717th Railroad Company WWII - sponsored by PRR ?

Ed

Maybe this will help,

http://militaryrailwayservice....-battalion-fred.html

Here is a newspaper clipping

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2936...road-sponsored-units


Bill

Bill,

Thanks for the info. There were 2 documents there really lay out the history and ongoing activities of the unit.

It also answered my questions about what PRR sponsorship meant. Turns out the PRR was responsible for supplying the majority of officers for this and other railroad units as well as training.

Interesting thing in looking at one of the documents that gave the railroad experience of some of the PRR men who became officers. In one case the guy had 26 years experience with PRR. So this guy had to be getting along in years when the war hit and he ended up as an officer in the Army. It doesn't say but I wonder if this was voluntary on everyone's part, or at least for those already over a certain age. I would not be surprised to learn that it was voluntary. They really earned and deserve the tag as the greatest generation.

Thanks for the info,
Ed

Ed,
An example of how PRR officers became US Military officers is William W. Atterbury. He was the President of the PRR at the outbreak of World War I. Recruited by the Department of Defense, he became the commander of all the expeditionary forces' railroad units, being given the rank of General. At the war's close and beyond until the end of his days, he was known as 'General Atterbury'.

There were a fair number of older men who became officers during World War II who were "Re-treads", a term borrowed from automobile tires reprocessed to still be usable - during the war, rubber was scarce on the home front. These were guys like my great-uncle, who had been in WW1 when he was 18 as a Seaman in the Navy. After the war he went into the Post Office and rose to a fairly high position, and when the war came he went into the Army as a Captain working in the huge military mail traffic both within the US and between here and Europe and the Pacific.

BTW not all the members of a military railroad unit had worked for the railroad that sponsored them, nor had all the men even worked for the railroad - though most were railroaders before the war. The railroads mainly were involved in training, funding and supplying the units. It wasn't like they called in 100 of their workers and told them "pack up guys, you're in the Army now!!"

Stix,

Thanks for the great info. I found an article about the PRR and its contribution to WWII. The article says that the PRR had approximately 1/3 of its workforce in uniform for WWII. Even more interesting was the level of commitment they had to the war effort. The article went on to state that the PRR war effort was so great with their resources they committed that they had taken the company onto substantially thin ice operationally. They were totally committed to helping win the war.

I also learned that the PRR was not alone in sponsoring railroad battalions. Turns out many of the other railroads also sponsored units as well.

It was nice to learn about this piece of history. I know that my dad loved working for them. He worked for the Penn before the war as a fireman and went in the war for the duration. He came back as an engineer and became the youngest PRR engineer at that time.

Curiously when I came home from Vietnam in '69 I initially met with some resistance in finding a job in NYC. Most companies were not too keen on Vietnam vets. I stopped in the PRR's offices to apply for a job. They said they didn't have any openings at that time but that I could fill out an application. Their application specifically asked about military service and about any relatives who worked for the Penn. After they looked at the application they offered me a job based on the military and family connection. So I believe they still had a positive bias towards military back then.

Thanks,
Ed

There's a good book called "TRAINS TO VICTORY: America's Railroads in World War II" by Donald Heimburger and John Kelly on the subject. It has a lot of pictures and info about the military units, railroading on the home front etc.

You'll probably notice that the cover is a painting that was used in an advertisement during the war by the PRR.