#2-274
To Niles Trammell
October 1, 1940 [Washington, D.C.]
Dear Trammell:
I have just received your note of September 30th, enclosing me the initial copy of “NBC Defense News.”1 I am much interested in what you are planning to do, and I think it will have a splendid effect.
I have this suggestion to offer: Your itinerary includes a number of what we might call “dead spots” in the present national defense development. For example, you have Fort Devens, Massachusetts, at which little is occurring, and have ignored the harbor defenses of Boston, where the National Guard has just been placed on duty. You have Fort Meade, again where little is occurring, and have ignored Langley Field, Virginia, which is a part of our tremendous air development. I would add Camp Jackson at Columbia, South Carolina, less than an hour’s flight from Fort Bragg, where almost 20,000 troops are now concentrated. I would also add Barksdale Field in Louisiana, which is a great air base, and Fort Bliss, at El Paso, Texas, where the Cavalry Division is located, and March Field in Southern California, another great air base; and Hamilton Field near San Francisco, another air base. You have Fort Logan, Colorado on your schedule; yet the great development in the vicinity of Denver is at Lowry Field on the outskirts of the city, an Air Corps installation. There is nothing at Fort Leavenworth except the faculty of the school, working on training pamphlets; there is only the local garrison at Fort Snelling, and much the same situation at Fort Sheridan. Camp Custer is just in the process of construction, while Selfridge Field in the vicinity of Detroit, is a part of the great Air Corps expansion. Instead of Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where not much is occurring, I think your broadcast should have covered Fort Knox in the vicinity of Louisville, where the new armored force is now located.
I am just submitting this as hasty suggestions.
Faithfully yours,
Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Typed letter.
1. Niles Trammell, president of National Broadcasting Company, Inc., in New York City, had visited Marshal’s office on September 20. Trammel’s September 30 note is not in the Marshall papers.
Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland, Sharon Ritenour Stevens, and Clarence E. Wunderlin, Jr. (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 2, “We Cannot Delay,” July 1, 1939-December 6, 1941 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), p. 324.