Better

LOGISTICS

BETTER By: Melissa B. Carrasco

Egerton, McAfee, Armistead & Davis, P.C.

Thomas Mifflin was a businessman and a pacifist. As a fourthgeneration Quaker, his family was well-known in the Philadelphia business community, and the import-export business that Thomas built with his brother was doing quite well, at least until 1774.1 If you know anything about American history, you know that was the year that Parliament passed what came to be known as the Coercive Acts in response to the Boston Tea Party.2

There was the Boston Port Act, authorizing a blockade of Boston Harbor, and the Massachusetts Government Act, appointing a royal governor who had full authority to appoint judges and sheriffs and even jurors—effectively dismantling the Massachusetts colony’s elected government and the impartiality of the judicial system. Then, there was the Act for the Impartial Administration of Justice, which enabled the royal governor to move a trial to another colony or across the ocean to England if he had any concerns about impartiality. Finally, there was the Quartering Act which allowed military officials to require the colonists to quarter their troops at the colonists’ expense.3

Mifflin and the business community of Philadelphia knew that, if it could happen to Boston, it could happen to them. And so, Mifflin entered politics, was elected to the First Continental Congress, and then the Second Continental Congress, and when it appeared that war was inevitable, he resigned from politics and joined the Continental Army.4 He was expelled from the Quaker church.5

Although soldiers were certainly needed, General Washington recognized that Mifflin’s skills were still in business. And so it was that, in 1775—two days after Congress authorized the formation of the Continental Army—Washington appointed Mifflin as the Quartermaster General of the Continental Army.6 That was the day the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Corps was born.

For the past 247 years, the Quartermaster Corps has been responsible for providing logistical support for the Army—identifying, locating, and purchasing uniforms, equipment, food, vehicles, artillery, and other essentials, and then finding a way to transport them across thousands of miles to get them to the troops wherever they may be.7 Lest you think that the members of the Quartermaster Corps have it easy, nothing could be further from the truth. Thirty-three Quartermaster Soldiers have received the Medal of Honor over the years.

The first recipient was First Lieutenant Charles J. Murphy of the 38th New York Infantry. During the battle of Bull Run, Murphy “took a rifle and voluntarily fought with his regiment in the ranks; when the regiment was forced back, he voluntarily remained on the field caring for the wounded, and was there taken prisoner.”8

Murphy certainly was not the last. There was Otto Voit, who was awarded the Medal of Honor after he volunteered to hold an exposed position, engaging the enemy in fire for over twenty minutes “diverting fire and attention from another group, filling canteens of water that were desperately needed.”9

Then, there was Eric G. Gibson. He was a Technician 5th Grade—a cook for the 30th Infantry Regiment, India Company.10 He was barely twenty-four years old when he joined the 30th Infantry Regiment which was on its way to where the fighting was fierce in Italy.11 And, while he was on the way, he worked out a deal with the commanding officer: if the company went into battle, he would be allowed to serve as a rifleman with one of the Infantry squads, but when it was time for the B-rations,12 he had to go back to his kitchen duties.13 Noone should have been surprised by this. Eric’s middle name, after all, was “Gunnar.”14

Once they landed, Gibson held up his end of the deal. He was placed in charge of the pack train that carried supplies through the mountains of Sicily to the troops on the front lines. He also became one of the Company’s most valuable scouts as he and his fellow Quartermaster Soldiers often encountered enemy forces as they made their way to the front lines with food and supplies.15

And so it was that on January 28, 1944, six months before D-Day, Gibson and the rest of his regiment found themselves facing fierce resistance near Isola Bella, Italy.16 The German forces had launched a counterattack to take back the beachhead, and approximately 70,000 German combat troops were assembled against the approximately 36,000 U.S. soldiers who had landed ashore.17

Around noon that day, Gibson was leading a squad of replacements when they came upon enemy fire. After destroying four enemy positions, they worked to secure the left flank of India Company. Here is what happened next. Placing himself 50 yards in front of his new men, Gibson advanced down the wide stream ditch known as the Fossa Femminamorta, keeping pace with the advance of his company. An enemy soldier allowed Tech. 5th Grade Gibson to come within 20 yards of is concealed position and then opened fire on him with a machine pistol. Despite the stream of automatic fire which barely missed him, Gibson charged the position, firing his submachine gun every few steps. Reaching the position, Gibson fired pointblank at his opponent, killing him. An artillery concentration fell in and around the ditch; the concussion from one shell knocked him flat. As he got to his feet, Gibson was fired on by two soldiers armed with a machine pistol and a rifle from a position only 75 yards distant. Gibson immediately raced toward the foe. Halfway to the position, a machine gun opened fire on him. Bullets came within inches of his body, yet Gibson never paused in his forward movement.18

That is where we will leave twenty-four year old Technician Fifth Grade Gibson for now—under fire outside of Isola Bella, Italy. There is certainly more to this story, but the rest of Gibson’s story and the story of how the Quartermaster Corps has affected my family and probably yours is for next month. For now, as we celebrate Memorial Day, let us remember those whose sacrifice have made things better.

1 Thomas Mifflin, History, https://history.army.mil/books/revwar/ss/mifflin.htm, last visited Apr. 5, 2022. 2 Caroline Eisenhuth, The Coercive (Intolerable) Acts of 1774, The George Washington University, https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/ article/the-coercive-intolerable-acts-of-1774/#:~:text=The%20four%20acts%20 were%20the,to%20the%20Boston%20Tea%20Party., last visited Apr. 5, 2022. 3 Id. 4 Thomas Mifflin, supra n. 1. 5 Id. 6 U.S. Army, Quartermaster Corps. Quartermaster History, https://quartermaster. army.mil/history/#:~:text=The%20Quartermaster%20Corps%20traces%20 its,support%20to%20the%20new%20Army, last visited Apr. 5, 2022. continued on page 18