Introduction

For Frank Block there were several adventures before he
went to Europe. Even before he joined the army reserves he
was building ships in his home town of Portland, Oregon at
 the Kaiser Shipyards. This was his first full time job out of
high school. 

Since Frank was small in size he could crawl into some of the

 narrow conduits and weld. 

They could build a ship in a 1 day sometimes! 
This was important because the Germans were sinking our 
ships as fast as we could build them. Frank quit the job to go
 to Oregon State University in 1943 where he started in the
 chemical engineering program.

When he became draft age, his professor told him they
could join the army reserves and he could stay out of the war
longer. Also in college he had to be in the ROTC. There he
was in the field artillery instead of the infantry. This was
 advantageous as you would be trained for something other
than being on the front lines. When it was time for Frank to
be drafted they sent him to Texas A&M then to the University
of Oklahoma in Norman. 

   There he took classes in  acoustics and optics, so he could
 analyze aerial maps and photographs. His professor
was great but he was transferred to the Manhattan Project.
At that time no one knew what the Manhattan project was. 

Frank Block using slide rule like a gun,  

They called their ranks
"Winning the war with slide rules."

Frank Block using a Slide rule as a bayonet

it was sometime late in the summer of 1944. 
Because he was taking classes in aerial map studies 
he was assigned to something more technical than infantry.
Frank became an anti-tank operator of the 410th 
Infantry.

He was suppose to go to Camp Howze in Gainesville,Texas
  but there was no room  so they went north a bit and made
 their own camp for basic training.

 He helped clear farmland so they could  then build Camp 
Hood. There he helped clear the land so they could do basic
 training.

Go Here.... for the Next Chapter,
Frank Block's Basic Training