Biography of William Miles Stokes, Jr.

Capt, Company Commander, CCC Camp GWNF-11, Camp Rattlesnake, Deerfield, VA & Camp D-3-MD, Vienna, MD

Maj. Gen., 2nd Armored Division, North Africa, ETO, WWII, USA

My father, William Miles Stokes, Jr. was a graduate of VMI, kept his reserve status after graduating in 1921. In 1933 he was ordered as Captain in the Army Reserve to take command of CCC GWNF-11, called Camp Rattlesnake, near Deerfield, Va., post office Star Route, Goshen, Va. It was in the North River Ranger District and probably one of the first of the CCC camps according to Wikipedia, the first being in the George Washington National Forest. I read that the CCC had 200,000 black enrollees. Camp Rattlesnake was an all black camp, with a fine group of young men my father said. He was later assigned to a camp in Vienna, Maryland (D-3-MD). We lived in Cambridge, Maryland from Dec. 1936 until April of 1937. It was an all white camp of men from inner cities in Pa. and N.J. and my father said the men were constantly getting into one scrape or another, whereas the camp in the George Washington National Forest was in the middle of the woods. No discipline problems. Nowhere to go but the recreation hall and the camp library.

My father later was called into service Dec. 1940 and ordered to Fort Benning with the reorganization of the 2nd Armored Division. He commanded a task force in the North African Invasion. In Europe he commanded a battalion, later regimental commander, all the while commanding task forces in the march across France, the Netherlands, Belgium and finally across Germany to the Rhine, returning from the War in June of 1945. He later commanded a reserve Airborne Division in Virginia. He was Major General when he died in 1980.

He felt that his time as commanding officer of a CCC camp has been great training for his leadership roles in WWII. He had gained valuable experience handling large numbers of young men.

----- Wayne Stokes Goodall

WinstonRd AT aol.com

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