Lumber, laundry and lice.
Not exactly the sort of wartime duty that comes to mind as we head into Veterans Day.
But those were some of the assignments for soldiers who passed through Vancouver Barracks during two world wars.
The Army base played different roles in those conflicts, as reported in recent Columbian stories.
A story about photographs taken of Vancouver Barracks personnel in 1943 noted that many were in the Quartermaster Corps.
“This was a quartermaster training post,” said historian Jeff Davis, president of the Vancouver Barracks Military Association.
While the story didn’t detail their jobs, some were cooks and bakers.
In a Vancouver Barracks history, Davis described other quartermaster duties.
“One company of the 308th Quartermaster Fumigation and Bath Battalion could body sterilize (de-louse) up to 30,000 troops using DDT in 12 hours.”
They also sterilized water to launder uniforms and set up showers for the troops.
In 1918, about 5,000 soldiers toiled in the Vancouver Barracks spruce mill. It was built on a former polo field where Pearson Air Museum and the reconstructed Fort Vancouver stockade now stand.
The soldiers turned out the factory-ready spruce needed to build warplanes.
Killed near monument
It wasn’t the front lines, but nobody would consider it cushy duty, museum manager Bob Cromwell said.
Living conditions were wretched, with the men living in tents year-round. The work was always grueling, said the National Park Service archaeologist, and often dangerous.
Proof is on the Veterans War Memorial in Vancouver Barracks, which lists about 600 Clark County service members who died during our nation’s wars since 1898.
One soldier on the list died June 11, 1918, a couple of hundred yards from where the monument stands. William Epps was milling a piece of spruce when it kicked back and hit him, killing him instantly.
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
