St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1917-09-05
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SPLITTING UP co. d.
Former Member Writes Interesting
Letter From birmingham, Mass.

The following letter written by Das-
comb Rowe to his parents in Peacham
will be of much interest as it tells of
the dividing of Co. D, and something
of what the new organizations expect:
birmingham, Mass, Aug. "a, 1911
Dear ones:
Probably you will not be greatly
surprised at the heading of this letter,
as the girls gave you an intimation
that I might be going at once. Hope
they got home without accident. It
must have been an awful night for
travelling.
Co. d was certainly broken up for
fair. Tuesday morning 81 men were
transferred to the Sind Brigade, Ma
chine Gun Battalion; 100 more Gin
Guiding yours truly were set up in a
company, together with about the
same number from Co. A, called the
51st Brigade Machine Gun Battalion.
The other 25 were left muclls to their
chagrin, I assure you. The report III
The CALIFORNIAN to the effect that
only the unfit were left was erroneous.
The men left included the very best
privates in the company.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
afternoons were spent in fully equip
ping up, etc. OF course we handed in
our rifles and bayonets, as machine
gunners we will have only a revolver,
as an individual weapon.
Thursday evening about 7 o'clock
we set out for this place, although, OF
course we did not know our destina-
ton at the time. We travelled all night
11s,> y, I'LL NALL
White River junction, Brattleboro,
Worcester and Palmer. arriving here
about o O'Clock this morning.
This place is more appealing in some
ways than Fort Ethan Allen. and in
others it is not. Won't go into par
ticulars, but we have splendid trees
here, many flies, nice pond to go
swimming in, more flies.
The two meals we have had SO far
have been superb, far superior to the
average recently. However, the report
is that we will not be here more than
two weeks at the outside. Our COM
pany was smashed all up again this
afternoon Instead of being the 51sr
Brigade Machine Gun Battalion, we
were distributed about equally among
four companies of One-tlme Massa-
chusetts cavalry but now transferred
to machine gun work as ourselves
Our combined force makes between
500 and 600 men, and we are the
1O2nd Machine Gun Battalion, 26tn
Division, u. S.. A. This combination
was made for mutual benefit, as Meth
er of us have had experience in ma
chine gun work, which combines to
some aXtent both infantry and cavalry
tactics.
Tine common report is that the aver
age life of a machine gunner on the
firing line is 80 seconds, as my corporal
hunorously put it, 81 wish | were a
cat with my nine lives; I could live
lust four and one-half minutes
However the lives of the ones who are
charging our guns will probably be
considerably shorter. 1t was mighty
sad parting in Co. D street last Thurs
day night. The fellows who were le1t
behind were the very best liked TEL
lows in the company. Nearly every
man was in tears. Two other detach-
ments of the First Vermont infantry
went directly from the Fort to west
field, Conn, and I surmise our com
| ing here was merely for the purpose
| of uniting with this bunch OF Massa-
chusetts cavalry before going there.
Now that that is accomplished 1t is
only a matter of days before we leave
for Westfield, Conn, and then lew
more and we will be across the water
where we belong. My present address
| is:
102 Machine Gun Battalion, Co. 3,
birmingham, Mass.
| Tt YOU send any letters to this ad-
dress do so by return mail. Love TO
oil DASCOMB.