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SCSG History
South Carolina Defense Force, 1943
Even
before the United States became involved in World War II it was
obvious to American military planners that there was an excellent
chance we would be drawn into the conflict. In such an event the
National Guard would be called into Federal service and the states
would be left defenseless. To rectify this situation the National
Defense Act of 3 June 1916 was amended on 21 October 1940 to allow
the establishment of state defense forces. In South Carolina the
National Guard had been totally activated by mid-February 1941 and
the state legislature quickly enacted Act No. 54, establishing the
South Carolina Defense Force. This legislation was signed into law
by Governor Burnet R. Maybank on 21 March 1941.(1)
General Orders No. 1, issued by Adj. Gen. (Brig. Gen.) James C.
Dozier on 14 April 1941, established the organization, equipment,
and uniform of the new force. The South Carolina Defense Force (SCDF)
was organized into a headquarters, four regiments of three
battalions each, and at least one independent battalion.(2) The
strength was set at 518 officers and 6,035 enlisted men. On 30 June
1941 there were 191 officers and 3,060 enlisted men enrolled. One of
the officers was 2d Lt. J. Strom Thurmond, Company L, First
Regiment, from Edgefield, South Carolina. Initially, those wishing
to enlist or be commissioned had to be between the ages of
twenty-one and fifty-five, in good health, and of good character.
The minimum age quickly fell to seventeen and there are indications
that a few served at an even younger age. All were volunteers and
served without pay. The mission of the SCDF was to defend against
invasion along the South Carolina coast and assist local officials
in providing internal security, including search and rescue. While
invasion by sea was unlikely, there was a fear that the Germans
might land forces by submarine and it was the job of the SCDF,
renamed the South Carolina State Guard (SCSG) in 1944, to hold until
troops could be brought in from Fort Jackson in Columbia. The last
unit of the SCSG on active duty was Company E, Second Battalion,
Second Regiment (Greenville), mustered out on 8 August 1947. The
SCSG was reactivated in October 1981 and continues to serve today.
During its World War II service the SCDF carried a wide variety of
weapons. In 1941 the state procured 1,655 Model 1917 rifles. usually
called Enfields, along with the requisite slings and Model 1917
bayonets. An additional 985 were on requisition but not yet
received. The state also obtained 16,500 30-06 cartridges at a cost
of $559.19.(3) Later the weapons mix would include a wide variety of
shotguns, Thompson submachine guns, and even three water-cooled
Browning machine guns. General Orders No. 1 called for a Confederate
gray uniform consisting of an overseas cap with S.C.D.F. embroidered
in half-inch gold letters on the left side, a gray blouse with the
SCDF patch on the left shoulder, a gray long sleeved shirt with the
SCDF patch on the left shoulder, gray trousers, a black necktie, a
khaki web belt, a leather garrison belt for dress wear, and black
shoes. Rank insignia was to be of the standard United States
pattern. The order also called for metal S.C.D.F. insignia on the
officers' collars but no examples of this have been found, nor are
there any photographs showing such an insignia in use.(4) Existing
photographs from 1941 to 1942 show
the
officers either wearing infantry branch insignia or what appears to
be a plain S.C. on their collars. By mid-1943 the uniform was
changing to the regular U.S. olive drab and khaki, with the SCDF
shoulder patch. The officers wore the pinks and greens, modified
only by the use of S.C. collar brass rather than U.S., and the SCDF
shoulder patch.
Strom Thurmond's SCDF uniform is presently in the collection of the
Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University. The blouse is, in
fact, a windbreaker in dark gray cotton twill material. It, along
with the shirt and trousers, was made by Lee, a manufacturer of work
clothes. The entire ensemble is made up of dark, bluish gray cotton
twill of the type still available today. The overseas cap is a
slightly lighter gray, piped with infantry blue. The SCDF patch is
three inches in diameter, with gold letters on a blue field. The
motto, MELIOREM LAPSA LOCAVIT translates as "the change establishes
more firmly." This form of shoulder patch is still used by the South
Carolina State Guard.
The print depicts a mix of uniforms as might have been seen in early
1943. The officer instructing the trainee wears the gray uniform
with the blouse. He is armed with a privately owned semiautomatic
pistol, probably a Colt Woodsman. The private aiming the Model 1917
rifle is also wearing the gray uniform with the blouse. These
figures are based on a photograph published in the Anderson
Independent in 1942, of Lt. Milo J. Peterson and Pvt. J. M. Stepp,
of Company G, Second Battalion, Second Regiment (Seneca).(5) The
standing figure wearing the gray uniform without the blouse, with
the Sam Browne belt, is based on a photograph of 2d Lt. J. Strom
Thurmond in the collection of the Strom Thurmond Institute.(6)
Lieutenant Thurmond's Sam Browne belt was not regulation but there
seems to have been some ambiguity in the uniform early in the war.
The second standing figure wears the pinks and greens that became
standard late in 1943 for officers. Except for the SCDF patch and
the S.C. collar insignia the uniform is entirely regulation U.S.
Enlisted personnel by this time wore the khaki uniform in summer and
the olive drab wool uniform in the winter. The shoulder patch was
the only distinguishing characteristic of the SCDF uniform by this
time.
Art: Darby Erd
Text:
Jack Allen Meyer
1 . South
Carolina, South Carolina Adjutant General's Report 1941-42
(Columbia. 1942), 180-83.
2.
Ibid.,
184-91.
3. Ibid., 195.
4. Ibid.. 190.
5. Anderson
(S. C. Independent, 8 March 1942.
6. Strom Thurmond
Institute. Clemson University. Clemson, South Carolina. |
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