Synopsis of oral history interview with Lawrence S. Carlton

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Carlton Log
00:00:01 Introducing Dr. Lawrence Carlton.
00:00:13 I was a student at Loomis School in Windsor, Conn. and was at a play rehearsal.
00:00:35 When I was drafted, I was a freshman at Harvard College.
00:01:15 Two months later, February, 1943, I was in the service.
00:01:33 The army air force was in dire need of technicians so once we were drafted, we had no choice of service. We all went to the army air force.
00:01:54 I was inducted at Ft. Devens, Mass.
00:02:30 Several weeks later we were sent by train to Miami Beach. On the ride, we slept three to a two-person seat.
00:03:00 Took basic training in Miami on the Miami Golf Course.
00:03:46 At that time German submarines were operating off the coast and our job was to guard the Miami beaches. We could see ships off the coast blazing after they were hit by German submarines.
00:04:22 I had done well on the Morse Code Aptitude Test so I was then shipped out to Belleville, Illinois to Basic Code School.
00:05:01 I learned to take Morse Code at 12 words a minute, which was the requirement.
00:05:23 Then sent to Madison, WI, Truax Field, and got to 20 WAM and then had to learn to typewrite. Code was in SYCO, a group of 5 characters.
00:06:48 Next was overseas infantry training at Smryna, Tennessee.
00:07:13 Then to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri for more overseas army training.
00:08:50 The Mississippi and Ohio rivers both flooded and we were put to work filling sandbags.
00:09:36 I had one leave before going overseas and I went home to Massachusetts.
00:10:01 During WW II there was much concern about leakage of information because of the submarine threats in the Atlantic and Pacific. We were sworn to secrecy and could not tell even our parents or anyone else where we thought we were going.
00:10:36 I have some letters I wrote home where parts were scissored out.
00:11:05 We were shipped across the country on a 5-day trip. I loved seeing the different country side. We were not allowed to keep a diary or any sort of record.
00:12:10 We stayed at Long Beach, California briefly, and from there shipped out across the Pacific. We did not know where we were going until we were well at sea and then they told us we were going to India.