332nd Engineer General Service Regiment (United States) - Activation and Training

Activation and Training

The unit formed and trained at Camp Claiborne Louisiana, in May 1942. Engineer "Special" and "General" Service Regiments would replace the old combat battalion unit structure with multipurpose skills. These large regimental units would have heavier engineer equipment, and consist of officers, non-commissioned officers and enlisted men who had experience in engineering or construction jobs. The best construction skills available in the country would be used to build these units.

The commanding officer through the formation and most of the service during World War II was Colonel Helmer Swenholt, a 1911 graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

The Chief of Army Engineers ordered Colonel Swenholt to recruit skilled personnel from construction in an organized unit. Some were recruited from Army Corps of Engineer Districts in the Omaha and Kansas City Districts. Others came from various other locations throughout the Midwest. An infantry cadre of seven officers and seventy-three enlisted men formed the nucleus of the unit in May, 1942.

Additional personnel arrived very quickly. The activities in the first months were very basic training and indoctrination into military life, since these citizen-soldiers already had experience in construction and engineering. They lived in tents and trained for six weeks in basic infantry training, including marches, rifle training, demolition training, identification of gases (e.g. mustard gas) and proper equipment, close order drill, etc. Their time at Camp Claiborne was relatively short as they were needed to ship overseas very early in the War.

Three separate trains were needed for their transfer to Camp Kilmer, a (then) new Army camp named after the American journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer. By this time the regiment had grown to full strength consisting of 1,239 men and 52 officers. They arrived at Camp Kilmer at 1655 hours on 22 July 1942.

The purpose of their time at Kilmer was to receive final medical evaluations, vaccinations, and final preparations before shipping overseas. The unit shipped overseas to England in 6 August 1942.