Biography of Dr. Joe Goeppner
CCC Man, Camp F-124 King City, California
I was a member and Assistant Leader in Camp F-124, located in the mountains above King City, California from October of l939 until March of l940, when I was honorably discharged.
Our Camp was a Forest Service Camp, nestled in the Santa Barbara National Forest just a few miles from King City, California. Our daily work tasks included making and maintaining trails for use in forest fire fighting, and the construction and maintenance of a small dam to create an impoundment of the small creek which ran through our camp ground. We also created a picnic area near the dam. We wore Army olive drab uniforms which were residual to World War One. Our barracks were tarpaper covered cantonment type buildings with about 30 enrollees per building. There were no internal bathrooms, but there was a common bathroom and shower building equipped with lavatories. Our mess hall was similar to the standard army cantonment camp kitchen and we all served tours of duty on kitchen police. Our camp had a small canteen for toilet articles and essentials. The Camp was commanded by a US Army Reserve Officer, A Captain John F. Howard, and our work teams were headed by Forest Service Rangers. We rode to work in green one and 1/2 ton Chevrolet Forest Service Trucks, however out weekly passes allowed us to ride in the one Army Truck which was assigned to the camp. Our passes were to King City, California and we could remain in town until 10 PM - enabling return to Camp by 1100 PM. Overnight passes were not granted. My $30.00 a month pay was divided - $22.00 to savings and $8.00 paid in cash. About mid-way in my six months tour, I was appointed an Assistant Leader (2 gold stripes) no increase in pay and acted as Company Clerk. Aside from pick and shovel work on the dam and trails, the remainder of my tour was spent in the orderly room (camp office) assisting the First Sergeant and Company Commander with typing chores etc. We did participate in two very large regional forest fires during my tour. That is about it - relatively non-eventful.
----- Dr. Joe Goeppner
Email: winner1 AT bellsouth.net
Copy the above into your mail address window and replace spaceATspace with @
This is to avoid spam mailing.
LINKS
BACK TO James F. Justin Civilian Conservation Corps Museum Biographies
BACK TO JUSTIN ORAL HISTORY ARMY BIOGRAPHIES HISTORY PAGE
Also Be Sure to Visit
James F. Justin, Civilian Conservation Corps Museum
Justin Museum of Military History
Please Share your Stories! E-mail the Curator to share or discuss or with any questions!
The URL of this page is below
http://www.justinmuseum.com/oralbio/woodedwardcbio.html
Copyright 2019-2020 John Justin, All Rights Reserved