A Tribute to Edsel Vincent Colvin June. 2014 | Page 10

Off to the War
Edsel enlisted in the military when he was 20 years old. He was put
in the Army as an infantryman. He was a PFC rank (private first
class) and was in the communications branch. He was sent to Camp
Roberts in California at first and then was sent to Camp Howze in
Texas. He took an ASTP class (Army Specialized Training Program)
at the University of Oklahoma before he was sent to Camp Howze.
This would ensure that he would be an Officer rank.
The training was very hard and it was hot on most days since
the camps he trained at were in California and Texas. Edsel was
only 5’6 and was 115 pounds. He is shown to the left with his field
pack on. The field pack with his firearm weighed 60 pounds. This I
imagine would have been very hard to train in.

Edsel was made an officer and was placed in the 103rd infantry division
when he reached Camp Howze in Texas. He wasn’t very happy that he ended
up in the infantry. Edsel went through tough infantry training while he was at
Camp Howze. It was so tough that some days Edsel even felt like killing the
people who came up with the training. Of course, he never did. They would go
on 25 mile hikes with their full field packs and firearms. They would go on 4
mile forced marches that would be what is considered a jog today. It was
tough, but Edsel never quit. Edsel was later assigned to Company L, 410th
Infantry Regiment. He was in the 2nd squad of the 3rd platoon.
Edsel was sent to France in the fall of 1944. He was sent aboard ship and
maintained a lookout station every other night. After 2 weeks of being on a
ship, the ship landed at Marseilles, France. They had passed through the Strait
of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea to reach Marseilles. After a
week of being on guard duty in the port of Marseilles, Edsel and his infantry
regiment were loaded into trucks and transported to where the fighting was
going on.