pic from West Point - US Military Academy - 1908 book (from fold3 website)

The Plattsburger 1917 Yearbook

pic from West Point - US Military Academy - 1908 book (from fold3 website)

Portrait of a Good Provider
By S. J. Woolf
NEA Staff Correspondent
The New York Port of Embarkation is the largest gateway for troops and equipment in the country. Its activities are surrounded by secrecy; its extent shrouded shrouded in mystery. For it supplies men and material for our armies in certain designated areas of operations.

A branch of the Transportation Corps, which in turn is a part of the Army Service Forces. It ships from its terminals tanks, planes, guns, ammunition, food and clothing to whatever places they are called for. At its staging areas, which are large cantonments, it processes the men about to be sent overseas to make sure they are property equipped, trained and in good physical shape. It is the clearing house for every APO letter sent in care of New York’s Postmaster. In addition, it also looks after the morale of the troops from the time they arrive within its jurisdiction up to the minute they sail away.

At the head of this vast organization, a travel agent, shipping clerk, mail sorter, an instructor, doctor, cheer leader and spiritual adviser is a general who can swear like a trooper and pray like a chaplain, a man who can be as tough as a top sergeant and as tender as a woman, who embellishes his talk with stories and issues his commands with terseness and brevity.

A tall, broad-shouldered balding man with light blue eyes in which a gleam of humor seems to lurk, Maj. Gen. Homer M. Groninger shows a human quality which brass buttons and silver stars have not dimmed. This was evident the other day when he posed for a sketch. As soon as he described the perfect coordination between the forces here and those overseas and had contrasted it with the confusion which existed during the last war, he turned to the human side of the picture.

Small Town Boy
“The boys who are set to us,” he said, “come from all parts of the country. They are about to start out on a great adventure and it is up to us to see that they are ready for it. Moreover, many of these fellows are lonely and homesick, so we must play the part of their families as they walk up the gang plank. they must be made to feel that each one of them counts as an individual.”

The General went on to tell about the departure of the transports. He spoke of the bands that play as the boats prepare to sail, and of the red Cross workers who hand out coffee and doughnuts.

“We don’t want glamor girls around,” he explained, “but rather those who bring with them a homey atmosphere. There was a not-very-young actress here the other day to liven things up. She was nervous when she arose and confessed she did not know what to say. ‘You don’t have to say a word,” one of the boys shouted. Just lets’ look at you.’

“Now were are going to have a WAC band in addition to those we already have, even though some people felt the girls couldn’t stand the pace.”

The head of the Port of Embarkation has stories galore of happenings there. He likes to tell of the chap he saw lugging a particularly heavy duffle bag up the gang plank. He stopped him and asked what was in it. “Well you see,” the soldier shyly remarked, “I used to be a tombstone marker. Now I’m sure that some buddy of mine will be knocked off, so I’m taking a piece of granite to make him a decent headstone.”

Born in the small town of Port Royal, Penn., 60 years ago, General Groninger, despite his long career in the army, is still at heart a small town boy. He entered West Point from Pennsylvania State College and while there captained the baseball team. Even in those days he was a strategist. During one game, when there were two out and the score was tied, he was on second base. The batter hit a grounder to the short-stop, who picked it up and was about to shoot it to first. The future general dashing past, shouted, “Send it home!” This so confused the short stop that he made a wild pitch, and “Cy” Groninger brought in the winning run. Today, he was a Dodger fan but says he always roots for the local team wherever he happens to be stationed.

~ The Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota), Mon., 28 Feb 1944, pg. 2