Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1916-07-06
DEAR BILL" LETTER
FROM TRAINING CAMP

Dear Old Bill:
There b as been plenty doing at this
little old diggings to satisfy the most
rdentsloyer of labor; in fact, 1t has been,
nothing to do but work one continuous
round after another, yet, the officers In
charge change the pace so often and
rive us such variety of things to DO
and learn that we never feel exhausted
oh ysically. Mentally, there is ques-
ton In my mind as to whether weari-
ness could overtake some of US. AS for
those who would class in with this lat
ter bunch, they have mostly been weed
ed out, this camp having been on
wheels for more than two weeks ana
with the officers Of this little old army
of our great little U. S., there is but
little pastiming when it comes to the
matter of piking on your elected occu-
nations here. Believe me Bo. they can
gently pick up one of these possibilities,
plant him on the incest pair OF slippery
skids, give him one gentle little push,
and the way he travels would make Ty
Cobb imagine he had always been Kid
ding himself. were he here to see
Generally speaking these officers are
a mighty fine set of fellows. There
has been one or 6wo who tried to make
it hard for the rockies and who seemed
to take great pleasure in airing all the
sarcasm they had managed to pick up
in their very eventful lives but they
have recently failed to put in an appear
ance when the bugle blows for assembly
at squad and company drill. During
the first week after new camp opens
OF course all the recruits are as emerald
hued as O'Grady's home county and the
Comms unload right regularity. In
our company we have an Episcopalean
rector. About the third day he was
here and just after we had come In from
a two hours hike the order came 10
assemble our packs in different way
make them up, we call 1t. 1t was 1ast
work for me with some experience be-
hind me to go by to get away with the
order in time and this rector didn't get
his strapped up quite right. On the
next march his salt and pepper DoX
fell out and he stopped down to PICK II
UP. The lieutenant right there mad
fit. Tho doctor said nothing. just
little further on the officer hoped MIN
again just after we had stopped for rest,
winding up with The next time that
pepper box drops, let it go, let 1t go.
We all roared when the chap reach
back in his pack, picked II owl
and sailed it across the road Wild,
"All right, here she goes" You Will
appreciate this little more when you
get right into the training and under.
stand that an officer is always right and
that such breach of discipline like his
getting fresh with chap who carries
around a government commission Is
next to unpardonable.
Nine out of ten of the officers tho are
princes. As soon as they give the Or
der to rest when we are drilling OF
after we have come in from a march
they mix with US just the same as the
they were in the first months training
themselves. OF course they have to
maintain discipline while the training
or lecturing is going on but they are
very patient with it all and go over
time and again the details so that every
rookie has chance to get it straight
TAFT too is blowing, 9 p. no. Tha'
means lights out or accept an invitation
to come to headqu uar ters and tell them
why you couldn't make one red and
four black ones stand up on the second
raise
Your friend,
JACK FORREST
M n.l1.la,oa