[2] The camp served as a staging area for troops passing through the New Orleans Port of Embarkation.
For a period of seventeen weeks the unit took basic training that consisted of marches, drilling, class and the firing range.
The battalion toured the Higgins Boat Company where the Higgins boat, an amphibious landing craft referred to as LCVP (landing craft, vehicles, personnel), which was used extensively in the Allied forces' D-Day Invasion of Normandy.
While at Camp Harahan for six weeks, the men underwent a vigorous physical training program, learning to march, hurdle obstacle courses, roll full field packs, fire a gun and become indoctrinated in Army discipline, rules and regulations.
In letters to friends, he described Camp Plauche's "jimcrow library", noting that it had "no Negro newspapers, no Crisis with my name on the editorial board."
He wrote that he had hosted "mixed dance band jam sessions, concerts, and lectures" that had "led to no unpleasantness", adding that these were the "first time at this place for any such activity".