Sabetha Herald
8 Jan 1941
page 1

Battery D Entrains
Many Persons Gather at Rock Island Station Friday Morning to See Sabetha Men Leave

Hundreds of Sabethans (parents, wives, sweethearts and children) gathered at the Rock Island station last Friday morning to bid farewell to Battery D members and watch them entrain for Camp Joseph T. Robinson near Little Rock, Ark. The scene was typical of the goodbyes and Godspeeds that were said at many departures as Kansas National Guard units left their home stations.
Immediately after Virgil Lehnherr, top sergeant, ordered his men to fall in. Mayor S M Hibbard, a lieutenant-colonel in the medical corps gave a short speech of farewell sending with the Battery members the good wishes of the crowd that had gathered to see the men leave. He impressed upon them the seriousness of the task that lay ahead, pointing that Sabethan knew Battery D would make a fine showing at camp.
As per schedule at 10 o’clock the Pullman conductor shouted ‘board’ and the train began to move. A sea of waving hands bade goodbye to the 65 men who will be gone from Sabetha for at least a year’s encampment and training.
The train was to arrive at Little Rock on Saturday night. From Sabetha the men traveled to Horton to pick up units there, then on south to Topeka and east to Kansas City and St. Louis. The men traveled in much better equipment than during the last World War or in troop movements to Minnesota last August. The special train was equipped with a cook’s galley that had been set up in one of the baggage cars.
The high school ban arrived at the station about ten minutes before train time to give the men a rousing send-off. As the train rolled from the station the band played the national anthem. Well wishers returned silently to the many cars parked near the station.
Second-lieutenants Vernon Dillaplain and Clyde Bloxsom were in charge of the train. Capt. J. W. Cavender and Ray Pittenger, second lieutenant, left Sabetha at ?:15 o’clock Friday morning with the battery’s trucks, field guns and equipment. There were 25 men in the truck convoy including drivers, mechanics and officers. Pittenger was to travel in a station wagon about three or four miles ahead of the convoy. Since the trucks stop frequently for inspection and do not travel at night, they were not to reach the Arkansas camp until sometime Sunday afternoon.
Nebraska National Guard units began their movement to Camp Robinson on Monday. One special train started at North Platte, Neb., picked up men at Grand Island and Hastings and came south to Marysville where guard units entrained.