Pack School

Pack School

Fort Sill, Oklahoma, circa 1935

The following are electrostatic copies of unknown origin of photographs of the Pack School at Fort Sill, OK, in the 1930’s.

The road to the right in the photograph is Geronimo Road, which runs generally north-south.  It intersects with McComb Road at the bottom right.  The buildings in the lower right, one with a dark roof and one with a light roof and six windows are the Pack School buildings.  The building with the dark roof has since been demolished. 

The long narrow buildings in the center, they are actually of blue-gray stone with white composition shingle roofs, are also part of the Pack School. The building in the upper left with the evenly spaced chimneys and sets of three windows is the Farrier’s School.  The next series of six buildings below the Farrier School are the stables for the Pack School. 

The small building at left, with the truck parked next to it, is the Pack Artillery School.  The ‘Artillery’ part of Pack Artillery differs little from regular Field Artillery.  Its transportation differs radically.

In the extreme upper right corner of this image are the original Cavalry Barracks and behind them the Laundresses Quarters and the Sinks (toilets.)  The circular feature in the upper left, beneath the hand-written word ‘Moore,’ is the remains of one of the original fortifications, a five-sided trench system that had a 12-PDR Mountain Howitzer in the center.

One 75mm Pack Howitzer, M1, packed on six mules with the howitzer crew following.  This is just the animals that carried the howitzer.  There were sixteen mules to a section; the Chief of Section rode the spare mule.  Each section, Headquarters, Commo, Ammo, Anti-Aircraft, Mess Section, etc., had its own set of horses and mules, about 200 to a firing battery.  Service Battery, which had the Ammunition Section, had about 400 horses and mules.  This image was taken between the southernmost stable and the Pack Artillery School.

I am not sure which building this is, but there is a forge and anvil to the left, and a dismantled escort wagon in the background.  Note the stove, a ‘Cannon Heater,’ in the background.

Saddler’s School.  I am not sure which building this is, but it may be the one in the lower right foreground.  I really want that sewing machine.

This last image is of the Farrier’s School.  It is the long white building in the upper left in the first photograph with the evenly spaced chimneys and sets of three windows.

Most of these buildings are still in use as offices and the paddocks are now a parking lot. 

Note the stove, the ubiquitous ‘Cannon Heater,’ in the foreground.  These were still in use in range shacks when I was in service in the 1970’s.  They may still be.