Taipei Signal Army

Monday, July 13, 2015

Causes, Combatants, Deaths And Results Of The Vietnam War

Now that we have skimmed through WW1, WW2, and the Korean War, we naturally progress through the 20th Century to the war in Vietnam.

The Vietnam Era is about as accurate as body counts in any war, but it is either 1960-1975 or 1962-1975. The combat itself lasted over 8 years, which roughly starts it in 1964 and ends in 1972.

Map from pewresearch.com

The map above is fairly accurate when looking at the key cities, villages and battles.

Reasons for Vietnam War from kisworldhistory.wikispaces.com

Some of the reasons for the war are the same as those for the Korean War.

Some reasons for the Vietnam War from kisworldhistorywikispaces.com

These reasons are a bit different. Notice the Vietnam circle and the last sentence in it.

Reasons from slidesharecdn.com

Graph from themetropolitain.com

Chart from adyfuve.comuv.com

Pie chart from rationalrevolution.net

Graph from slate.com

Graph from a.p.org

Chart from archives.gov/research

Chart from rationalrevolution.net

Chart from motherjones.com

Poster from eBay.com

Timeline from slidesharecdn.com

Effects from slidesharecdn.com

Map from plancanada.ca

Page from history.army.mil

The draft, though used in all four major wars of the 20th Century, was eliminated in 1973.

Photo from upload.wikimedia.org

This panorama picture shows the Three Soldiers Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial Wall in the background with some 58,000 names according to the photographer, Mr. Ortiz.

Photo from upload.wikimedia.org

The Three Soldiers Monument was added after The Wall was built.

Photo from thewall-usa.com

Dedicated in 1982, the black granite wall contains the names of all service people who gave their lives in the service of their country.

Photo from upload.wikimedia.org

The National Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C. comprises the third memorial of the Vietnam War.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The Korean War, And Camp Gordon Becomes Fort Gordon, GA

After WW2, the new Camp Gordon in Augusta, Georgia, found itself in a similar position as that of the original Camp Gordon in Chamblee, Georgia, after WW1.

In other words, was it going to be abandoned?

Both were finished training soldiers for combat and had the mission of discharging soldiers from active duty. Around 86,000 were discharged after WW2. POWs were repatriated.

In 1946, Camp Gordon had the task of jailing American servicemen who had committed felonies during the war. Does anyone know which area of Gordon was used for this task?

Then, within a few months in 1948, the 545th MP School was transferred from Carlisle Barracks, PA to Camp Gordon and a signal school was established in Camp Gordon, relieving the burden on Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey.

The signal school would soon become the USASESS or Southeastern Signal School.

This, along with a civilian affairs school gave credence to the future existence of the WW2 temporary camp near Augusta. Camp Gordon had a future established.

Picture from scholarblogs.emory.edu

The pennant with crossed pistols signifies the 545th MP school. More than any other transfer into the Camp, this MP school was of great significance.

This combination of pictures from Augusta.craigslist.com

The person selling this merchandise apparently had come to the point of wanting to unload a collection of pictures, symbols and postcards from Camp Gordon.

Map from 545thmpassn.com

There is no source for this poster, although it pops up whenever trying to find anything relevant regarding the 545th MP school at Camp Gordon.

Photo from etsy.com

Is this T-shirt really from the 1950s?

To see MP school at Camp Gordon in the 1950s, click HERE.

Photo from gordon.history.army.mil

This may be out of historical sequence, but it is the headquarters of the Military Police School.

Photos from 545thmpassn.com

The Provost Marshall was the actual center of the Military Police at Camp Gordon.

Photo from 545thmpassn.com

This may be either the first or one of the first graduating classes from basic MP School. Before leaving Georgia, the MP School graduated over 150,000 MPs.

Photo from gordon.history.army.mil

Chances are that if you became an MP, you had your training at Camp Gordon after 1948. This class graduated in 1954.

Photo from gordon.history.army.mil

The MP School grew so fast that Camp Gordon quickly became the center for the training of MP officers such as this class in 1955.

Photo from hgdefaultytimg.com

This looks to be a typical duty of the MP which was to show a presence in a city or area.

Photo from eBay.com

Thus established, a post newspaper The Camp Gordon Rambler began publication. This newspaper would continue on for decades.

Photo by Robert W. Kelley

This picture is one of the few that could be found verifying the presence at Camp Gordon of the new signal school.

Climbing poles is an Army MOS that has been around since WW2. The above picture was taken in the 1950s, but could easily have been shot up to the present.

Map from realestatehunter.com

In the spring of 1956, Camp Gordon, with its future intact, had its name officially changed to Fort Gordon, Georgia.

Photo from gordon.history.army.mil

Major General John Brown Gordon, still dead, had no comment on his name being used for the third time.

This is actually the third different picture of the General we have used in the Fort Gordon history.

For all of the postcards pictures and descriptions, this map is actually the first one we were able to find. Although it says Camp Gordon, within months it became Ft. Gordon.

This map is very close to the way Ft. Gordon looked when we arrived in 1967. Its features will be referred to again in future posts.

Picture from pinterest.com

This may be a little early in the Fort's existence. The entrance still indicates the 3rd Army Training Center, meaning basic infantry combat training.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Korean War, Causes, Combatants, Casualties, North-South

After WW11, the American economy gradually shifted from a wartime machine, back to a peacetime, market based economy.

The dollar price alone was staggering, but victory was achieved. Then, just as we were coming out of another recession, the rumblings began in Korea.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines were needed again in such a short time span.

The positives that were created before and during the Korean War were the total racial integration of the Armed Forces, the creation of the United States Air Force as a separate branch of the service.

Also the pay scale for men and women in the service of their country was equal.