Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-04
KID "GOBS" IN WAR
HENRY REUTERDAHL Lieutenant, U. s. N. r. F.
Copyright U. S. Navy Publicity Bureau

/ down at the base. These youngsters
talking 1t all over among themselves,
touching up their yarn here and there
and putting on the finish varnish in
the letters to the folks at home, MAX
ing the censor work overtime reading
the dope.
But chewing it over among them
selves, the lads suddenly discovered
that they had been cheated. So they
organized delegation to wait on the
gunnery officer of the ship.
Intensive Training
In the eyes OF the young bluejack-
cts who had just come in and are
new to the game, the gunnery officer
stacks up highest, for he is in charge
or the shooting irons of the dread
nought and is the whole thing. all
the angels rolled into one and enam-
eied at that. With the kids he has
the muzzle velocity of a 15-inch gun
ana TO the youngsters the skipper in
comparison is just a myth some in
visible power in gold lace.
Now, the training given is most in
tenslVe in character; each man is
made to specialize as far as possible.
and every effort is made to perfect
each member of the crew in the work
TO which he is assigned The most
have never seen anything larger than
12-bore shotgun-are assigned arbi-
trarily, to start with, as gun pointers
ana gun captains; the hefty strong,
well-built lads are made shellmen and
leaders; men of quick minds are as
signed as sight-setters and telephone
operators; and these men are trained.
TRAINED, and instructed, cautioned.
Always drilled together. they are
made to feel that if any one of them
talls down in his particular job, the
work of the others is spoiled. 1t is
all teamwork, like on the diamond.
So this gang laid aft and waited
on the gnnnery officer and presented
their case thuswise: "Of course, Mis-
ter, we are going to be the next fell
lows in the gun crew to go abroad,
amt we2"
Certainly not, you had your trip;
you just came back"
~No, sir. we didn't just come back,
we never got there. You know when
we left you said we were going to
England and we never saw England
at all. We amt going back home and
have all the fellows guy us and saw
that we didn't finish the job and that
the U-boat ditched u.s." They went
back, all right.
Absorb Spirit
Here you have a sample of the met
tie in these youngsters, some barely
month in the outfit, but getting the
the punch and absorbing the spirit
of the service, the willingness to do
the job, the desire to play the game.
1t IS now tolerably well known that
picked men from the battleship fleet
have been sent to man the guns of
the armed American merchant ves-
sells that go abroad. This started first
several months ago and a gun crew
and their officer in command would
make round trip across the ocean
and back and then return to their
ship. You know how well these men
have done their duty, and truthfully
their exploits have been reported in
the public press.
But in hunting the U-boat little has
been said about the long, untiring
watches and the ceaseless vigil that
these men keep while crossing the
sea, and particularly when nearing
the danger zone. And these calls
from the fleet have been so great that
raw recruits have been specially