Georgia Guard Stories of Sacrifice from the Marietta National Cemetery

By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

Memorial Day is a solemn annual observance in which our nation pauses to remember those who gave their lives to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and future generations. For this Memorial Day, the Georgia National Guard History office examines the stories of fallen Georgia National Guardsmen from World War II who rest in Marietta National Cemetery.

About the Cemetery

Marietta National Cemetery is the final resting place of nearly 19,000 of our nation’s veterans. The cemetery was established in 1866 as the Marietta and Atlanta National Cemetery to accommodate nearly 10,000 fallen Federal Soldiers from the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War.[1] Since that time, the cemetery has served as the final resting place for those who fell in our nation’s wars. Among them are seven members of the Georgia Guard who fell during World War II. The lineage of the units in which these Soldiers fell continue in service today in the Georgia Army and Air National Guard.

 

Sgt. Harold Wood, Co B, 121st Infantry Regiment

Sergeant Harold Milner Wood, Company B, 121^st Infantry Regiment

Harold Wood was born April 15, 1902. He enlisted in the Georgia Army National Guard’s Company B. 121st Infantry Regiment based in Barnesville. The Barnesville Blues conducted initial training with the regiment at Fort Jackson, S.C. and continued training during the Carolina and Tennessee Maneuvers. The 121^st landed on Normandy’s Omaha Beach July 4, 1944.[2] During the attempt to push entrenched German Soldiers out of La Haye du Puits in Northern France, Wood was killed in action July 13, 1944. He is buried in Marietta National Cemetery, Section K, Grave 4044 B.

 

TSgt. Emmett Asbell, Co M, 121st Infantry Regiment

Technical Sergeant Emmett Asbell, Company M, 121^st Infantry Regiment

Emmett Asbell was born September 14, 1915 in Bleckley County, Ga. Asbell enlisted in the Hawkinsville-based Company M, 121st Infantry and rose to the rank of 1st sergeant before his unit was accepted into federal service in September 1940. Like Wood, Asbell completed the pre-deployment training with the 121^st Infantry Regiment before fighting his way through the Normandy and Northern France campaigns. He was killed in action November 26, 1944 in Germany and is buried in Marietta National Cemetery, Section K, Grave 2008 I.

 

Lt. Col. William Waldo, 101st SP BN CAC

Lieutenant Colonel William Waldo, Headquarters Company, 101^st Separate Battalion, Coast Artillery Corps

William Slayton Waldo was born October 8, 1902. He was a long-time member of the 108th Cavalry having enlisted as a private in April 1921. He was promoted to staff sergeant in 1924, commissioned a second lieutenant in 1925 and promoted to first lieutenant two years later. In 1939, 1^st Lt. Waldo served as the adjutant of headquarters, 1^st Squadron, 108^th Cavalry when it converted to form a coast artillery battalion. Captain Waldo commanded Headquarters Company, 101st Separate Battalion, Coast Artillery Corps when it was accepted into federal service in September 1940. Waldo received promotion to major and lieutenant colonel before mobilizing for the Pacific Theater in 1943. Waldo fell ill while transiting the Panama Canal. He died December 9, 1943 in the Panama Canal Zone. He is buried in Marietta National Cemetery, Section Q, Grave 57.

 

Pvt. Herman D. Brinkley, Co B, 121st Infantry Regiment

Private Herman D. Brinkley, Company B, 121^st Infantry Regiment

Herman D. Brinkley of Lamar, Ga. joined the Barnesville Blues, Company B, 121st Infantry Regiment September 16, 1940 at the age of 18. He was killed in action in the vicinity of Isigny-sur-Mer, France July 16, 1944. He is buried in Marietta National Cemetery Section E, Grave 6544-1.

T4 Paull Callaway, Co D, 121st Infantry Regiment

Technician 4^th Grade Paul Callaway, Company D, 121^st Infantry Regiment

Paul Callaway joined Company D, 121st Infantry as a private January 24, 1941 at the age of 20. Callaway volunteered for airborne service and was assigned to the 551st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He was killed in action January 6, 1945 during the Battle of the Bulge. He is buried in Marietta National Cemetery Section K, Grave 10293 C.

 

Pvt. Thomas Hudson, Battery F, 179th FA

Private Thomas F. Hudson, Battery F, 179^th Field Artillery

Thomas F. Hudson enlisted as a private in Battery F, 179th Field Artillery October 10, 1939 at the age of 21. He was transferred to the 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division. Private Hudson was killed in action August 2, 1944 near Saint Lo, France. He is buried in Marietta National Cemetery Section K, Grave 4002 E.

 

The 128th OS, May 1941

Technical Sergeant Thomas L. Johnson, 128^th Observation Squadron

Thomas Johnson enlisted in the 128th Observation Squadron at the age of 23 on March 31, 1941. In March 1943, the 128th was redesignated the 21st Antisubmarine Squadron and assigned B-25 Mitchells. On July 23, 1943, Thomas’ aircraft went missing in flight from Gulfport to Tampa. Also missing on the flight were 1st Lt. John Turner, TSgt. Edward Simpson and TSgt. J. R. Grogan, all of the Ga. National Guard. Johnson is memorialized in College Park Cemetery and Marietta National Cemetery, Section MA, Grave 4.

Photos courtesy of the Georgia Army National Guard Archives

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[1] Marietta National Cemetery, https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/marietta.asp

[2] Carraway, William. It Shall Be Done:  The 121st Infantry Enters Fortress Europe. July 26, 2019. http://www.georgiaguardhistory.com/2019/07/it-shall-be-done-121st-infantry.html

April 1955: Operation Minuteman Demonstrates Effectiveness of National Guard

By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

A 57 mm recoilless rifle squad from the Rome-based Company E, 122nd Infantry Regiment secures an intersection during exercises as part of
Operation Minuteman April 20, 1955. Georgia Guard Archives

In April 1955, the National Guard’s 400,000-strong force responded to an unprecedented activation exercise. Operation Minuteman, conceived by Maj. Gen. Edgar Erickson, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, successfully mobilized nearly 320,000 National Guardsmen in an age long before e-mail, social media and smart phones.

This 1955 Cartoon by Bill Canfield illustrates the reach
of Operation Minuteman. Georgia Guard Archives.

“Considering this was the first time that a nationwide alert has been held by a reserve component of the armed forces, the National Guard made a great showing,” said Maj. Gen. George Hearn, Adjutant General of the Georgia National Guard following the conclusion of Operation Minuteman. “The people of the state and nation became instantly aware of the potent force we mobilized in such a short period of time.”

The purpose of Operation Minuteman was to test the speed and efficiency with which the National Guard could be mobilized in the event of a national emergency. Additionally, the operation was intended to demonstrate to the public the efficiency and readiness of the National Guard.

At 3:30 on the afternoon of April 20, 1955, the alert notification was dispatched from Washington D.C. to the adjutants general of the 48 states and Alaska Territory. In towns across the country, local armories were flooded with National Guardsmen responding to the exercise alert. A company commander in the California National Guard reported 70 percent of his personnel had reported within one hour of the alert, ninety percent had reported by the second hour and all were present within three hours of the alert notice.

After assembling, the Guardsmen were dispatched on simulated missions. Units of the Atlanta-based 122^nd Infantry Regiment established protective cordons around vital infrastructure including power stations, water works and radio stations. The 215^th Medical Battalion of the Tennessee National Guard set up four hospital tents near their Memphis Armory and ambulances were dispatched to receive simulated patients.

 

Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers rush to the Atlanta Armory during Operation Minuteman. The Soldiers are from
the 122nd Infantry Regiment, 179th Field Artillery Regiment, 48th Signal Company and 878th Engineer Aviation Battalion. Georgia Guard archives.

In addition to the myriad of Army unit movements, the Air National Guard also responded in force. Georgia Air National Guardsmen of the 116^th Fighter Bomber Wing launched 24 aircraft within the first hour of the alert. While he declined to give official numbers due to operational security concerns, Brig. Gen. Winston P. Wilson, Chief of the Air National Guard, noted that hundreds of aircraft participated in the exercise.

Trucks of the 179th Field Artillery Regiment, 48th Armored Division, Georgia Army National Guard move out from the Atlanta Armory during
Operation Minuteman April 20, 1955. Georgia Guard Archives. 

Operation Minuteman represented the first time in the history of the National Guard that a national level alert was executed. While the National Guard had previously conducted large-scale mobilization efforts, such as those for Mexican Border service in 1916 and for WW II service, those mobilizations were incremental.

Erickson, formerly the adjutant general of Massachusetts, chose April 20 as the date for Operation Minuteman as it was the date that the Minuteman Companies of the Hampshire County Militia Regiment began marching to Boston following the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Sources:

Georgia Guardsman Magazine, March-May 1955 edition 

Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar, Number 32, April 28, 1955

Madera Tribune, Number 317, 21 April 1955

On This Day in Memphis History, G. Wayne Dowdy

Looking Back: The First 30 Days of Ga. DoD Coronavirus Response Operations

By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

Georgia Army National Guard 1st Lt. Catherine Blakelock of the Savannah-based Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 118th Field Artillery Regiment
briefs an infection control team before entering a nursing home in Port Wentworth, Ga. April 10, 2020. Photo by 1st Lt. Joe Reynolds

The Beginning

In just one month, the Georgia Department of Defense moved from contingency planning, in preparation for COVID-19 operations, to full engagements in 10 different missions encompassing locations across the state. On March 10, the Clay National Guard lodging facilities were cleared and prepared to receive guests from the Grand Princess Cruise Ship. On that day, the Ga. DoD issued a warning order advising the force that the Ga. DoD would “begin pandemic response operations in order to protect the force, assist local and state authorities with the protection of life and property, and with the preservation of peace, order, and public safety.”

At the time WARNO 1 was issued, Georgia had reported 18 cases of COVID-19 and no deaths. The next day more than 250 cruise ship passengers arrived at Dobbins Air Reserve Force Base to begin observation for COVID-19 symptoms. The Clay National Guard Center received its first passengers the evening of March 13.

Lieutenant Colonel Pervis Brown, officer in charge
of the Ga. DoD's Joint Operations Center and 2nd Lt.
Austin Brumby track mission assignments from the
Georgia Emergency Management Agency at the Joint
Force Headquarters in Marietta, Ga. March 23, 2020.
Phot by Maj. William Carraway

The Response Ramps Up

On March 14, Governor Brian Kemp authorized the activation of 2,000 Georgia National Guard Soldiers and Airmen. The next day, the first Soldiers were on mission transporting patients while Georgia State Defense Force volunteers augmented operations at the headquarters of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency alongside Georgia’s Citizen Soldiers and Airmen. At first, the battle rhythm of operations had the familiarity of a hurricane or severe weather response, but key differences soon became apparent. The state surgeon of the Ga. DoD was an early key staff augmentee at the State Operations Center where civilians and service members worked in coordination with the Department of Public Health.

Medical Support Teams

During the update brief for commanders and senior staff on March 18, Maj. Gen. Tom Carden, Georgia’s Adjutant General, tasked the Ga. DoD joint staff with developing a unit-manning document for a new kind of unit that did not exist anywhere within the force structure. As described by Carden, teams of medical personnel would be assembled in order to supplement hospital staff.

Georgia Air National Guard Airman 1st Class Matthew Brownson, a medical specialist with the 116th Medical Broup Detachment One records patient data at
Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta on March 26, 2020. Photo by Sgt. Jeron Walker

“The people who will populate that unit will be people with medical skill sets who are not first responders, not working in a hospital,” said Carden, addressing commanders and staff at the Joint Force Headquarters in Marietta. “We are not waiting for someone to ask for this information, we need to anticipate the need and be prepared.”

The concept of the joint medical unit evolved into medical support teams, comprised of Soldiers, Airmen, and Ga SDF Volunteers who had civilian or military training in the medical field. Less than two weeks from the first expression of concept, more than 200 personnel were employed at 19 regional medical centers across the state.

Ventilators

Aviators of the Marietta-based 78th Aviation Troop
Command transported 12 ventilators from Tobyhanna
Army Depot April 3, 2020. Photo by Maj. Travis Brown

By March 23, the Ga. DOD coordinated the placement of the first medical support team which embedded two days later. Based on reports fielded from hospitals and input from the state surgeon, Carden tasked the Ga. DoD to inventory all units for ventilators and prepare to transfer them to civilian hospitals.

“Knowing (the number of COVID-19 cases) is not what really matters,” said Carden during a planning meeting with senior leaders. “What really matters is when we hit capacity at hospitals. When will we run out of ventilators?”

With ventilators identified as critical equipment, commanders in the Georgia and Army National Guard requested immediate inventory and calibration. Those in need of calibration were transported to Tobyhanna Army Depot by aviators of the 78^th Aviation Troop Command. By March 24, the Ga. DoD logistics officer reported the Ga. DoD could make 41 ventilators available to hospitals.

In his closing comments to commanders and staff March 24, Carden recognized the herculean efforts of the Ga. DoD and reminded all in attendance to always plan ahead.

“What we are doing now is different than anything we have ever done before,” said Carden. No one in this room has experience with pandemic response. This is where we live our values. Your entire career has built your ability to respond now. Since the day you put the uniform on, you have learned to be adaptive and agile. We have got to know not only what is going on now, we have to think about what is next.”

Infection Control Teams

On March 26, Brigadier General Randall Simmons, Commander of the Ga. ARNG and Joint Task Force Commander Ga. COVID-19 Response Force, traveled to Albany Ga. to meet with community leaders and hospital staff. In addition to visiting patient isolation facilities and speaking with medical support team personnel, Simmons visited a local nursing home where he learned that multiple residents had tested positive for COVID-19. Recognizing the potential health crisis, Simmons suggested the Georgia National Guard could provide assistance to the facility.

Soldiers of the Forsyth-based 2^nd Battalion 121^st Infantry Regiment were dispatched to assist at the Albany nursing home and to supplement patient observation sites in Albany and Forsyth on March 28. Identifying the vulnerability of nursing homes to COVID-19, Carden tasked commanders and staff with anticipating a mission to assist. Colonel John Till, safety officer of the Ga. DOD informed senior leaders that his office had conducted disinfecting operations at Ga. DoD facilities and that the techniques and protective equipment could be adapted to disinfect critical facilities in the state.

In the coming days, Carden briefed members of the Governor’s Task Force on the Coronavirus regarding the risk and potential for the Ga. DoD to assist. Carden briefed the capability to Governor Kemp while Till assembled personnel from the 138^th Chemical Company to constitute the first infection control team.

“We are going to generate the capability and be prepared to provide the service,” said Carden. “The critical discussion will have to be had between DPH and GEMA to determine how we are to be employed. Our job is to lean forward as far as we can.”

On the morning of March 31, Brig. Gen. Simmons directed the 201^st Regional Support Group to dispatch the first ICT to Albany and to take with it personal protective equipment for nursing home workers. Simmons also directed the joint staff to establish a planning team for disinfecting operations.

The first infection control team composed of Soldiers of the 138th Chemical Company and 177th Brigade Engineer Battalion prepare to depart
the Clay National Guard Center for Albany, Ga. March 31, 2020. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

In the coming days, the Ga. DoD established a list of 383 nursing homes across the state. The first ICT trained a follow-on team at the Albany nursing home. On April 1, sixty Soldiers of the Calhoun-based 1^st Squadron, 108^th Cavalry Regiment had trained for the disinfecting mission.

30 Days of Operations

On the morning of April 10, nearly 1,000 Soldiers and Airmen comprising 58 ICTs had cleaned nearly 120 facilities and were continuing to work into the Easter weekend to alleviate human suffering. More than 200 of Georgia’s Citizen Soldiers and Airmen were working shoulder to shoulder with medical personnel at 19 hospitals across the state. Georgia State Defense Force Volunteers provided support to food bank operations in Valdosta, one of nine foodbanks supported by the Ga. DoD across the state. Logisticians supported GEMA and DPH warehouse operations and isolation facilities while more than 70 personnel provided health screenings at hospitals in Athens, Atlanta, Albany, Macon, and Gainesville, freeing nurses and medical support personnel to care for patients.

Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the Marietta-based 201st Regional Support Group disinfect a nursing home facility on Easter Sunday
March 12, 2020. The team was visited by Maj. Gen. Tom Carden, Georgia's Adjutant General, who presented coins to Spc. Joshua Brown
of the Monroe-based 178th Military Police Company and Spc. Kevin Mincey of the Hinesville-based 179th MP Company in recognition of their
efforts on behalf of Georgia's Citizens. Photo by 2nd Lt. Elisabeth Tanifum.

As the Ga. DoD passes 30 days of Coronavirus response operations, the role these Citizen Soldiers, Airmen and State Defense Force Volunteers play continues to expand. As Maj. Gen. Tom Carden has said on numerous occasions, “We will never be late to need.”

Georgia National Guard Responds to Water Crisis

By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

In this 1956 photo, Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the Atlanta-based 201st Ordnance Company load up pipe in response to a water crisis in Loganville. Four years later, the unit would respond to a water crisis in Unadilla. Georgia Guard Archives.

 What would happen if a town in Georgia was suddenly without water? This was the situation that confronted the citizens of Unadilla Georgia in March 1960 and the Georgia National Guard Soldiers who sped to their rescue.

On the morning of March 24, 1960, the 1,200 residents of Unadilla Georgia, an agricultural community approximately 45 miles south of Macon, went about their normal routine showering for work and filling glasses of water for breakfast. Within hours, that routine was plunged into uncertainty with the collapse of the town’s water system. With the well yielding an undrinkable sandy mixture, city officials requested assistance. Receiving the call, the Georgia National Guard dispatched the 201^st Ordnance Company from Atlanta. The 201^st loaded trucks with pumps and pipe and prepared personnel for departure. Meanwhile, in Columbus, engineers of the 560^th Armored Engineer Battalion dispatched Soldiers and vehicles to transport tanks and filtration systems.

Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the Columbus-based 560th Engineer Battalion set up a pumping station and filtration system in Unadilla, Ga. March 24, 1960 after the city's water well failed. Georgia Guard Archives.

Citizen Soldiers from Columbus and Atlanta converged on the scene in Unadilla and were joined by officials from the Georgia Department of Health. Working through the morning of March 25, the Soldiers installed a pump and filtration system to provide the citizens of Unadilla with drinking water while the Ga. DPH and other Guardsmen worked with city officials to repair the well. The units had responded to a similar water crisis in Loganville four years earlier, and Columbus engineers set up the sediment retention tanks and filtration systems while the 201^st Ordnance Company installed more than half a mile of pipe.

By 3:00 the morning of March 25, the first pump became operational and by dawn, a second pump was providing drinking water for the city. The Guardsmen remained on duty in Unadilla until March 29, when the city was able to restore the production capability of an older city well.[i]

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[i] "Unadilla Well Fails; Columbus, Atlanta NG Supplies Water." The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, April 1960, 16.

60 Years Ago, This Month: Crippling Snowstorm Prompts Georgia Guard Response

By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

A column of vehicles stages at the Atlanta headquarters of the Georgia National Guard March 9, 1960 prepared to travel to Gainesville, Ga. following heavy snowfall across north Georgia. Georgia Guard Archives.

On March 9, 1960, a snowstorm dropped as much as eight inches of snow over north Georgia. By the time the snow began to fall March 9, many areas of North Georgia were still heavily covered by ice from frozen precipitation that fell the previous week. Temperatures had remained below freezing, thus the falling snow added to the weight of previously accumulated ice. This proved devastating to the poultry region of north Georgia. Approximately 400 chicken houses collapsed under the weight of the ice and snow. Highways became impassable and school buses were unable to bring children home from school.

Aerial reconnaissance conducted by Georgia Army National Guard helicopters revealed wide devastation across north Georgia following a March 9, 1960 snowstorm. In this image, five poultry houses have collapsed from the weight of accumulated snow and ice.  Georgia Guard Archives.

Already pressed by calls for assistance from the previous-week’s ice event, the communications office of the Civil Defense Division of the Georgia Department of Defense was flooded with requests from farmers, ranchers and citizens across north Georgia. With need concentrated in Hall County and its abundant poultry farms, Maj. Gen. George Hearn, Georgia’s Adjutant General, dispatched a convoy of nearly two dozen 2 ½ ton trucks to Gainesville. Departing the Atlanta headquarters of the Georgia National Guard on the afternoon of March 9, the vehicles, under command of Lt. Col. Emmett Plunkett, state maintenance officer, arrived in Hall County that evening. Plunkett established a response headquarters in the Hall County Jail. The Guardsmen, members of the Atlanta-based 201^st Ordnance Company, 1^st Rocket Howitzer Battalion and 248^th Signal Battalion were joined by Soldiers of Gainesville’s Company C, 878^th Engineer Battalion who had spent the previous week responding to emergencies prompted by the March 2 ice storm. Elberton’s Headquarters Battery, 4^th Gun Battalion provided additional Soldiers and five-ton heavy trucks.

Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers receive a mission brief before conducting emergency response operations n Gainesville, Ga. March 10, 1960. Georgia Guard Archives

The Guardsmen fanned out into Hall County and neighboring Lumpkin, Dawson, White and Habersham Counties rescuing trapped motorists and delivering them to warming shelters. Guard vehicles also assisted in conveying doctors and patients to local hospitals. The Guard’s winch-equipped heavy trucks pulled countless vehicles out of snow drifts in an effort to clear roads. Nevertheless, with commercial trucks bogged down by the wintry conditions, by the night of March 9, Guardsmen began delivering feed from local mills to farms isolated by the snowfall. Through the darkness, the Guardsmen traveled over treacherous mountain roads in freezing temperatures to reach sparsely populated agricultural communities.[i]

Within the first 24 hours, the Guardsmen had conducted more than 200 missions. They continued 24-hour operations through March 11 when they were relieved by a convoy of vehicles and Guardsmen from the Newnan and Jackson armories of the 1^st Reconnaissance Squadron. That evening, additional snow fell adding to the urgency of the response operations. Doctors accompanied Guard patrols in rural areas to treat patients who were unable to travel to hospitals and clinics. Food, heating oil and gasoline were transported continuously by Guard vehicles while the Gainesville armory provided hot meals and cots delivered from Atlanta.

In Toccoa and Canton, Guardsmen from local armories made emergencies calls to residents, delivering groceries, feed, hay, medicine and other essentials to remote county residences. Georgia Guard trucks delivered chickens to processing plants, transported live eggs to hatcheries and delivered feed to sustain livestock and poultry populations.

Through relentless effort and coordination with the Georgia State Patrol and first responders, Georgia Guardsmen mitigated human suffering and reduced overall economic impact to the poultry industry. At the height of the operation, Guardsmen operated more than 80 trucks traveling more than 45,000 miles over treacherous roads. More than 900 missions were executed in the Gainesville area alone. Incredibly, despite thousands of hours on the roads, no accidents or injuries were sustained by responding Guardsmen.

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[i] "Frigid March Weather Brings Ice & Snow Storms – Crippling Power, Transportation." The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, April 1960, 8.

Georgia Military Institute Officer Candidates Experience Lessons of the Past During Civil War Staff Ride

By Major William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

Major William Carraway, historian of the Georgia Army National Guard, leads officer candidates of the Georgia Military Institute's Officer Candidate School Class 59 in recreating the charge of Col. Dan McCook's Federal brigade during a staff ride at the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield March 6, 2020. Photo by Capt. Shannell Chappell.

Officer candidates of the Georgia Army National Guard’s Georgia Military Institute’s Officer Candidate School Class 59 conducted a staff ride at the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield in Kennesaw, Ga. March 6, 2020. The staff ride, which covered the actions of the Atlanta Campaign during the American Civil War was facilitated by Maj. William Carraway, historian of the Georgia Army National Guard.

Officer candidates of the Georgia Military Institute's OCS

Class 59 receive a block of instruction on Civil War rifle 

muskets from Maj. William Carraway, historian of the 

Georgia Army National Guard. Photo by Sgt. Elisel Jimenez.

The purpose of the Kennesaw Mountain Staff Ride was to draw parallels between combat in the American Civil War and implications to the modern battlefield. The future officers began the learning process for the staff ride months ago with reading assignments and research objectives designed to make them subject matter experts in a particular aspect of Civil War combat, such as artillery, small-arms, logistics, transportation, intelligence and terrain analysis. The officer candidates learned the strategic and operational objectives of the 1864 campaigns and applied principles of war in the analysis of courses of actions available to the Federal and Confederate commanders. Additionally, candidates considered how weather and logistical concerns factored into the decision-making process that resulted in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

Following a sand table brief in which the candidates role-played Generals William Sherman, Joseph Johnston and their staffs, the candidates travelled to Kennesaw Mountain to observe the terrain considerations that confronted the contending armies. The candidates ascended to the top of Kennesaw Mountain and observed the direction of approach of the Federal Armies from the summit. From the top of the mountain, the candidates could survey the ground before them and understand how Confederate commanders had a clear picture of the Federal commander’s intent and maneuvers.

Returning to the base of the mountain, the candidates visited the ground that was held by Georgia troops and stood on the picket line that was held by the 63^rd Georgia Infantry Regiment. The candidates experienced the nine steps required to fire an original civil war musket and practiced the loading process in an attempt to achieve a firing rate of three rounds per minute. To demonstrate the effective engagement distances of American Civil War battlefields, Carraway marched off the distance a Soldier could travel in the time it took a Soldier to load and fire a musket. He then told the candidates to reload, fixed a bayonet to the musket and charged their position to demonstrate the psychological impact of a massed charge.

Georgia Army National Guard Officer Candidates of the Georgia Military Institute's OCS Class 59 practice the nine steps required to fire a Civil War-era musket during a staff ride at the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield March 6, 2020. Photo by Capt. Shannell Chappell.

The staff ride culminated with the candidates recreating the charge of Col. Dan McCook’s Federal brigade on Cheatham Hill. The candidates were put through crash-course of Civil War-era drill and practiced moving from a column of march to a line of battle. They then advanced from the Federal assembly position, through the woods, crossed two creeks and emerged at the base of Cheatham Hill where they beheld the objective before them. The candidates moved from a column to a line of battle and began the slow ascent of Cheatham Hill while Carraway called out musket volleys and artillery barrages that would have reaped gaps in their lines. Reaching what they thought was the crest of the hill, the candidates collapsed exhausted only to learn that the actual Confederate line was nearly 50 meters further.

As a result of their hands-on experience with Civil War weapons systems on the original battlefield, the officer candidates received invaluable exposure to historic combat conditions and the lessons that resonate for the modern battlefield. A key takeaway of the learning experience was that whether planning an extended campaign in 1864 or a 72-hour platoon operation in Afghanistan, there are similarities, and a study of military history is vital to the success of today’s military leader. 

Georgia Army National Guard Officer Candidates of the Georgia Military Institute's Officer Candidate School Class 59 stand at the Illinois Monument on Cheatham Hill after recreating the charge of Col. Dan McCook's Federal Brigade during a staff ride at the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield March 6, 2020. Photo by Sgt. Elisel Jimenez.

60 Years Ago, This Month: The Georgia Guard Responds Following Devastating Winter Storm

By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

Ice-choked roads and downed trees greeted Georgia Guardsmen of Calhoun's Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment in Rock City, Ga. March 3, 1960 following a severe ice storm that impacted Georgia. Georgia Guard Archives

Hurricane and winter emergencies in the past decade have brought the domestic response role of the National Guard to the forefront of national attention. But this mission is not of recent invention. In March 1960, hundreds of Georgia National Guards Soldiers and Airmen responded in the wake of severe ice and snow accumulation in North Georgia, part of a crippling winter event that gripped the southeastern United States.


The morning of March 2, 1960 dawned with the temperature near freezing across Georgia and neighboring states. A cold front moving south from Canada brought heavy precipitation which clung to trees and powerlines. As temperatures plunged, ice accumulated swiftly, as much as four inches thick in places.[i] The rapid accumulation of heavy ice snapped power poles and trees blocking roads and coating road surfaces with treacherous ice. With telephone lines down across north Georgia radio calls from amateur radio operators poured into the Georgia State Patrol and State Department of Defense Headquarters. The Georgia DoD and its Civil Defense Division, precursor of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, went to 24-hour manning, receiving messages and updates and relaying desperate pleas for help to state and federal agencies. Georgia’s Governor, and former Adjutant General, Ernest Vandiver authorized the Ga. National Guard to immediately provide all possible support to alleviate human suffering.[ii]

In the early hours of the response, the Civil Defense Division staffed nearly 40 rescue teams and prepared to respond. Facing massive power outages and with emergency power generators running out of fuel at hospitals, radio stations, fire and police stations, Maj. Gen. George Hearn, Georgia’s Adjutant General ordered, teams to deliver generators and fuel to hospitals and shelters from Carrollton and Villa Rica in the west, to Jackson in the south, and to Rome, Cave Spring in the north. Air National Guard generators from Dobbins Air Force Base were transported by military vehicles over treacherous ice-slicked roads and were in place by the early morning hours of March 3. By then, the temperature had plunged to zero degrees in Chattanooga and throughout North Georgia.[iii] The Georgia Army National Guard armory in Rome opened its doors to citizens and provided hot meals cooked on field stoves. Meanwhile, Rome Guardsmen, led by Capt. Lewis Varnedoe, commander of Company A, 2^nd Battalion 108^th Armor, fanned out to survey damage and rescue ice-bound citizens.[iv]

Georgia National Guard Soldiers of the Rome-based Company A, 2nd Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment under the command of Capt. Lewis Varnedoe, inspect a generator installed at a school in Cave Spring, Ga. March 3, 1960 following a severe ice storm that impacted Georgia.  Georgia Guard Archives.

Georgia Army National Guard helicopters mobilized to deliver supplies to stricken North Georgia counties. Major General Hearn accompanied one of the first flights and observed damage from the air. These aerial surveys over Calhoun and Rome helped direct relief efforts. Guardsmen of Calhoun’s Headquarters, 2-108^th Armor were dispatched north to Rock City, one of the hardest hit areas where hundreds of homes were without power. The Guardsmen patrolled the streets with radio-equipped jeeps. One of these patrols located a remote home which had been completely isolated by shattered trees and ice. Finding the home without power or heat, the Guardsmen evacuated the family and transported a child to a hospital in Chattanooga for treatment of pneumonia. 

Georgia Army National Guard helicopters on the ground in Rock City, Ga. March 3, 1960 following a severe ice storm that impacted Georgia. Georgia Guard Archives.

Impact was not isolated to North Georgia. In Atlanta, the power failed at the Georgia National Guard headquarters and an emergency power generator was required to maintain the vital communications center which continued to receive calls for assistance. Guardsmen transported more than 400 cots to a shelter facility in Covington.

Subfreezing temperatures continued for a week, complicating efforts to clear roads and reach desperate citizens. On March 9, the situation became even more desperate as a snowstorm dropped from four to eight inches of snow over north Georgia on March 9. This snowstorm, following closely on the heels of the devastating effects of ice would prompt second response which will be chronicled in a follow up article.

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[i] Lee, Laurence G. A Review of the Record-Breaking Snow and Persistent Cold of February and March 1960. §. Accessed March 2, 2020. https://www.weather.gov/media/gsp/localdat/cases/2010/Review_Feb-Mar_1960.pdf.

[ii] "Frigid March Weather Brings Ice & Snow Storms – Crippling Power, Transportation." The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, April 1960, 6.

[iii] Shearer, John. “Big Ice Storm was 50 Years Ago This Month.” The Chattanoogan, March 6, 2010. Accessed March 1, 2020. https://www.chattanoogan.com/2010/3/6/170459/Big-Ice-Storm-Was-50-Years-Ago-This.aspx

[iv] Guardsman, 7.