35th Engineer (Combat) Battalion
Northern France - Rhineland - Ardennes/Alsace - Central Europe
Mr. Hovey served as a Lieutenant in the 35th and was one of its founding members. Several years after the war, he recorded some interesting facts that made the 35th Engineers special.
Odds and Ends That Made the 35th Engineers Special
For about the first nine months after we were activated in July 1941 up to the time we left Fort Ord, California, in March 1942 for our trip to work on the Alaska Highway, we were different from most other units in the army. Now, after some 47 years, I would like to reminisce about a few of the events and customs that made us unique and different.
First, when personnel reported to the 35th Engineers, they were assigned to companies according to height. The six-footers-plus went to A Company and the shortest people were assigned to F Company. As a result, very few people in the 1st Battalion were shorter than about five-foot nine or ten, and people assigned to the 2nd Battalion [later the 145th Engr. Bn] were shorter than five-foot nine inches in height. For most of us this didn't change when we returned to the States from Canada and the regiment reformed into two battalions and the 1122nd Engr. Group. In the 35th Engr. Bn. replacements were assigned to the companies according to their MOSs [military occupational specialty]. As a result, one GI about five-foot four was assigned to A Company. During an inspection when we were getting ready to go to Europe, the inspector noticed a gap in the ranks. When he looked down, he saw the missing man and asked what the hell he was doing in A Company. The new GI replied that he wondered too!
Officers were required to carry swagger sticks and were given demerits when they goofed up. They were given commendations when they performed assignments well. As a result, Lt. Hovey had the most demerits and also the most commendations in the regiment. To this date I haven't decided whether to be proud or ashamed of my performance. I picked up two demerits in one day when I lost my swagger stick in the morning and received a demerit for being out of uniform. I carried a sawed off broom handle in the afternoon and received a demerit for carrying a non-regimental swagger stick!
The GIs had some problems too. When they reported to the 35th during the summer of 1941, they had summer uniforms and the headgear was fatigue hats. Most GIs in most units during the Louisiana Maneuvers were like a bunch of women in creating designs and ways of wearing the fatigue hats, but in the 35th all men were required to wear the hat with brims turned down. It was a court martial offense to wear the hat in any other way. When we were first formed, even minor infractions of rules were punishable by a summary court martial. We were also required to salute according to the book.
Our rifle range training was different from most units. We spent very little time in doing preliminary training and a lot of time on the rifle range. In most of the training the coach loaded the rifle with about four blanks to one live round of ammunition. The purpose was to teach the student to trigger squeeze and to teach him not to flinch. As a result we had an exceptionally large percentage of people qualify in rifle marksmanship.
We had two parades a day called "march arounds". All men on duty were required to take part. One was when men went to work in the morning and one when they went to work in the afternoon. The members of each platoon were required to line up according to the uniforms that they were required to wear to perform their duties. For instance, the cooks in their whites were in one group. During the parade or "march around" we passed the reviewing stand twice. One pass was at regular pace and the second at double time. We were called "the double time regiment".
When we left Fort Ord in March 1942, we became a GI unit instead of a spit-and-polish unit. The aforementioned customs and events that I remember made us different and are not in any material that I've seen or read.
