St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1917-09-19
LETTER FROM BILL" GOULD.
Former Instructor At Academy Tells
of Athletic Work In Camp.

The following letter from ''Bill'
Gould, a former instructor and ath-
letic coach at St. Johnsbury Academy
will have an interest for his man.
in this section:
111th Aero Squadron, Kelly Field,
South San Antonio, Tex,
Friday, Sept. Z, 1917.
Hello Grover and Brig,
You see that I am a business man
now, although I am still soldier. My
as supply squadron, and from all
accounts it will be stuck there as r
permanent squadron. Imagine me il.
such position. The physical director
of the Y. M. c. A. had been after me
for quite some time back to act as his
assistant in directing all the athletics
of the camp, with a fine chance of be-
ing made a first lieutenant if I made
good. OF course, I did not let such ..
fine chance slip by. Last Sunday, ]
was transferred to the 111th, and put
on special duty by the commanding
officer, Colonel Chase. [ am now as
sistant physical director of Kelly Field
1t will be our duty to see that every
squadron is organized into an athletic
association with an athletic director
at the head. There will be ten differ
ent branches of. sport conducted in the
whole camp; four major sports, and
six minor sports. The major sports
will be, football, baseball, track, and
basketball. The minor sports will be.
inn, inc
handball, and volley-ball. Each man
in the squadron is required to sign up
for at least one of these, and cannot
sign up for more than three. There
will be contests between the various
squadrons to determine the cham
plons These are to play the cham
pions of other camps in the Southern
Department at the end of the season
AS we are to have 10000 men here
this winter, you readily see that W.
| have some hard work cut out for u5
in the way of organizing.
| AS the new men come into thi
camp, they are put into tents and helc
in quarantine for ten days, before
moving into barracks, as a preventa-
| tive measure. Just now we havo
| about 10000 in the detention camp
! and these are the men that I am to
organize at once. L. am to have full
charge Of this work with the new men
so you can see that my influence is tc
be very extensive here. Believe me, ]
am full of work up to my neck
| Saturday A. M
+ We have full charge of the setting
up drills, or calisthenics, and we have
outlined a series of the latest army
exercises to be used here. They are
arranged in groups, each one being
used for one week only, and eacf
group is a trif1e harder than the previ
Gus one. The time of exercise ha
Fbeen set between reveille and break
fast, each group taking about Is min
utes for completion. Every Monda,
the squadron athletic directors will
meet here at the Y. M. c. A. for in
structions, and I shall put then
through the next weeks drill. The
are given printed copies of the drill
so that they can study them up durin
the week. Under this system. tn
whole camp will be performing tn
same drill at the same time, some
thing which has not been done up t
this time. Then, twice a month, tn
colonel will review the whole cam
zen masse" on the mammoth aviation
| field. Our first exhibition is to tax
! place September the 26th The physi
cal director, himself, will lead thi
first drill Later I may try it. A
this is entirely new for this section
this will be the first exhibition of il
KIND with so many men on the fielC
We expect to line up about $4,000
We, both, plan upon being trans
ferred to foreign service in the sprin,
II we make good. And we are boun
to make good, you can rest assured
Since l have passed my 3Oth birthda,
L am not eligible for flying under tn
present ruling, even though my heal
has been set upon it. I am doing TIL
! best I can under the circumstance
!, hoping that the ruling may soon b
changed, as I think it will A ma
must do his bit wherever he is place
by Uncle Sam these days. It is nj
( what we think. but what he think
y that counts. In the end, everythin
Y will turn out for the best we hope
x Our new field is about finished, an
v believe me, the world is going to s
X up and watch Kelly Field and it's pre-
" duct. Surely we are making histo1
q these days. and for one, am MOI
* than glad to have hand in the gre;
" work.
X While L. was conducting boxir
~ bouts in the detention camp Thur
n day evening, I saw a familiar face
N the crowd, and who do you suppose
W was? Sherburne, the st. Johnsbul
M wrestler. We had a most delight
~ visit. Tonight, Saturday, am goir
ID to challenge the whole camp with hi
N for match. We have some fine bou
W on the bill. shall have charge. R
N CARDS to everybody
VI BILL"