The Pick: 3rd Officers Training Camp at Camp Devens - 1918
Front Cover, The Pick: 3rd O. T. C. (Officers Training Camp) at Camp Devens, 1918. GGA Image ID # 184e9e00d8
The Pick: Third Officers Training Camp, 117 Pages. Covers First, Second and Third Company Officers Training at Camp Devens. Includes many photographs, Illustrations, Rosters, and information on the 15-week training course for A.E.F. National Army Officers.
Contents
- The New Idea in Training Officers... And How It Has Worked Out
- History of First Training Battery, 3rd OTC - 1918
- Officers of First Training Battery, 3rd OTC - 1918
- Roster of First Training Battery, 3rd OTC - 1918
- First Battery FA Statistics - 3rd OTC - 1918
- History of the First Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Officers of the First Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Roster of First Infantry Company, 3rd OTC - 1918
- History of the Second Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Officers of the Second Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Roster of Second Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- History of the Third Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Officers of the Third Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Roster of Third Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Third Infantry Company Statistics - 3rd OTC - 1918
- History of the Fourth Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Officers of the Fourth Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Roster of Fourth Infantry Company - 3rd OTC - 1918
- Fourth Infantry Company Statistics - 3rd OTC - 1918
Preface
“We want men in this school M E N."
It may have been the words alone, or the vocal inflection, or the facial expression, or the gesture, hut more probably it was all of these elements combined that gripped us and stirred us as we sat before Lieutenant-Colonel Moor Nielson Falls on the opening day of the Third Officers’ Training Camp at Camp Devens. That we were gripped and stirred as never before was unquestionable.
The remark was the concluding sentence of Colonel Falls’ first address to the Candidates of that school. For such a small handful of words it conveyed tremendous meanings and conceived tremendous ambitions.
It clearly pointed out the high standard moral, mental and physical standard that had been set for us, or better, that we already were expected to have set for ourselves. It made plain to us that every manly and soldierly quality in our makeup was to be tried and tested. It told us that every atom of mental and physical energy was to be brought into play.
It informed us that the very best we had to offer must be offered to the fullest extent, and it aroused within us a desire to make just such an offering to just such an extent.
Colonel Falls’ opening address was brief. A few short sentences outlining the plan of the school, and then — “we want men in this school — M E N.”
In respect to brevity it was not unlike succeeding addresses made by him to the candidates. In respect to tremendous meaning and tremendous appeal it was not unlike succeeding addresses.
When Colonel Falls discoursed on the value of simple but thorough instruction in the handling of the rifle and concluded with — “If you know how to shoot and your men know how to shoot, it’s a pleasure to see the Hun come on,” —you realized as never before the real value of such instruction.
There was a singular forcefulness about his addresses, and more particularly about his concluding sentences that is characteristic of the man. It was that forcefulness that demanded and usually gained the best that the Candidates had to offer, and it is that forcefulness that will stir them to their best efforts long hence.
To Colonel Falls, Washington assigned the task of developing officers from the ranks of the Seventy-Sixth Division. The Seventy-Sixth Division is a National Army unit recruited fresh from civil life through the selective draft, and in assigning to Colonel Falls the conduct of the Camp Devens
Officers' School, the War Department chose a man who himself had won his commission direct Irom civil life, and who by reason of I hat fact, as well as through the experiences of a full score of years in the Regular Army, and four months as an observer of the War in Europe was eminently qualified to handle such an undertaking.
To the Candidates of the Third O. T. C., Colonel Falls was known only as a commandant. Military courtesy and restriction held from them his intimate side. He was their disciplinarian; their military guide and pattern, and save for a kindly word of advice or help that fell the lot of a limited few the human aspect of Colonel Falls was a matter of conjecture.
That Colonel Falls was intensely human was quite generally agreed. The kindly words of advice that came to the limited few; the expression of complete satisfaction as heavy clouds of tobacco smoke curled from a black briar pipe; the sparkle of an eye when some rookie at play nabbed a difficult ground ball, all testified to that fact.
To those so fresh from civil life as were lhe Candidates of the Third O. T. C., military record was a new and wonderful thing. Naturally the military record of their Commandant was unknown to them and no hooks dealing on the subject were at hand.
“I’ve been twenty years in the infantry. That's about all there is to say,” was Colonel Falls’ noncommittal answer when questioned as to that record. 11 is personally written identification card, perused in the office of the personnel officer of the Seventy-Sixth Division, disclosed only the following:
“Moor Nielson Falls, Lieutenant-Colonel, Infantry, N. A.
“Born December 27, 1870, in Morganton, North Carolina.
“Graduate of the University of North Carolina.
“Appointed from North Carolina to Second Lieutenant, 18th Infantry, July 9, 1898.
“First Lieutenant to 12th Infantry, March 2, 1899.
“Captain, 99th Infantry, September 14th, 1909. Transferred to 12th Infantry, October 5, 1909.
“Detailed to Quartermaster Corps, March 1, 1907 to March 1, 1911 and assigned to 28th Infantry.
“Distinguished graduate Army School of the line, 1916.
“Major, March 1917.
“American Expeditionary Force in France, June 1917 to September 1917.
“Lieutenant-Colonel, August 1917.”
Charles E. Parker.
