California

It took four days to travel from Little Rock Arkansas to California. Fort Ord was the destination and they arrived to fresh clean barracks, just at sundown and weary from travel. It was necessary to get all their personal belongings into the barracks, convert the frames of the beds there into real beds with mattresses, find the sheets and everything else necessary to have a functional barracks. This all had to happen before they could take a shower and wash the black soot from the coal dust from their bodies. Finally, everything was assembled and the troops were starting to look forward to their first hot shower in a long time, when the sergeant hollered, "Fall out!" They fell out, went out in the field, and stayed there until morning because it was thought a Japanese air raid was coming. Simon never really believed that explanation and still thinks they did it just to keep the troops on their toes. It was miserable going that much longer without a shower and on very little sleep.

They finally got everything straightened out and stayed at Fort Ord for just a little while until they were transferred to San Luis Obispo, where Simon slept in a 4-man tent. Then, from there, they were transferred to the Santa Anita Race Track near Los Angeles. They were bivouacked in the horse stalls, with 3 or 4 soldiers to a stall. Everyone slept on fold-up cots. After Santa Anita, they were transferred to Mines Field (Los Angeles International Airport now) to guard the buildings where airplane manufacturing took place. (They used a little 37 mm tank -- the lightest tank the Army owned). Pursuit planes were manufactured there and everything was painted in camouflage paint so the enemy couldn't tell what they were looking at from the air. It took a lot of paint, but when viewed from the air, all that could be seen were streets and trees – anything but manufacturing facilities. Barrage balloons and early B17’s completed the scene.

At Mines Field, the P38 was being tested and perfected. This aircraft had a twin fuselage and the pilot sat in the middle of the fuselages in a little pod. The tail boom went clear across the back. A number of Sergeants served as test pilots (no officers allowed), since the planes were very unreliable. One day right after driving the Colonel, Simon saw one of the P-38s coming in for a landing, but the pilot was too high–at least 2,000 ft. or more too high. The plane overshot everything and nose-dived straight into the ground in the suburbs. The Colonel said, "Let's go over and see that." So, Simon jumped back into the Jeep and found the crash site. There was a huge hole in the ground and medics were picking up parts of the pilot in a sack. After that everyone was afraid of the P-38’s, but that didn’t stop them from trying to perfect them. On another occasion, a test pilot managed to land on the runway, but his brakes failed. On the west end of the runway was a large gate with tall sturdy steel support posts on each side. Spanning the gate at the top was a large sign. The pilot couldn't stop the plane once his brakes failed and he guided the plane between gate’s support posts. The support posts tore the wings off the plane, which slowed it down significantly, but it still traveled across the street. The plane next hit a car on the other side of the street which broke the front wheel off and caused the nose to drop to the pavement and bend the barrels of four 50 caliber machine guns in the front of the nose of the plane, which finally stopped the plane. If the car had not been there, the plane was headed directly for a house. The pilot was very lucky and suffered only a broken nose. Of course, Simon and the Colonel also went to see the aftermath of that one.