Military Police contains information about military police functions in maneuver and mobility support, area security, law and order, internment/resettlement, and police intelligence operations.
Issue link: https://militarypolice.epubxp.com/i/655275
Spring 2016
69
consisting of 875 hens was in operation by March 1944. By
the frst week of May, there were enough eggs produced from
the chicken project that they were served for breakfast to
the prison population and company mess.
4
The frst wedding
performed in the prison was on 10 May 1944. Garrison pris-
oner Allen Chase wed Miss Bertha Anderson. The ceremony
was performed by the base chaplain and a local minister in
the offce of the base commander.
5
Lieutenant Colonel Carl V. Shoemaker, who was from
Portland, Oregon, was the commanding offcer of the Round
Mountain Detention and Rehabilitation Center from 9 Au-
gust 1943 until early January 1945. Captain Edward N.
Usnick, who had been the executive offcer since the cen-
ter was activated in June 1943, assumed the duties of the
commanding offcer after Colonel Shoemaker's departure.
Before the activation, Usnick had been the utilities and op-
erations offcer. He often provided prisoners to work on the
local farms. On one occasion, he sent six prisoners to a farm
where they picked 50 to 80 acres of corn for the farmer.
The guard force for the prison consisted of members of
the 345th Military Police Escort Guard Company, initially
commanded by Captain Harry E. Hoch, who was assisted by
First Lieutenant Ernest H. Skiver and Second Lieutenant
Roy E. Neilson. The enlisted component was augmented and
divided into three sections: the headquarters (one master
sergeant and nine men), the provost section (one frst ser-
geant and nine men), and the guard section (155 men). On
7 April 1945, General Order 104 from Headquarters, U.S.
Army Services of Supply, cited the 345th Military Police Es-
cort Guard Company and the headquarters detachment of
the Round Mountain Detention and Rehabilitation Center
with the meritorious service unit plaque for superior perfor-
mance of their duties and appearances.
Based on newsletters of the time, the guard force and ad-
ministrative staff had many opportunities available during
leisure time, including marksmanship matches, golf,
swimming, baseball, parties, dances (with local women or
members of a local Woman's Army Corps Unit as guests),
movies, and pig weight-guessing competitions (with prizes of
cigarettes and bottles of beer). The movie shown on 21 Janu-
ary 1945 was What's Buzzin' Cousin, starring Ann Miller
and Jack Okie; and on 23 January 1945, the movie -
, with Paul Muni, was shown.
6
For a
brief period, a number of horses were provided to the camp
for the recreational use of the guard force. A noncommis-
sioned offcer's club was dedicated and opened on 24 June
1944.
In 1944, Round Mountain was also used to house military
prisoners from the U.S. Navy. The Navy provided a contin-
gent of guards and administrators, who arrived on 12 Sep-
tember 1944 to handle the additional work load.
Captain Walter A. Luszki, a staff member at Round
Mountain, was detailed to oversee the construction of a
second detention center at Oro Bay, New Guinea, and to
command that facility for rehabilitating Soldiers back into
combat units. During May 1944, gallows were constructed
at Oro Bay, where six black U.S. Army Soldiers, who were
found guilty at a court martial for the crime of rape com-
mitted in Milne Bay, were hung.
7
The hangings were per-
formed by Master Sergeant Charles C. Rexroad, a military
policeman, who had also been assigned to Round Mountain.
A third detention center was constructed in the Philippines
when that country was being reoccupied by U.S. forces, and
a fourth detention center was established at a former Japa-
nese prison when Japan was occupied by U.S. forces.
Endnotes:
1
Patrick V. Garland, "Penal Institutions in the European
Theater of Operations," Military Police, Spring 2012, p. 64,
http://www.wood.army.mil/mpbulletin/pdfs/Spring%2012
/MP%20Garland.pdf, accessed on 12 January 2016.
2
Carl V. Shoemaker, "History of the 345th Military Police Es-
cort Guard Company for the Month of June 1944," 345th Mili-
tary Police Escort Guard Company, 1 July 1944, p. 1.
3
U.S. Army Detention and Rehabilitation Center Map,
