In late June 1951 my trainload of new draftees arrived at Ft. Riley, Kan. to begin Army basic training. The Korean War was in its second year, and most of the men expected to be sent to Korea as replacements.
It had been a wet summer, and most of the rivers that we crossed were flooded. We unloaded in the late afternoon and were assigned to our barracks. Chow call soon sounded. It was raining. The next morning when we assembled on the parade ground, we were told that we would be filling sand bags as the Kaw River which flowed along the Base was flooding, and the levees were weakening. We spent that day working on the levees as the water steadily rose. That night we were awakened by the voice of the barracks sergeant who shouted “Drop your c—ks and grab your socks! Everybody assemble on the parade ground with all of your gear. We are pulling out!” We were trucked up into the hills where we set up squad tents which we lived in for the rest of our training. The following day we learned the river breached the levee that morning and flooded the camp. The water rose as high as the middle of the second floor of the barracks. I know that because after the water receded, we were detailed to march down and help with the cleanup. This took several days. As a result our training did not start until the middle of July