Veterans Month
November 2003
Railroads Serve the Nation in Peace and War
Railroads and the military have a long association. Many West Point graduates, schooled in civil engineering, surveyed and planned the first railroad routes and helped improve locomotive technology. As early as the 1830s, the Army experimented with rail cars to carry troops and artillery.
During the Civil War, both Union and Confederate railroads were pressed into service for the war effort. Transported in rail cars, troops could cover in one day the same distance that would have taken a month to travel on foot. Troops, horses, mules, kitchens, food, artillery, ammunition, equipment and medical supplies could travel as a unit on one train to the next battle. Messengers could speed vital information more quickly to waiting military officials along the rail lines. Specialized equipment such as armored rail cars carrying riflemen were used first in the Civil War to fire on troops from a moving train.
Later, as the nation expanded, trains carried troops and supplies to Western outposts. When the United States entered World War I, the nation depended on railroads to move military cargoes to the East Coast for transport to Europe. It was essential that goods to resupply European allies reached destinations quickly. The government created the United States Rail Administration to oversee wartime rail operations beginning in 1918. Private ownership resumed in 1920.
As war clouds darkened the European skies in 1939, the nation's railroads were called upon again to provide support for U.S. troops and their Allies. Trains carried not only troops and equipment, but also material to build training facilities, living spaces, bridges, roads and airfields that were vital to the success of Allied efforts. Allied forces operated railroads in North Africa, the Middle East and other places to bring essential supplies to field troops. Threats to commercial shipping necessitated domestic coast-to-coast rail shipments. There was even a separate "railroad draft" for railroad employees to use their skills and expertise in the Armed Forces. That draft category continued to exist after WWII.
As Americans shipped out to Korea in 1950 for yet another conflict, the nation's railroads continued to serve U.S. soldiers. Supplies, gasoline and diesel fuel, construction material, parts for vehicles and planes, ammunition, tanks, trucks and troops moved on trains to ports for deployment overseas. Korean rail lines supplied troops in the field.
Rails likewise played vital roles in Vietnam, the Gulf Wars of the 1980s, Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and various peacekeeping missions around the world.
Today, Norfolk Southern and its employees carry on the tradition of support by moving military cargoes across the country and across the world, by serving in the reserves and supporting those who serve in reserve units and the National Guard.
More than 100 NS employees have been called to active duty for Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Noble Eagle and Operation Iraqi Freedom.