As mobilization requirements were outpacing the induction rate, the complete quota of enlisted fillers for the division was not received until the end of the year, delaying the start of basic training until early January 1944.

Unit training began on schedule in the spring, but in late May, the division received orders to begin processing infantry privates for shipment as overseas replacements.

In June and July, this was followed by a steady trickle of about 3,000 men from miscellaneous sources such as returns from overseas (about 700), from disbanded antiaircraft and tank destroyer units, and volunteers for the infantry from other branches of the Army.

major withdrawals ended and a program of modified unit retraining was begun, but a steady trickle of men continued to leave; losses in August aggregated 1,173.

After an abbreviated program of combined training using a large amount of equipment borrowed from other units, the last elements of the division departed Camp Shelby on New Year's Eve 1944.