152nd Field Artillery Association

Advance elements of the Division reached the 43rd's
base camp at Camp Blanding, Florida, on March 9,
1941, and the movement of the bulk of troops by rail
and truck was completed by March 19.

At the end of July, the Division convoyed 850 miles
westward to Louisiana, where during August and
September as part of the Third Army, it engaged in
the greatest peace-time maneuvers this nation has
ever staged. For two months the soldiers underwent
hardships and discomforts, were toughened and
learned field discipline.

General Hester led the Division north to the Carolinas
in late October where the 43rd, as part of the Fourth
Army Corps, participated in the GHQ maneuvers of
November. The Division was one of three divisions in
the Army of the United States to take part in the two
great maneuvers of 1941.

In February of 1942, the division and all it's units were
reformed in the "triangular" configuration. For the field
artillery units this meant the regiments were broken
up and battalions formed. The 1-152nd reformed as
the 1-203rd Field Artillery (later as the 203rd FA) and
was relieved from the division; the 2-152nd reformed
as the 152nd Field Artillery Battalion and remained
with the 43rd. The 152nd FA Regimental HQ became
the 203rd FA Group HQ. And they each went their
separate ways.

The 203rd Group HQ and 203rd FA Battalion ended
up, separately, in the European Theater. The 152nd
FA Battalion fought in the Pacific with the 43rd
Division.

This and other videos found on
our You Tube page are excerpts
of nearly an hour of "home
movies" believed to have been
taken by Chaplain Corwin Olds,
the first and only Chaplain of the
Regimental Headquarters. The
original film and containers were
on hand at the battalion
headquarters for decades, and at
some point in the 1980s or early
90s were taken somewhere to be
professionally transferred to VHS
tapes. One of the VHS tapes
survives and is on hand at the
Association office.

See the Leroy Adams page for some vignettes of his experiences at Camp Blanding in the early days of the federalization,
including a story about the Louisiana Maneuvers. Leroy "Roy" Adams joined the 152nd Field Artillery in 1923, and mobilized with the
Battalion in 1941. He wrote this series of memories in 1988-1989 while living at the Maine Veteran's Home in Augusta, for publication in
their bi-monthly magazine. These articles have been donated by his son, MG (Ret) Earl Adams. Roy Adams passed away in 1994.