Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1916-08-15
IOWA CUARDSMEN
ARE UNPREPARED
Still far From Being Equipped for
Actual Service in Field is
Report From Browns
vile.
is UNSATISFACTORY.
Short on Clothing, Shoes and Rifles
-Quartermaster's Department
Appealed To.

Brownsville, Aug. 12.-Letter
from one of the boys in camp: In
mobilization and concentration
camps for three, four, five and six
weeks and still unprepared and not
ready to cross Mexican border should
such move become necessary.
This was the verdict pronounced
by the commanding officers of the
Iowa National Guard following COM
plete field inspection for all troops.
The inspection, made to deter
mine the preparedness of the guards
men for actual service in the field,
showed the following:
That the Iowa National Guard has
only one-third of the uniform equip
ment necessary for the fighting line.
That the average man has but one
pair of breaches and but one khaki
shirt when the regulations of the
United States infantry call for three
pairs of breaches and three shirts.
That the majority of the Iowa
soldiers have but one pair of SER
vice shoes when they should have
three pairs-two for field use and
one in the reserve kit.
| That the troops are not uniformly
equipped. Part of the men in the
three regiments are equipped with
the old blanket roll and part have
the new pack that is DECLARED big
improvement over the roll. The new
pack is worn on the back suspended
from both shoulders, while the old
blanket roll was carried obliquely
over one shoulder
That hundreds of the Iowa infan-
try men are sleeping in old white
tents that were condemned months
ago by the federal government in
spectors. They were forced to bring
the tents back into service at the
Iowa mobilization camp at Camp
Dodge because the government had
not furnished enough of the new
khaki conicals to house the entire
brigade.
That the rifles in the hands of
the Iowa troops are in large meas
ure second hand. All rifles issued
since the troops were modified were
made-over guns. Old barrels were
equipped with new stocks and looked
like new. Maj. Smith Brookhart, in
spector of small arms practice, de-
clared the rifles were not fit for SER
vice. But the troops were forced to
keep them because no others could
be secured.
Today's inspection was ordered by
Brigadier General James Parker,
commander Of the Brownsville dis
trict, in order to determine just how
extensive was the unpreparedness of
his troops for Mexican service.
In the three weeks the troops have
been here, Captain Logan. regiment
al quartermaster of the Third Iowa,
has made repeated efforts to secure
issues of clothing from the quarter
masters department of the Browns
vile district in order to equip the
men to regulation requirements. He
has failed to get anything.
The shoes issued at Camp Dodge
were not all regulation shoes. Scores
of pairs now worn by the men on
the border are "odds and ends"
black and various shades of tan, and
odd fits. A special survey board ap-
pointed in Des Moines when the
troops were still there reported af-
ter inspection of the shoes that
there soles were too stiff, the tongues
were too large, the seams were too
prominent and the toes were too stiff.
But the Iowans are still wearing
the shoes.
The same is true in the equipment
of the soldiers in underwear, hose,
handkerchiefs and hats. Each man
should have had several pairs of
hose, several handkerchiefs, three
outfits of underwear and two hats.
The Iowans are wearing the B. "
DIS they had at home and which
they paid for themselves. Some are
wearing government furnished socks.
()neratOr Married