Footnotes to Long Island History
Camp Upton's
Construction Is Off to a Discouraging
Start
by
Thomas R. Bayles
Navy
The quality of the food served was good, and after the first month
sanitary conditions were satisfactory. The service was that found
generally in a construction camp and was not satisfactory to a large
number of the men.
"The heating plant at the base hospital proved to be inadequate to heat
all the buildings at the recent low temperature of 15 below zero on
January 1. All the wards were heated satisfactorily, but not sufficient
pressure could not be obtained to force steam to the buidlings at the
end of the mains.
"The fire department was in charge of a retired captain of the New York
City fire department. Working with him was a force which distributed
water buckets, extinguishers, etc, and made inspections to see that no
unusually dangerous fire conditions occurred. A light truck equipped
with hand extinguishers was held in readiness to answer any fire alarms,
but no fires except a few brush fires occurred.
"The division commander assumed command August 15. The first troops
arrived September 10, with barracks ready for 10,860. By November 1,
barracks completed to house 37,000 men were in readiness.
"As it was necessary to house all the construction men within the camp,
and as it was near New York city, it quickly became infested with a
large number of crooks and men of the underworld. To handle the
conditions that resulted it was necessary to employ a large number of
detectives and men with police experience. At first, the men arrested
were taken before the local authorities, but this did not prove
satisfactory, and a U.S. Dist. Court was established at the camp. During
the first nine weeks after the court was established 1,020 cases
were tried with fines of $2,700 imposed, and jail sentences of 900 days,
with 309 men held for the grand jury. In addition, about 1,000 men were
escorted from the camp, as they could not account for their presence
there or had remained after being discharged."
(to be continued)