After the armistice ending World War I canceled Dwight David Eisenhower's overseas orders, he was transferred from command of Camp Colt, the Army's Tank Training Center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to Camp Meade, Maryland. At Camp Meade, Major Eisenhower graduated from the Tank School, served as commanding officer of several tank units, and formed a friendship with Major George S. Patton, Jr. As two of the Tank Corps' most promising officers, they were free to experiment with new concepts for armored warfare, experience that later served Eisenhower well in World War II. Eisenhower lived nearby in a partitioned section of an old barracks that the Army provided only as quarters, leaving officers to pay maintenance and repair costs themselves. He wrote that renovating the barren quarters cost him about $700 or $800, not counting the labor he and Mamie invested, and because of low Army pay and repair expenses, the family furnished the apartment with furniture salvaged from the camp dump and slept on army cots for a time until they could afford beds. On December 23, 1920, their son, Doud Dwight "Icky" Eisenhower, developed a high fever, spent most of Christmas Day in bed, and two days later was diagnosed with scarlet fever. He was taken by ambulance to the post hospital while Mamie was placed in isolation, and on January 2, 1921, Doud died in his father's arms. The Eisenhowers left Camp Meade in January 1922.