Training
for War
Many
Michiganians who served in World War I were trained at Camp Custer near Battle Creek and
at Selfridge Field near Mt. Clemens.
We
soon arrived at Camp Custer at Battle Creek. All the necessary
procedures [are] completed and I am now Private James G. Wilson, Co.
A, 85th Division, 328th Field Artillery of the U. S. Army.
Wilson
of Bangor, Michigan, kept a diary of his experiences
as a musician with the 328th Field Artillery Band from his
enlistment in 1918 until his return home in 1919.
Training
at Camp Custer included such diverse subjects as how to shoot machine
guns and how to speak French. Black soldiers were segregated for
training, service and social activities.
Selfridge
Field boasted the first aerial gunnery school in the nation. Eddie
Rickenbacker, the most decorated Allied airman during World War I,
trained there. After the war, Rickenbacker returned to Detroit and
started the Rickenbacker Motor Company to build a car "worthy of
its name."
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