The 620th Engineer General Service Company was a

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

active during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

whose

rank and file Rank and file may refer to: *A military term relating to the horizontal " ranks" (rows) and vertical " files" (columns) of individual foot-soldiers, exclusive of the officers *A term derived from the above used to refer to enlisted troops, as oppo ...

were American soldiers, both native and foreign-born, who were suspected of disloyalty or subversion.Lee, Robert ''Fort Meade and the Black Hills'' (University of Nebraska Press, 1991), p. 224

Formation

The idea of US Army formations consisting of suspect soldiers was created by a

United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, als ...

order of 3 October 1942. The units were to be composed of soldiers from all over the United States suspected, but not proved of disloyalty or subversive tendencies. The 620th Engineer General Service Co. was formed on 1 November 1942 at

Fort Meade, South Dakota Fort Meade, originally known as Camp Sturgis and later Camp Ruhlen, is a former United States Army post located just east of Sturgis, South Dakota, United States. The fort was active from 1878 to 1944; the cantonment is currently home to a Vete ...

where it was assigned to the 7th Service Command. In addition to the 620th, two similar units in the same command were the 358th Quartermaster Service Co. at Camp Carson, Colorado, composed of suspected Italian-American and German-American soldiers, and the 525th Engineer General Service Co. at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, composed of suspected Japanese-American soldiers. An engineer general service unit's official function was to perform "general

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

work". The company's

table of organization and equipment A table of organization and equipment (TOE or TO&E) is the specified organization, staffing, and equipment of Military unit, military units. Also used in acronyms as 'T/O' and 'T/E'. It also provides information on the mission and capabilities of ...

was authorised a strength of five officers and 127 non commissioned officers and other ranks. Unlike the rest of the army, the company was dressed in the obsolete pre-war blue

denim Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more Warp (weaving), warp threads. This twill weave produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. Denim, as it is recognized today, was f ...

fatigue uniform that was the same uniform worn by prisoners of war with the exception that the initials "PW" were not painted on the uniforms.Jenkins, Mckay ''The Last Ridge: The Epic Story of America's First Mountain Soldiers and the Assault on Hitler's Europe'' (New York: Random House, 2003), p. 112 The company was not allowed to bear arms. The 620th was transferred to

Camp Hale Camp Hale was a U.S. Army training facility in the western United States, constructed in 1942 for what became the 10th Mountain Division. Located in central Colorado between Red Cliff and Leadville in the Eagle River Valley at an elevati ...

, Colorado in December 1943 due to the closure of Ft. Meade. Besides the

10th Mountain Division The 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) is a light infantry division (military), division in the United States Army based at Fort Drum, New York. Formerly designated as a mountain warfare unit, the division was the only one of its size in ...

that included several anti-National Socialist Austrian ski instructors, Camp Hale also housed a group of approximately 200 German

Afrika Korps The German Africa Corps (, ; DAK), commonly known as Afrika Korps, was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its Africa ...

prisoners of war, whose barracks were only a couple hundred yards from those of the 620th. According to Mckay Jenkins, "The two groups quickly found common ground, and a brisk trade in cigarettes, wine and whiskey grew up between the two housing sections. The close relations between some of the company's members and the POWs led to one of the Engineers, Dale Maple, taking two of the POWs to Mexico where they were sent back across the US border and recaptured. Maple became the first soldier in the United States Army to be convicted of crime equivalent to treason. In March 1944 the 620th was re-designated Company "A" of the 1800th Engineer General Service Battalion and assigned to

Bell Buckle, Tennessee Bell Buckle is a town in Bedford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 410 at the 2020 census. The downtown area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Bell Buckle Historic District. History The origin of th ...

. Company "B" was formerly the 525th Engineer General Service Co and Company "C" was formerly the 358th Quartermaster Service Co. The good treatment and apparent easy life of the unit attracted a variety of American soldiers suspected of avoiding combat duty where it was joked "a subversive word a day keeps the foxhole away". In June 1945 Companies "A" and "C" were re-designated the 5000th Quartermaster Service Company and sent to the

South West Pacific Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

.Castelnuovo, Shirley ''Soldiers of Conscience: Japanese American Military Resisters in World War II'' Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008, p. .74 Company "B" was re-designated the 4000th Engineer General Service Company.

Disbandment

The units were soon disbanded after the surrender of Japan.

Notes

{{reflist Far-right organizations in the United States Engineering units and formations of the United States Army Military units and formations of the United States Army in World War II Military units and formations established in 1942 Numbered companies of the United States Army