Camp Ritchie: Difference between revisions

Training covered interrogation, counterintelligence, order of battle, psychological warfare, and related skills. Many graduates later served in the U.S. Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). About '''900''' also received specialized training at '''Camp Sharpe''' near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (often linked to Mobile Radio Broadcasting / psychological-warfare work — see [[Books]] and [[Ritchie Boy Programs]]). The '''3rd Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company''' was activated at Camp Ritchie on '''29 December 1943'''; specialized MRBC training commonly continued at Camp Sharpe. A Consolidated Roster from the '''1st Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company''' ''Unit History'' booklet is on [[1st Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company]].

General Oscar Koch (Patton’s G-2) is among those who later acknowledged that advance warning of the German Ardennes offensive drew on information from Military Intelligence Service units — a theme developed at length on [[Secret Heroes/Battle of the Bulge]]. A contemporary G-2 ETOUSA organizational account (Lt. Col. Henry C. Settle, October 1944) likewise stresses peacetime neglect of intelligence training and describes plans to place Camp Ritchie graduates into division G-2 slots (including a '''29th Infantry Division''' staffing plan); see [[The Stories/Camp Ritchie Background|Camp Ritchie Background]] and [[Training materials#Featured: Early ETOUSA G-2 organization (Settle, 1944)|Training materials]].

Camp Ritchie also trained more than '''500''' Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) soldiers for document work connected with the Pacific war, including PACMIRS (Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section). '''Nisei women''' in the Military Intelligence Service likewise completed rigorous Japanese military-language training and were often assigned to PACMIRS at Camp Ritchie to work captured Japanese documents. Captured Japanese materials were studied at the camp; one well-known episode involves [[Yamane, Kazuo E. (30101877)|Kazuo E. Yamane]] identifying Japanese armory meeting notes among crates of documents from Saipan, which helped the War Department locate and strike armories. (See also the 2017 film ''Proof of Loyalty: Kazuo Yamane and the Nisei Soldiers of Hawaii''.) A 1946 MISLS yearbook states that of '''35''' WAC graduates at the November 1945 commencement, '''21''' were transferred to Camp Ritchie (with remaining graduates following when the WAC Detachment deactivated in February 1946)—matching Wikipedia’s note that about twenty-one MISLS women translator graduates went to PACMIRS work there (see [[Nisei and Pacific#MISLS WAC Detachment and Camp Ritchie|Nisei and Pacific]]). In 1945 the camp also formed '''Mobile Intelligence Training Units''' (MITU) for Army Ground Forces redeployment training: small teams in which Nisei demonstrated Japanese squad tactics and took part in orientation plays (some teams included veterans of the 442nd Combat Team). See [[Nisei and Pacific#Mobile Intelligence Training Units (MITU), 1945|Nisei and Pacific]].

For founding history, the camp flag and coat-of-arms, and how the MITC was established, see [[The Stories/Camp Ritchie Background|Camp Ritchie Background]]. Trainee voices about everyday camp life are collected on [[The Stories/Life in Camp Ritchie|Life in Camp Ritchie]]. JWB/USO records of the spring 1945 first-night Seder are on [[The Stories/Passover at Camp Ritchie (1945)|Passover at Camp Ritchie (1945)]]. A July 1943 District Court naturalization of dozens of Camp Ritchie soldiers is summarized on [[The Stories/Camp Ritchie naturalization (July 1943)|Camp Ritchie naturalization (July 1943)]]. Early staff and faculty from Dan Gross’s working list are on [[Camp Ritchie Faculty]]. Camp-wide training manuals and related PDFs live on [[Training materials]]. A short Personnel Section sheet of ten intelligence directives ([[Training materials#Featured: List of Directives|List of Directives]], Pers. Sec. 214) is transcribed on [[Training materials]]. A Signal Section monograph on a typical Enemy Equipment Intelligence Service detachment (EEIS Det. 9), including its April 1944 Camp Ritchie course, is on [[Training materials#Featured: Enemy Equipment Intelligence Service (EEIS)|Training materials]].