Marshall T. Wiggins: WWII Officer at Asheville Redistribution Station

By Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist, State Archives of North Carolina

Marshall Tigner Wiggins was born on August 10, 1904, in West Point, Georgia, to Sterling Pitts and Mary Augusta Tigner (who went by “Gussie”) Wiggins. Sterling Wiggins was a Methodist minister, who was serving at a church in Athens, Georgia, by the United States’ entrance into World War I. While in high school, Marshall Wiggins joined the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), serving as a cadet captain from September 1919 to June 1921. Marshall Wiggins would go on to attend college at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in September 1921, graduating in 1925 with a B.S. degree in mathematics. Then he studied architecture at Georgia School of Technology, where he graduated with a degree in 1928. From 1921 to 1924, he was a member of the ROTC in college, reaching the rank of cadet major.

WWII 267.B1.F19.1: Snapshot of U.S. Army Officers’ Reserve Corps 2nd Lt. Marshall T. Wiggins of Atlanta, Georgia, wearing his full military uniform, posing on a dirt road in the middle of Camp McClellan near Anniston, Alabama, around August 1926. Photograph taken while Wiggins was attending college at the Georgia School of Technology [circa August 1926] [from photo album caption].

After college, Wiggins joined the Officers’ Reserve Corps (ORC) in February 1926, and remained in the reserves until February 1936, when he left with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. He would go to work in June 1925 for the Nu-Grape Company of America in Atlanta, Georgia, as a plant manager in charge of supervising the plant production of Nu-Grape syrup. Wiggins remained there until September 1927. Marshall Wiggins began working as an architect for Pringle and Smith Architects in Atlanta, Georgia, in July 1928. He served as the architectural draftsman and superintendent of construction until August 1931.

Wiggins married Romie Moran in August 1930, and the couple remained living in Atlanta. In October 1931, Wiggins became the building manager for Adams-Cates Company, a realty company in Atlanta, where he managed and operated large office buildings in the company’s ownership portfolio. He would later become the commercial sales and lease agent for Adams-Cates.

With the United States’ entrance into World War II, Marshall Wiggins would be called into active service in the U.S. Army on January 20, 1943. He was not allowed to serve in combat duty overseas, due to a health issue that caused him to fail a physical at Fort McPherson in Atlanta in April 1942. Wiggins was assigned on active duty as a 1st Lieutenant, stationed at Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, on January 20, 1943.

WWII 267.B1.F19.4: Snapshot of three U.S. Army officers posting outside of a camp building at Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, around 1943 or 1944 during World War II. Pictured is 1st Lt. Marshall T. Wiggins of Atlanta, Georgia (right) [circa 1943–1944].

WWII 267.B1.F19.8: Snapshot of the camp headquarters buildings, including the commanding officers’ office, at the U.S. Army installation Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, around 1943 or 1944 during World War II. Photograph taken or collected by U.S. Army 1st Lt. Marshall T. Wiggins of Atlanta, Georgia, while he was stationed there. Wiggins’ office is also pictured (the seventh building from the left). Caption on back of photograph, which includes a handwritten diagram of building locations, reads: “Hold up this picture to the light looking at picture. This is Camp Hdqrs.” [circa 1943–1944].

Due to his civilian experience in management of personnel and facilities, Wiggins was assigned as the chief of the Civilian Personnel Branch at Camp Van Dorn. His title evolved into being the control officer at Camp Van Dorn. On January 31, 1944, he received a temporary promotion to the rank of Captain, which would later be made permanent. He remained at Camp Van Dorn until October 1944.

Marshall Wiggins was reassigned to become the control officer at the Army Ground and Service Forces (AG&SF) Redistribution Station in Asheville, NC, on October 10, 1944. The Asheville Redistribution Station Asheville was established on July 25, 1944. The 1488th Service Command Unit was assigned by the U.S. Army as the operational unit for the station.

WWII 267.B1.F20.2: Colorized studio portrait of U.S. Army officer Marshall T. Wiggins of Atlanta, Georgia, wearing his full uniform, taken some time in the 1940s during World War II [1940s].

The mission of an Army Ground and Service Forces (AG&SF) Redistribution Station, as it was at Asheville, “is to obtain maximum utilization of personnel of the Army Ground Forces and Army Service Forces returned to the United States from overseas stations for reassignment by painstaking occupational and physical classification, mental and physical reconditioning, orientation, reindoctrination and appropriate reassignment, carried on without haste in an environment characterized by mental and physical relaxation and comfort” [quote from the introduction in the Asheville Redistribution Station’s Standing Operating Procedure]. A lot of this aspect had to deal with handling service members with mental health issues, particularly those former prisoners of war being returned to the United States.

Orders for Capt. Marshall Wiggins to be part of a survey team at the Asheville Redistribution Station in Asheville, NC, dated April 5, 1945 [from Box 1, Folder 3, Marshall T. Wiggins Papers, WWII 267, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.].

Wiggins’ job as control officer at the Asheville Redistribution Station entailed advising the Commanding Officer on organizational and administrative procedures of the station, and evaluating the effectiveness with which the work of the station is executed. He developed uniform position and functional organization charts for all divisions and branches; prepared and made recommendations on simplification on work methods, forms, records, and files. He collected and analyzed statistics on station operations to indicate trends in performances and operations.

Cover of Marshall Wiggins’ personal copy of the Army Service Forces’ Asheville Redistribution Station Station Regulations manual, used in his role of control officer at the facility in Asheville, NC, in 1945 [from Box 1, Folder 13, Marshall T. Wiggins Papers, WWII 267, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.].

The control officer also conducted as directed by the Commanding Officer special studies, makes investigations, and submit reports and recommendations. Wiggins served for 14 months as the Control Officer (or Chief of Control Division) for the U.S. Army Redistribution Station until it was closed down in mid-November 1945.

First page of the Army Service Forces’ Asheville Redistribution Station Station Regulations manual, used by Marshall Wiggins in his role of control officer at the facility in Asheville, NC, in 1945 [from Box 1, Folder 13, Marshall T. Wiggins Papers, WWII 267, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.].

With the end of WWII, Wiggins was reassigned to Washington, D.C., attached to the Military Personnel Division at the Army Service Forces (ASF) Headquarters. Wiggins served in the Strength Authorization Branch starting on December 1, 1945. He remained in this position for seven months. Marshall Wiggins would be honorably discharged for retirement, due to being determined to be physically unfit, from active U.S. Army service with the rank of Major at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, on July 18, 1946.

WWII 267.B1.F19.26: Color snapshot of U.S Army Capt. Marshall T. Wiggins posing with his daughter Marilyn while they were sitting on a dock in an unidentified body of water somewhere around 1946. Photograph taken while Wiggins was stationed in Washington, D.C., attached to the Military Personnel Division at the Army Service Forces (ASF) Headquarters.

He was appointed to the Officers’ Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army on July 22, 1946, attached to the 3066th Logistical Training Division (Organic) in Georgia. Wiggins would remain in the ORC, being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1953. He would be moved to the retired reserve in August 1959, and remain in this capacity until around 1976.

In the summer of 1946, Marshall Wiggins returned to live with his family in Atlanta, and returned to work at Adams-Cates Company. He rejoined the Commercial Lease and Property Management Department. Wiggins would remain living and working in Atlanta with his family for the rest of his life. Marshall T. Wiggins died on July 31, 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Resources

1. Marshall T. Wiggins Papers, WWII 267, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. Finding aid available online at https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov/findingaids/WWII_267_Marshall_T__Wiggins_Pa_.html