The American CCC

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My dad was not in the CCC but many of his friends were. As a kid I talked to a few of them at the Fisherman's club in Gloucester. They had the same (non combat stories) his wartime Navy, Coast Guard Army and Jar head friends told. So it begs the question what was the CCC roll in preparing the Greatest Generation to fight WW II?

The Civilian Conservation Corps camps: From tree soldiers to real soldiers.
By Dan Olmsted August 6, 2018

Background:

Have you ever hiked or camped in a national park? Ever been to Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon? Next time you do, you need to stop and think about the Civilian Conservation Corps. Good chance they laid the hiking trails, made the campsites, and the roads going into our national parks.

When Franklin Roosevelt was elected president of the United States in 1932, he introduced the New Deal as his plan to help America recover from the Great Depression. One of the key pieces of legislation in the New Deal was the Emergency Conservation Work Act (EWC), more commonly known as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Before the CCC came to an end, as a result of World War II, it proved to be one of the more successful New Deal programs.

The CCC proved to be beneficial on several levels. It provided work for young men who had been unemployed for years. It restored our depleted forests and implemented the prevention of soil erosion. It also gave young men the chance to leave their homes for the first time and experience the great outdoors. The income they earned was sent home and provided families with money they previously did not have. The young men learned to read, type, how to drive trucks and carpentry skills. More importantly, it gave the young men a sense of purpose and they experienced the satisfaction which is gained from hard work.

Young men age 18 – 25 unemployed and unmarried joined the CCC for a six-month enlistment. They could extend that enlistment for up to two years. Each worker received $30 a month in payment, a dollar a day, and he was required to send home $22 to $25 each month. He received three meals a day, clothing, room and board and medical care. Many of the young men had never eaten like this before; they had fresh eggs, vegetables, and fruit. In addition to the financial and health benefits, they had the opportunity to expand on their education. Over 40,000 men were taught to read and write while enrolling in educational programs held in the evening after work hours.

The CCC was a model of success. On March 9, 1933, President Roosevelt addressed the 73rd Congress to obtain authorization for the program. Only a month later, the induction of the first men into the program came on April 7, 1933. The initial call-up was for 250,000 men. By July of 1933, there were over 300,000 men in the CCC. 1935 was the height of the program with over 500,000 men serving in over 2,500 camps operating in all states. California had over 150 camps; there were also camps in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. If you add the support staff, supervisors, education instructors and administrators, the total was more than 600,000 employed by the CCC.

Women were not allowed to join the CCC. African Americans did join the CCC. They lived and worked in separate camps. There were over 88,000 Native Americans in the CCC. World War I Veterans were given preference over job locations and job responsibilities. Before the program came to an end over three million Americans served in the CCC. It is estimated roughly five percent of the total male population took part in the CCC during its nine years.

The accomplishments of the CCC were very impressive. Over 2.5 billion trees planted, over 800 State and Federal Parks constructed, 3,500 fire towers erected, 125,000 miles of roads built and over 50,000 acres of campgrounds developed. Farmlands benefited from erosion control and re-vegetation of land lost during the dust bowl of the late 1920s and early 1930s. These farmlands were reclaimed. There are monuments, statues, and plaques dedicated to the CCC throughout the United States. The next time you walk through City Park notice the references and tributes paid to the CCC.

What Happened:

The Civilian Conservation Corps from the beginning was highly influenced by the United States Army. The initial obstacle faced by the CCC was transporting hundreds of thousands of men to their new work sites. Most of the men lived in the east and a great majority of the camps were in the west. Only the Army had the ability and the infrastructure to transport that large a number of people. The camps were spread throughout the United States and the territories, and were constructed, supplied, and maintained by the U.S. Army.

The camps were not military camps; however, they were run much like a military camp. You rose early in the morning, answered role, participated in exercise drills and had breakfast. You then received your assignment for the day. The older men were the leaders. You were expected to listen to and respect their orders. You always kept your bunk made and your area in the barracks clean.

World War II brought an end to the CCC. The country needed all of its resources for the war effort and there was no longer funding for the CCC. The three million men, who served in the CCC, easily transitioned into military life. They were disciplined, trained in team work, and use to hard work. They were ready to join American forces in the fight against tyranny.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

The Enchanted Forest
By MAJOR JOHN A PORTER, Q.M.C. The Quartermaster Review March-April 1934

Army Quartermaster support to the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression
NOTE: The Quartermaster Corps’ role in this great endeavor was to supply on short notice a hastily mobilized "army" of domestic workers, a force almost three times that of the Regular Army, with food, clothing, equipment, and shelter, and transportation. The Quartermaster Corps rose to the challenge, and more importantly, used the CCC experience to ready itself for an even greater challenge – World War II.

It was soon realized that no government department other than the Army had the necessary qualified personnel or facilities for the handling, supply, transportation and welfare of this vast number of young Americans. Consequently the task of the Army was almost immediately extended to the establishment of work camps and to the administration, medical care, feeding. supplying and welfare during the entire period of service. This tremendous task, which the War Department decentralized to the various Army agencies at the very beginning, was carried out in the most expeditious manner as is illustrated by the fact that within seven weeks after the approval of the Army's operational plan the assembly of the Civilian Conservation Corps had been completed to 1,315 camps located in every state from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian to the Mexican border.

The needs of this large force of government civil workers for all types of equipment has been foreseen and promptly furnished. In spite of the necessity for haste in getting these men to work camps the enormous quantities of articles required for equipping, feeding and supplying were procured at a minimum cost and in a most expeditious manner With few exceptions, each camp comprised 2 regular officers, 1 reserve officer and 4 enlisted men of the Regular Army and about 200 men of the Civilian Conservation Corps. At the peak during the month of July there were 1,450 camps in operation. Although administered by military personnel, the members of the Civilian Conservation Corps constitute a purely civil organization. The officers have no definite authority to compel individual obedience to regulations or orders for the good of the organization as a whole; nevertheless it is amazing what has been accomplished under the leadership of officers of the Army. Disciplinary troubles have been insignificant, which is due entirely to the high class of leadership displayed by the officers in administering, equipping, supplying and handling these men who have shown a remarkable attitude of cooperation with their company officers.

The Quartermaster Corps of the Army has played a most important role in the success of the Civilian Conservation Corps as it is upon this splendid organization that the tremendous task of equipping, transporting, supplying and feeding the large army of civil workers was placed. At the outset The Quartermaster General, his assistants and his field representatives made extensive and detailed plans for the problem confronting them. These plans were based on the assumption that the Army would necessarily be called upon to provide food, clothing, shelter and transportation for the large number of men who were to be enrolled in this civil organization of government workers. The Quartermaster Corps being the Army agency responsible for handling these essentials, the task naturally fell to this organization which, by the way, is the oldest branch of the Army (Webmaster’s note; the Quartermaster Corps is one of several branches organized on that day, the Infantry has the claim to being the oldest branch being formed on 14 June 1775) having been organized at Carpenters' hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 16, 1775, just two years prior to the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as our national emblem. In addition to equipping, supplying and transporting the corps to work camps, it has naturally fallen to the Quartermaster Corps to continue the task of furnishing supplies for these work camps and of feeding the members thereof, many camps being at isolated points in remote sections of the country. Many are located so far from transportation facilities as to make necessary the use of lumbering and pack trains for the transportation of food and supplies, this being particularly true at camps in the 9th Corps Area.

After departure from reconditioning camps and while at work camps, ration credits based upon the Army ration were set up by district commanders for each camp. These credits were established by taking the cost price of each ration component delivered at each camp, thereby setting up a credit for each Civilian Conservation Corps mess against which the camp mess officer procured his staple food articles such as canned goods, flour, cereals, etc., which were shipped to him from Army quartermaster corps depots and from sub-depots located at Army posts. Camp mess officers purchase their perishable food supplies, which include fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, beef, pork, chicken, bacon, eggs, milk, etc., from farmers and local dealers in the vicinity of the camps. During the first few weeks a few complaints were made as to insufficiency of food served and upon investigation it was found that these men, who were undernourished, were consuming unheard of quantities of food. One camp commander reported that his cooks had broiled 300 pounds of beef steak for dinner for two hundred men and that it became necessary to broil an additional 50 pounds to satisfy their keen appetites. At this same meal three vegetables, one fruit; pie, bread, butter and coffee were also served. As soon as the men became properly nourished the regular food supply proved entirely adequate and most satisfactory, as is illustrated by a survey made by the Medical Department of the Army, in which it is shown that the average gain in weight of these men after two months' service is over twelve (12) pounds per man.

Originally all cooks for the Civilian Conservation Corps were supplied from enlisted men of the Regular Army, practically all of whom were graduates of the Army Bakers and Cooks Schools, from which sources all cooks for the Regular Army originate.

Quartermaster Corps issued two classes, namely initial equipment and maintenance equipment. The initial equipment is that necessary to equip each man with the authorized allowance, and the maintenance equipment is that necessary to furnish the individuals and organizations with replacements for that worn out and consumed in the service. The initial equipment of clothing for each member of the Civilian Conservation Corps included three suits of underwear, six pairs of stockings, one pair of shoes, two pairs of denim trousers and jumpers, one pair of woolen trousers, two flannel shirts, one tie, one waist belt, one hat, one raincoat, and where and when necessary, one overcoat and one pair of gloves. In addition each man is supplied with a mess outfit, a toilet set, a barrack bag and two blankets. Organizations were supplied with tents, cots, mattresses, pillows, bed linen, wash basins, cooking ranges with equipment, water sterilizing sets, trash and garbage cans, lanterns, brooms, typewriters and numerous other items of equipment. After the initial equipment was furnished it immediately became necessary to provide for the maintenance equipment. It was realized that the clothing issued would be subject to hard wear in the forests and that many articles would have to be replaced within a few months, or at least once during the first six months' period. This necessitated taking immediate steps to procure replacements for these items. The cost of clothing furnished the Civilian Conservation Corps up to September 30, 1933, approximates $10,292,611.69, and the cost of equipment and miscellaneous supplies approximates $5,522,788.06, or a total cost of $15,815,399.75 for clothing and miscellaneous supplies and equipment, all of which went to American manufacturing industries. The expenditures by the Government have undoubtedly contributed much towards the recovery of these industries.

The problem of supplying winter clothing to the camps during the second period presented another problem to the Quartermaster Corps, as it meant going into the market for large quantities of special types of winter clothing and equipment suitable for the welfare and comfort of the members of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the winter months. To provide these men with winter clothing has necessitated the purchase of the following articles:
300,000 winter caps
300,000 lumber jackets or windbreakers
300,000 felt jerkins
300,000 pairs arctic overshoes
300,000 comforters
600,000 mattress covers
300,000 mattresses
1,200,000 sheets
at an approximate total cost of $6,720,000, or $22.40 per man. This purchase has contributed much toward the revival of the clothing industry of the country and has indirectly given employment to thousands of textile workers at a time when it was severely needed.

The question of providing shelter for the summer camps was largely a matter of furnishing pyramidal tents, with necessary poles and pins, for some 1,300 camps. However, this was not as simple as it might seem, since this great number of men required approximately 36,000 of these tents for housing alone, two-thirds of which had to be manufactured after the enrollment commenced. In addition to tentage required for shelter, thousands of storage and other tents were necessary for storage of supplies and equipment.

The problem of providing shelter for winter camps has been a real one as it became necessary to construct wooden-built houses for over 250,000 men before winter set in. Fifty thousand men are continuing to live in tent camps, all of which are located in the southern part of the country where climatic conditions are less severe. Each house camp is to have seven or eight wooden buildings housing approximately 50 men each. The order placed for lumber for construction of these camps was one of the largest single orders ever placed for that material in the history of the country, and it gave an active stimulus to the lumber industry in which over a million men are normally employed. The construction of these houses furnished jobs for twenty-five or thirty thousand skilled laborers, all of which went to carpenters and other mechanics in the vicinity of the camps. A market was also furnished for other construction materials consisting of thousands of rolls of roofing, much sheeting, hardware, piping, cement and electric lighting fixtures and supplies. The cost of construction of 1,218 camps is approximately $19,000,000.00, or $16,000.00 per camp. For the heating of these buildings there have been purchased 30,855 heating stoves, both coal and wood burning types, at a total cost of $484,672.16, or approximately $1.64 per man. In addition 4,437 cooking ranges have been purchased and supplied to winter camps at an approximate cost of $302,646.89, or about $1.00 per man. There have also been purchased 16,227 fire extinguishers of the soda and acid, foam, and carbon tetrachloride types, at a cost of $121,502.07.

In the transportation of supplies and equipment from reconditioning camps into work camps and National and State forests and National parks, use was made of both rail and highway transport in every section of the country, although, due to the numbers involved and the distances traveled, the great bulk of both men and supplies moved by rail. Although approximately 600,000 men were involved in the two enrollments, due to the fact that those men are transported from their place of enrollment to an Army post for reconditioning and equipment, from these posts to work camps, and, on discharge, from the work camps direct to their homes or, in some cases, back to a discharge center and then to their homes, considerably over 1,000,000 journeys have been performed by these men since the first enrollment of the Civilian Conservation Corps began early last April. Like the World War draft, they came from every city, town and hamlet in the, United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada the Mexican Border.

The total expenditure for transportation, up to and including November 30, 1933, is as follows:
Passenger transportation $9,173,847.84, Freight transportation $3,433,520.28, Total $12,607,368.12