The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1917-11-22
Letter From Soldier Boy at Camp
Custer, Battle Creek, Michigan.

The following interesting letter
from F. c. Smith, of Van Vert, to
his cousin, Miss Margaret Edwards
of Van Vert, will be read with con-
siderable interest by his Decatur
county friends. Mr.. Smith enlisted
Camp Custer, Battle Creek, Mich,
Dear Cousin-Will answer your
letter received yesterday, and | was
sure glad to hear from you. ! never
get tired of reading letters. We get
our mail twice a day, at 1880 a. m.
and p. m. EyeryoneIiis always
they are not out drilling, o, say!
you ask about the yarn socks. Well,
| just put them on and they never
bothered me this, least bit. 1t would
have been all the same il they had, !
would have to wear them Just the
same. There are, a number OF things
that | have done here which | never
would thought of doing at homo. 1t
is hard on me TO. get UP. early every
take exercise before breakfast, but it
is sure great dope There is no way
to get out of it. If you do not get
up and be lined up in front of the
barracks at $3.50 a. m, ready to go
to the drill grounds and take exer-
else you are out of luck. They Will
put you on extra duty, that is. they
will make you work around the bar
racks, such as scrubbing the floors,
working in the kitchen, carrying in
coal, and do all kinds of work.
have never been put on extra duty
for doing anything out OF the way
yet but have had to work in the
kitchen day now and then, that is
when all the boys are good and no
INa L, ft,u
kitchen work and extra work is done
inthis manner. They take the names
of>all thecompany and select three
or four day for extra work. They
take chem in alphabetical order. You
spoke of sugar. being hard TO get.
We have all the sugar we want, and
they never say a word about it being
and that is not all we have. We sure
have some good eats here We are
going to have big feast Thanksgiv
ing, and believe me it will be some
feed too, for we have sure got some
good cooks in our company There
are some of the boys going home for
but they win only give
us few DAYS off, and those that are
as far from home as am are in hard
luck, for if ! would come home
could not get to stav any length of
time. SO guess it would not pay me
to try to come home, but | believe in
a few more weeks we will be farther
from home than we are now.
think they will move us when it gets
real cold, for we can not do very
much training in our line of work
when it gets cold and snowy. OF
course we can practice telegraply in
the house, but we .ilave to get out
and do the real stunt in the trenches. !
They have not had us doing any wir
ing trenches and sending any dope
in the field yet, but it will come later
On, when we get the codes and sig
nails learned. It is real interesting
work, more SO than ! thought it |
would be, but there is a whole lot of |
studying and a lot of dope to learn,
and you have got to learn it, there is |
no way of getting out of it. We have
about every week on all |
The dope, and if you do not know
what you are supposed to, they will
make you put in extra time on the
half holidays and learn it The half |
holidays are Wednesday and Satur-
lay afternoons. We, get the two half
lays for Sest, that is if you do not
10 anything mean and get good
grades in your work. Well, l will
lose for this time, SO answer soon.
F, G. Smith,
Co. B. 31Oth Field Signal Battery,
lamp Custer, Battle Creek, Mich.