Cape County volunteers prepared for war

In the fall of 1940, the United States was inching slowly toward a new world war.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, probably recognizing the inevitability of the United States' entry into that conflict, began redirecting federal funds from non-essential projects to the buildup of the military. That included funds for a new post office building in Cape Girardeau, but that's a blog for another day.

Word soon came down that National Guardsmen would be sent to camps for extended training. Just before Christmas in 1940, the 85 Cape Girardeau area men who made up the Service Company and Headquarters Detachment, 140th Infantry, of the Guard were inducted into the U.S. Army at the armory in what is now the A.C. Brase Arena Building.

Along with the movement to nationalize reservists for extended training, the Selective Service Act became law and saw men aged 21-35 register for military service with the county draft board. On Oct. 29, 1940, the draft lottery was held in Washington, D.C., and No. 158 was the first number drawn. "Winning" the lottery in Cape Girardeau County was Joe Dan Wise, a timekeeper on a WPA project near Millersville. But Wise was not the first Cape County man to enter military service via the draft.

Filling out the county's first quota in November 1940 were five volunteers: John William Cracraft Jr., of Jackson Route 3, Marvin Reisenbichler of Jackson, and Harry Dean Chauvin, Robert Charles Henson and Cecil Freeman Isaac, all of Cape Girardeau.

The Southeast Missourian gave short biographies of the men.

"Cracraft has been a farmer, working for Robert Medley three miles south of Jackson. He is 27 years old and was educated in the schools at Jackson. He was the first in the county to volunteer for training, asking to be inducted into service on Oct. 16, registration day.

"Twenty-year-old Harry Dean Chauvin of Cape Girardeau is the youngest in the group, being under the draft age requirement of 21 years. However, he has the consent of his parents for service. He is a graduate of St. Mary's High School class of 1940, and, after graduation, was employed at the Leming lumber mill. He was a member of the orchestra at the high school.

"Reisenbichler is the oldest of the group, 29, is a graduate of Teachers College with a Bachelor of Science in Education degree and, most recently, has been a commercial artist for the O.P. Craft Co. in Sandusky, Ohio. He attended elementary school and high school at Jackson.

"Isaac, who is 26, attended elementary school in Cape Girardeau and was in Central High School before taking a place at Hotel Marquette as a bell boy for six years. His most recent employment has been as service station attendant at the Conoco Station at Sprigg and Morgan Oak.

"Next to the oldest in the group and a towering young man is Henson, 28 years old, who resigned his work at the shoe factory last week to catch up on his affairs before going into training. He went to Cape Girardeau schools and also has completed a course in diesel engineering."

On the evening of Nov. 28, 1940, the five were given an appropriate send-off by the Jackson American Legion post: "First there was a turkey dinner at the Hotel Jackson. At this, five of the veterans of the first World War, who were in the first eight to go to camp 23 years ago, were present. They were: Paul Mueller, Norman Proffer, Linus Morton, Lyman Steele and William Hobbs. Other veterans present were Allen A. Reed, Judge H.K. Sewing, George L. Heyde and Joe Myers, who acted as toastmaster. Others present were Capt. Percy R. Little, Sheriff Fred Hartle and George Greenberg.

"The recruits as well as the veterans were introduced and some of them spoke briefly. The assembly stood in honor of Lawrence Morton when he was presented, he being the one World War veteran out of the first eight going from this county who was severely wounded.

"After the banquet the men went to the Legion Hall, where about 30 persons assembled to do honor to the recruits, among those present being L.C. Snider and John A. McGuire of Cape Girardeau, who transmitted to the five volunteers the good wishes of the Louis K. Juden Post of Cape Girardeau..."

The next morning, the five departed by bus for Jefferson Barracks, where they underwent physical examinations and were then transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Honoring a request by the Cape County draft board, one of these first volunteers sent home a letter in early December, describing their first awkward steps in the Army.

Reprinted from The Southeast Missourian, Dec. 5, 1940.

FIRST DRAFTEES REVEAL RIGORS OF GETTING INTO UNCLE SAM'S ARMY

Received this week by Chief Clerk Allen A. Reed of the Cape Girardeau County Draft Board, the letter following was the first describing the trip of the five Cape Girardeau men who constituted the county's first draft quota from the time they left Jackson Nov. 29 until they arrived at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Since the letter, they have received uniforms and are now stationed at Fort Crook, near Omaha, Nebraska.

The letter, written by Harold Reisenbichler of Jackson for himself and the other four men, John William Cracraft Jr., of Jackson and Robert C. Henson, Harry D. Chauvin and Cecil F. Isaac of Cape Girardeau, follows:

Blazing the Trail.

"You asked us to write you and report our progress as soon as we had a chance, so here goes. You asked for it. Some of the things we have to say may be useful information to the boys who are to follow us, if you wish to pass it on.

"None of us slept on the bus to St. Louis, which arrived at 6 a.m. We took a taxi to Union Station, checked our baggage and went to the rest room to shave and clean up, got our tickets (the agent said the blank wasn't filled out properly; don't let that bother you, ticket agents are habitual grouches), and then wen to Harvey's for breakfast. The only breakfast on the menu for 50 cents was two eggs, toast, orange juice and coffee (unless we'd order a la carte), so we all took that. It wasn't enough for Bob Henson and he suggests you might tell the next bunch to eat somewhere else if you want more.

"Our train to Jefferson Barracks was supposed to leave from track 10 at 8:15, but was about half hour later getting away. We pulled in at the Barracks at about 9:30 where we were marched at once to the induction station and started without delay through the examination mill. This was rather tough on us because we were all in and given not even a moment to relax. Consequently our examination reports ended with little yellow slips attached, marked "deferred -- rapid pulse." That was bad!

Pulses Go Haywire.

"By that time we were all pretty well down in the dumps, picturing ourselves returning to you with rejection slips after the swell send-off you all gave us and everything. Kind of letting you down, it would be.

"Well, we must have looked like good material to them, because they marched us over to the hospital for chest X-rays, gave us dinner (seemed like the march to the mess hall was two miles) and then allowed us a short period of rest, after which they took our pulse again. They probably realized that, since all five of us from the same county were having the same trouble, the cause was the result of the circumstances, our excitement and loss of sleep, rather than a chronic physical condition. This time Henson and Cracraft passed at once, Chauvin and I after another period of relaxation and finally Isaac came through with flying colors.

Another Sleepless Night.

"After more formalities and filling in of blanks containing our family history, we were given our oath, fed, and put on a 6 p.m. train with about 90 others for Fort Leavenworth...

"To continue with our journey, our troubles were just beginning. Instead of sending us to Fort Leavenworth in sleepers as we expected and as the contingent from St. Louis County the day before had gone, we were put in coaches. It was impossible to sleep in those crowded, noisy cars and we didn't arrive at Fort Leavenworth until 2:30 the next morning, where we were loaded in trucks (boy, was it cold!), hauled to the barracks, and finally allowed to go to bed. (Gee, did it feel good!)

"But, doggone if we didn't have to pop out of bed at 6 o'clock! That meant barely 3 1/2 hours sleep in 48 hours. And, I'm here to tell you, we felt it (and looked it_ and another tough day to face! First thing we learned was how to make our bunks and clean up the barracks. Then we marched to general mess for breakfast. After that we were divided into groups, given identification tags to hang around our necks and sent to the classification station, where we spent most of the morning answering questions concerning occupational experiences, education and general personal history. Then came dinner.

Intelligence Flagged.

"To top it off, that afternoon we took our intelligence tests, which lasted almost two hours. As if, by that time, we had any intelligence left; or feeling either, for that matter.

"Some of the boys who arrived here from Jefferson Barracks with us have received their uniforms, but we still have ours to get (which is okay with the five of us -- so long as we're in our civvies we don't have to serve K.P.)

"Last night, at last, we got a full night's sleep, up at 6 as usual... Henson didn't have any appetite and skipped dinner today, which is unusual.

Quartered Together.

"The five of us were fortunate in that we're all quartered in the same barracks. There are 28 cots in our room and the same number on the second floor. The building is new and well heated and there are quite a number just like it, with many more in the process of construction. They plan to be able to receive and send out men at the rate of 1,000 a day here soon...

"... We have not yet received our typhoid shots or vaccination, but are due for them tomorrow. Today (Sunday) we are spending just 'laying around' the barracks. Most of the boys quartered with us are from Southeast Missouri counties."

The quintet survived military service, and three of them returned to live in Cape Girardeau County. One later made his home in St. Louis, and the final soldier, Harry Chauvin, ended up in Springfield, Missouri, by way of California.

On March 20, 1979, The Missourian published an article about Chauvin's search for his Army buddies.

Buddy search brings veteran to Cape

By JAY WOLZ

Missourian Staff Writer

Across the country, military veterans routinely hold reunions with the men they served with to retell those old war stories and update each other on their lives.

Many others maintain current lists of addresses, of their buddies and send Christmas cards to them.

But, for countless other men who served the country they were never again to make contact with each other and for some the search for the men they knew while in the service goes on.

For Harry D. Chauvin, the search for the four Cape County men he had enlisted with in 1940 ended this morning as he made contact with three of them, Cecil F. Isaac, 705 S. Pacific St., Robert C. Henson, 1122 S. Ellis St., and John W. Cracraft Jr., 502 Elm St.

At the age of 20, Mr. Chauvin, then of Cape Girardeau and now of Springfield, Missouri, enlisted with the three Cape Girardeau men and a fourth man, Harold M. Reisenbichler, then of Jackson. In November, 1949, they were the first five Cape County men to volunteer for military service prior to World War II.

"The picture was painted on the wall. We figured we'd be drafted anyway and we thought we'd have a better chance to get more training if we volunteered," he recalled.

Mr. Chauvin, once Sgt. First Class Chauvin, returned to Cape Girardeau earlier this week for the first time in 39 years. The last time he had laid eyes on Cape County was when he and the other four left for six months of basic training at Jefferson Barracks. After that, he had no contact with them until now.

"You know how it is in the Army," he said. "You get your basic training and then it's off to who knows where."

For Mr. Chauvin, it was first to Camp Russel B. Huckstep outside Cairo, Egypt, where he was to help support the British 8th Army in the Sahara Desert of North Africa.

Next he served in Bari, Italy, located on the Italian coast near Rome. From there he went on to the Pacific Theater, where he was stationed for five years until 1947

Mr. Chauvin did not return to the Cape County area after his active duty in the South Pacific, but lived in California until he returned to military service and was stationed in Japan during the Korean War. Following his second tour of duty, he returned to California where he was employed by McDonald Douglas Aircraft until his retirement in 1976 when he moved to Springfield.

On Monday, he spent hours going through records and microfilm trying to gather information about the four men he had known from Cape County during basic training. "We were all pretty good friends in basic training together and that's why I'm interested in finding them again," Mr. Chauvin explained. "Besides, we made a vow to try and find each other after the war."

In his search for information Monday, Mr. Chauvin came across the microfilmed page of The Southeast Missourian dated Nov. 29, 1940, which carried his picture as well as those of the other four enlistees.

"I first tried to locate them in 1955," he commented Monday, before a check of the Cape Girardeau City Directory found the three Cape Girardeau men.

"It feels great and wonderful to have found them," he said early today after he had made telephone contact with Mr. Isaac, Mr. Cracraft, and Mr. Henson and arranged reunions with them. "It turns out that they've been trying to locate me, too. One of them said that they had heard I was living in Long Beach, Calif., but I never heard from them."

According to Mr. Chauvin, it wasn't even necessary to tell his long lost friends who he was. "On the telephone when I said 'do you remember Nov. 29, 1940?' they said 'you're Harry, aren't you?'"

Surprise and happiness were the main reactions Mr. Chauvin said he received from his friends from basic training. "They were real happy because I was the youngest one of the whole bunch and they never knew what had happened to me," he said.

"I'm just happy everybody's alive. I was worried about them. Once somebody told me that I was the only one left alive and I wanted to be sure," he added.

The fifth man, Mr. Reisenbichler, was known to be living in St. Louis, according to information Mr. Chauvin obtained today. From here, Mr Chauvin will take his search to St. Louis in an attempt to locate the final member of the five enlistees.

"It's been on my mind for all these years and I'd just like to find out about them; they are real nice guys."