Hansen, Gordon L., b. 1925

A life-long resident of Grand Rapids, Mich., Gordon L. Hansen (b. 1925) enlisted in the Army one week after his eighteenth birthday, and was assigned to Fort Benning, Ga., for basic training. An avid soldier, Hansen realized that he was being conditioned "physically and psychologically" for warfare, and may have steeled himself better than the average young soldier. The jocular mood enjoyed by some recruits did not last long. "They issued gas masks, bayonets, haversacks, cartridge belts and tents to us," Hansen wrote, "I noticed the sobering effect it had on the men in the "hut." I think it was the realization that it was really war and not a summer camp for boys."

Hansen scored very well on the Army General Skills Test, and was assigned to Ohio State University in the A.S.T.P. early in December 1943, to attend classes. Immersed in a heavy course load that included plane trigonometry, algebra, analytics, calculus, military engineering, drawing, and physics, Hansen reveled in school: "This was a new and better environment. So much more civilized, cultured, humane than the recorded bugle calls from too loud speakers blaring into our eardrums and consciousness the signals that controlled our days absolutely." The A.S.T.P. days, however, were numbered. By early March, Hansen had been transferred to the 14th Armored Division in Camp Campbell, Ky., a hastily constructed base built soon after the United States entered the war.

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