Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1917-10-25
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Camp Alfred Vail, Oct. i6.
Dear Friends:
Well, am going to start right
out and tell you what we are do
ing. We are now running on win
ter schedule, with is at 5:45,
everybody up; 6 to 6:45, setting
UP exercises; $3.50, mess; 1880 to
$3.50. foot drill; 10 to 1890, pis-
toll drill; 1890 to 1880, visual
signaling; IL noon, mess-and
believe me, it sometimes is some
mess, too. If anybody ever Of
fers me potatoes with the insula-
ton on when | get home-good
night!
At 4 o'clock we start in again
and work at line construction un-
til 1880. At 5 O'Clock there is re-
treat and mess again, and when
we have our dishes all washed
and put away the whistle blows it
is $3.50 and we have lantern prac-
tice until 1880, when we are
through. At 1890 everybody
must be in their tent and at A all
lights must be out.
We get in plenty of overtime,
but we are working by the month,
SO why worry. One has four
years to do that in. We have sew
eral means of communicating,
namely: The wig wag, in which
we use one flag; the two arm
semaphore, in which two flags
are used; then there is the hello
graph, which we use with the sun,
and the lantern, which we use at
night.
/ am getting along fine with the
wig wag- and -semaphore, but the
other two are slower. We had
test in semaphore and wig wag
yesterday and l received 80 and
95 per cent respectively. The
rate of sending was semaphore,
~ words per minute and wig wag,
6 words. The line construction
is very easy. Today our section
(t8 mem built two miles Of line
in 2 hours and IS minutes, using
lance poles. P.O. d. straight ties
are used on the insulators, which
screw on the lance poles.
l do not know what boys you
might be acquainted with in the
bunch so cannot tell you about
them. The Major never has much.
to say.
Mr. Pratt from Omaha was
down the other day hut did not
have anything to say to the fell
lows. ! almost forgot to tell you.
that we take hikes quite often,
about three times a week. We
generally do from six to ten miles
in three or four hours,
Yesterday we did seven miles
in 2ahours andfe45 minutes, with.
full packs. A week or SO ago we
set a record by doing ten miles
. with our packs in 2 hours and IS.
minutes with only one rest of Is
minutes.
Friday we go on an all day hike
with packs. A couple of weeks
ago we had an all day hike and
went to Sandy Hook and back, a
distance of about twenty miles. If
we keep on at the rate we have
been going we will soon be reg
ular soldiers. We have learned
so much it seems we have been
here many months. It looks now
as though we would not go across
very soon as there are not many
troops going across now. The
fellows all like it so far and all
are working hard.
l have been getting out of the
!. kitchen work on account of being
q corporal, but have been the cor
poral of the guard couple Of
times. Nothing happened SO there
is nothin gto say.
Saturday afternoons we have
off. Last Saturday we were able
to get 36-hour passes, SO very
nearly the whole battalion went to
New York. You can catch a train
every hour from Little Silver to
New York, which is only thirty
five miles.
Well, took in Wall street and
Broadway from Battery Park to
. Central Park, also Fifth avenue.
Looked in at Delmonico's and
Sherry's, where ham sandwiches
cost you two beans.
Took a ride out Riverside Drive
and got a close view of three large
battleships. Could not tell which
! ones they were, as the names are
no longer painted on the sides.
StrOlled across Brooklyn Bridge
and back, took in the Statue of
: Liberty, Aquarium and the Wool
worth building. To tell you all
!. about it in detail would take a lot
5 OF time and paper.
The Liberty loan drive started
in camD TODAY and nv tonipht