ORGANIZATION AND TRAINING.
The 360th Infantry was one of those regiments formed in the fall of 1917 in answer to the
President’s call for a greater army. Together with the 359th Infantry and 345th M. G. Bn. it
made up the 180th Brigade. The 357th and the 358th Infantry regiments made up the 179th
Brigade, and both brigades contributed to make up the 90th Division. The training site was
Camp Travis, San Antonio, Texas.
Because the men for the 90th Division were to be drawn from two states – Texas and
Oklahoma – it was decided to have a Texas brigade and an Oklahoma brigade. The 180th
became the Texas organization and thousands of the best youths in the Lone Star state were soon
on its rolls. They came from the shops and offices of the larger cities, from the colleges and
universities of the state’s quieter centers, and from the broad acres of farm and cattle country, of
which Texas has so many. They answered the call with a single mind – to fight in the great
cause of human liberty until that cause should be succored.
With the same indomitable determination came, too, the first officers of the regiment.
Some were from the regular army, many from the training camps. And in Camp Travis this
spirit was easily directed along beneficial military lines, for the big cantonment was within sight
of old Fort Sam Houston, a sturdy military post since frontier days, and the atmosphere reeked
with battle traditions. It was an ideal place in which to prepare.
The training was no more nor no less than nearly every other organization which came
overseas underwent while in the States. The days were long and the discipline stiff. And the
thrills of the initial training have long since given way to the greater sensations of actual combat.
The great word to start for France came late in May 1918. The oldest enlisted men in the
regiment had barely completed their first nine months in the army when the movement eastward
started. The regiment reached Camp Mills, New York, June 12, and there bid good-bye to
Colonel Casper H. Conrad, Jr., its first commanding officer, who was ordered to the General
Staff. Lieutenant Colonel Howard C. Price, shortly afterward made a colonel, was in command
when the organization sailed June 14th. Landing was made at Southampton, England, June 21,
and the next night the channel was bridged by transports carrying the 360th to France. By easy
stages the organization moved to the area near Rouvres sur Aube, where intensive training was
started behind the bulging battleline.
This training was completed on August 20, 1918, and the regiment pronounced fit and
ready for its portion of field service.
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