Editor’s note: third in a series.
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In early May 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt announced that 169 naval officers were being transferred to the Civilian Conservation Corps leadership in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia. Their specific role was to provide medical treatment for those working in the forests. While each man would retain his U.S. Navy rank and position during this deployment, the “officers would be carried on the payrolls of the Civilian Conservation Corps and paid from funds allocated to conservation work.” The president assured families that their sons and husbands would be contributing to the needed improvements in the nation’s treasured landscape, and they would be cared for as a member of the “CCC family.”
The announcement was timely, as the Chattanooga News reported only two days later that the first contingent of recruits “to be sent to forest camp from Fort Oglethorpe” would leave the post at 7 a.m. on the next day for Archville, “where they will go in camp in the governmental reservation near Tellico Plains.” The first group had been designated as Company 1451 and included 188 Memphis recruits, to which 24 men from Tellico Plains would be added. A special send-off for these first forestry recruits would feature the 6th Cavalry Band playing a tribute to the recruits and their commander, Lt. Don Carlton of the 6th U.S. Cavalry.
(READ MORE: Local History: Civilian Conservation Corps goes marching into local woods)