A graduate of Harvard Business school and a member of the alabama business hall of fame. He hes the author of world war i fighters in the rain bow division, the history of the 167th infantry division. Ment. Hes a founder and benefactor of the Memorial Foundation and mr. Fraser also serves as treasure of the board of directors of that foundation. Today, he will share some of his research from his unit history in his talk please join me in welcoming nimrod fraser. Thank you doctor. Its a great honor for me to be back at this wonderful place. I knew the name of the Commanding Officer of the 167tht infantry before i could read. E knew the name of the Company Commander of the 167th infantry before i could read. My family was divided late in life, but the Common Ground thaa oil have with my father is a ex complicate guy but a very n as experienced combat veteran as n was his best friend, Chester Scott in d company. Chester scott took his remmington, 911 and blew his prans out in 1937. I like to think of him as willy and joe of the rain bow regimen from alabama. W but the middle carrier was always the common bond with my old man. I would go down to visit him, and the one thing that we would both comfortable in dealing wits was his military service and later with mine. I i must, before i get serious here, tell you that when i returned from korea, i thought that i might have done the beste job i could do there. I smell a little gun powder and i sat down with willgu. He had written me one letter while i was there. It was the only letter i got oe from him ever in my whole life. R but he wrote me one letter while i was there. I before i left, every word was caution. Be careful. Get behind the log. When i come back, he wanted to b know what i had been doing. E i told i him i had been in thre operations and ive i did the best job i could do. And i gots to tell you, he was b underwhen he will med. The 167th alabama was in four s. Campaigns it was in seven operations. We were both there by ten months. Bottom line, he did more in ten months, he did twice in ten hs a months what i had done in my ten months. On june 19th, 1916, the montgomery adderertizer reported the mobilization and industrialization of the Alabama National guard. With origins as a social myly sha, the units were made entrabn to the governor when four part time regimens were authorized be the Alabama Legislature in 1912. Thats the date that i mark as the beginning of the training of the be167th infantry. Orders its coming from the War Department. After entering full time federal service at montgomerys manover park, montgomerys racetrack, they no longer were answerable to the governor. Mon the Alabama National guard had l become b more professional betwn 1911 an 1915. In 1912, a fulltime regular army captain was assigned as supervisor of training. Ive got to get this right. Yes. Yes, yes. I got it. I got it. Thats where i want to be. Thats bill screws. He graduated in montgomery alabama, sent to Marion Military Institute for one year, made the honor roll one time. Was t that was the extent of his college. He qualified for alabama ma volunteer regimens condition, served briefly in the spanish hr american war but brushed up b against the regular army there. So much so that he he liked it. He eventually committed to the philippines and they offered to screw the job to go out there as a lieutenant and to work againsd the insurgent moral rows. So he went down and i retraced d his steps down there. I said i want to go right back into that late district where t these guys were doing all of that early fighting. All guys all of the senior guys in world war i had cut their teeth on the moral rows in the philippines. My driver said im not going to go any further. So i can tell you today a tod century later, that the muslim moe rows are still raising hell. Theyre the same ones. Screws came back. Wanted to stay in the army. They didnt have enough Company Commands and baa e battalion kmabd e commands for the west pointers. Tain, but they made him a captain and he considered himself a captain. A he was a supervisor of training for myly sha units that were transitioning into what was uni becoming the United StatesNational Guard. When he got to alabama in 1912,i he immediately caused a shakeup. It was increased federal money coming into the annual budget al the state of alabama for the National Guard. Stat standards were immediately raised. Another company was eliminated for efficiency. The newspapers covered the activity and one reported that residentsi faced tactical problems, long, sweating hikes and sun blistering on the tar get range. Civilians became involved. Standards of military e per competition wereso improved, shooting competitions occurred regularly and one person went to the 1912 shooting olympic competition. Captain William Preston screws, the supervisor established an in examination board for officers commissions in 1913. Commissi this kind of thing was unheard of in the social myly sha that had proceeded this uncoming to o alabama. A signal core was established with 72 men in 1913. Re more than 150 attended a tact Tactical School taukt by regular Army Officers in 1914. It was considered exactly under the lines of a regular army camp. Deficient guard officers were required to drill as privates in an effort to improve professionalism at drill and ceremony. Our Correspondence School was established by screws. For officers and participation was made mandatory. Poor attendance at drill continued to be a problem. Most units were below minimum strength. Mi the mobilization in 1916 did noi come as a surprise, but the b units were notut prepare d for new way. The new high requirements for troops on full time active duty. The War Department required feda dismissal or physically unfit for such service. Or raising units to war strength became a challenge. S un its units were second class. Officers had always been part timers. Pah scho and mostol have little educatio beyond high school. Most enlisted men were simply there for the money. Pite but, despite having been illtrained and fully equipped in the past, the National Guard suddenly offered young men an opportunity to walk away from the simple lives that many had never been able to escape. With little or no education, some found the service to be first real opportunity. Vicee of my father had seven of those. He went in the guard at age 19. E all of these men prablgtically ithout exception were grandchildren of con fed ras. At that time, this has been to discussed here at todays previous presentations. In they had killed american civilians. O. President wilson who had run oni ac peace ticket was afraid. It was one of his angles. Im sure thawat another one wasa his fear of our being so totallr unprepared for a war that was on the horizon. Wilson respected revolution in mexico as an internal matter. As but the countries share a 2,000 mile border and had been b troubled since 1910. O president wilson authorized sending 15,000 regular army troops and 156,0 0 National Guardsmen to the border in 1916. Captain William Preston screws, this was taken at the time of mobilization. T was mustering offices for alabamas four myly sha residents. He dressed carefully, smoked cigars tolerated profanity. Was a very rigorous man. They were at about 2600 men then. They had three offices and 65 men. There was increased emphasis ed on at the time of mobilization on physical fitness. On ph andys on recognizing and controlling venereal disease. Italian marches were practices n with 80 pounds of equipment. This was for the first four ni months of their basic training. S one of the armys moegs Senior Officers and commander of the department of the east inspectee these men there. 21 men were court marshalled and sentenced to hard labor for one or two days for being absent. Discipline was more strictly enforced. Newspapers treated mobilization positively. Excitement met the montgomery advertisers october 13th announcement that the expanded e guard, then numbering 4,955 would move to the Mexican Border. Departing montgomery on six trains bound for camp little in arizona. They slept on the trains on the way out there and prepared their meals. Repa these are shots from the Mexican Border, the one on the left is a payday and the one on the right was taken on a fairly recent visit to nogales. Very little in the area has changed from as it existed in 1916, except its no longer gringo town. Its now, essentially, a mexican town. More complicated, heavily armed patrols of platoons and largest strength were practiced. Prac the men leshl e learned to set up ambushes for the capture of prisons. And to conduct rage and surprise and skill groups on the enemy. The practice trench was constructed in techniques to get relief troops in and out of of those trenches and out posts and no mans land were practiced during this advanced infantry e training long before these men went to france. Various methods of rotating otai platoons and companies were practiced. Ng troops returned home in january of 1917. Ved, d most believed, despite many thr weaknesses shown despite services on the border, that at there was overwhelming evidence for the National Guard of this period. With a very Different Force than the myly sha which had, on numerous occasions in the past, combat history of the country t proved to be unreliable. He from april 6th, 1917, when they ended the war, the alabama soldiers guarded railroad rai bridges until washington decided what to do with it. Ith it did not take long. The demeaning work of guarding railroad bridges ended in augus whenen the War Department order the name of the fourth alabama t infantry to be changed to the 167th United States infantry pes regimen and promoted screws to n full colonel. Ordered authorized the regimen to immediately grow from 1400 to 3,720. In rival Company Strength was increased from 150e to 250. Ded even the band expanded from 22 men to 49. The first alabama infantry, then second alabama infantry, the first alabama calvary and the fourth alabama infantry regimenl had a total of 5,025 men. Screws had worked with all of them, which helped him to cherry pick the best 3,720 for his new regimen. New he had written in an officers efficiency report on every officer in the Alabama National guard at that time and had gaze into the eyes of every soldier o in that regimgimen as he went f towntotown inspecting all 06 them in ranks. ,000. So he picked the best 3,720 out of 5,000. And nobody was as well equipped as he was to do that. Ps bel higher ups believe that the National Guard could be trusted to fight in france. And this, in fact, would make it a major, distinct military asset. Prepare prepared for the birth of the Rainbow Division. Irth the National Guard units from 2s states were wrought to camp mil of new york or made up into four infantry regimens. In the ohio 166, which was always under the watchful gaze of secretary war baker. The alabama 167th, the new york 165th, usually called the fighting 69th in reference to his civil war designation. And the our 168th. With 27,000 men there with the full regimens in support groups, they came from 26 states in the nation. Dennis mack arthur was really aa Public Relations man in the office 06 myly sha. A, a Major General by the name of mann. When baker said he wanted a unit created that would bring the na nation from ticoasttocoast in it and it would represent all the people of the nation. A reporter, when mack arthur was telling them that this division was in the process of being aseporter asked him, you know, what you were going to call it. U and the remarks were it hes stretches across the country like a rain bow and mack arthur said a quality Rainbow Divisiona and that wasni one of his fingerprints on this great organization. Mack arthur was 10 years younger than screws. I guess i have to say that i always felt the alabama regimen was diminished until the time for the fighting came. The paper said there was about 65,000 people in attendance to this final parade. Lets go back to this 15 thd infantry. A lot of physical training, a cp lot of opening. Tively it was a relatively small reservation and they were not there that long. Ath but they braught the division together at that point. There was conflict that you brought the complex together. It was pretty constant fistfights between the high riso of the 165th6th and some of tho new york soldiers told the 15th calvary guys who had come from the Mexican Border back up to l camp mills that these alabamans were going to be out to get you. There was tension, no question about it. There was an instant that took t place at a local railroad station. Il a black Railroad Worker was at the station. It happened to be standing therd doing nothing except standing there when a bunch of these drunk guys from alabama coming in from the city created havoc with them. And i went back and checked ackn the with the New York Public Library tear e taking a look at the black press at the time. It was an incendiary event, theres no question about it. You cannot belittle the situation like that. A but i think in all fairness, we must say that the New York Times wrote an article that said thert had been an instant and the s black press reported it regularly in this situation. Father duffy, who is the priest and chaplain of the 165 et said its a small family route down at camp mills. Camp all of that stuff went away when they went to europe. Every e every ship that we had was involved in the soldiers of europe at that time. Onfused and all of our possessions were used for that transportation. While at kavrp mills, there had been a pretty big pickup in the officer corps of the regimen. Every regimen in the division benefitted from product of the Officers Training carp at platsburg, new york, which had been in existence before we got into the war. Which h and most of these guys who have volunteered to go to plattsburg and volunteered for these commissions were filtered into o the established regimens that kpigsed at that time. Issi the alabama unit got a Pretty Healthy boost from these new officers. Most of them had a few years of college, which was a lot more than the National Guard trained counter parts from alabama had. H and all were in volunteer. At thidis point, every person w a volunteer. The spirit was quite significani and its preparation for what they were going to face in europe. Screws continued to be very demanding and very disciplined as he built the regimen. With this influx of new college boys, he required nine classes and they were all enthusiastic abouttic the way they were recd by the alabama soldiers and by their spree and condition and attitude of the division at that time. Cond the Rainbow Division became more cohesive and more unified while it was at camp mills. The drama continued after the African American soldiers at camp hill had been told by these irish boys that the alabamans rh were going to be laying wait for them. Em 167 the officers of the 167th played down these instances. The tensions that did arise and the violence that did occur were discouraged by the army at its highest levels. Con fliblgtss among the ethnic g andro geographical groups were e also being addressed at the highest level by president wilson. He created the commission on Training Camp activities called the ctca. Immediately after the nation had entered the war. It was charged with protecting the newly mobilized american soldiers from the ravages of ve their disease. Former the reformers gold was to reshape the countrys culture and society in the image of mago their white, urban, middle class backgrounds to make all soldiers fit in their vision of a new american man. F a two National Guard divisions we believe the to europe at that ay time. There, they 1 joined the first division, which had gone over a little bit earlier with j. J. Persing as their leader. Crt the Second Army Division was created in france by cannibalizing units and shipping them to france. Youve got the first and secondo divisions, youve got the 26 new england and then youve got the rainbow over there. These four divisions, they were about equal in training with thw only american combat units in is france through the winter of 1917 and 1918. They were called the winter divisions. He wrote our division is in the peak of condition. Our morality is very high. The 165th is long ago learn ed t that there was one regimen they better not mess with. Act it is a solid fact that the got alabamans had got the goat of everybody here. That the new york officer told me that our boys were the only ones that his crowd of new yorkers were not afraid of. Screws and his men reached their First Destination in lorraine. That was about 60 miles from shamon. Ly. Thats where the aef headquarters was located. France had been provided with 2 smaller tr