Gunnison news-champion., 1917-10-26
BRYAN HERRICk WRITES
FROM CAMP kEARAEY
FROM SERGT. BRYON HERRICk
Camp Kearney,
n-.nl.ur L. iQ1-

Dear Melvin:-
Your last letter has been following
me around ike lost dog for the past
week or so, and never reached ME un-
I'll We had reached Camp kearney on
the third of October, and inasmuch as
! have been pretty busy since that
time, have let it slide until the pre-
sent ! am well and happy, and the
camp life suits me fine.
We are now a detachment of
Company ID, of the l57th infantry,
previously the First Colorado lnfan-
ry. The old Company d used TO be
from Lamar, and they say It used TO
have q pretty fair bunch of fellows.
don't know just what will happen to Us
Officers seniority list has been doped
out and published, and We have lost
our Captain by Seniority, but as yet,
no results have been made known con-
corning the non-coms. The announce
ment has been made that no non-coms
would be busted except voluntarily,
but seniority will rule as to who gets
the places and who is surplus. The
pay will run on just the same, but who
wants TO be non-com without job
And ] was only appointed August 5th.
We finally got out of Denver on the
Grande on the night of September 2s.
We only stopped a few minutes in Sal
ida. Wanted to go out over the w. L.
through Salt Lake and Frisco, but they
cut US off over the S. p. & L. A. from
Provo direct to Los Angeles through
the darndest dessert ! ever saw. Stick
your head out of the window thirty
miles out of Provo for five minutes,
and you have seen the whole trip.
Sage brush and sand. Stopped half
way day at Provo, and must ad-
NIT that | rather liked the place. The
man who first said that Utah grew
the pretty girls sure said mouthful.
A gang of d Troopers and some in
cidental roughnecks who accidentally
happened to be in the vicinity, got
roped in on the chapel exercises at
Brigham Young University, and | sat
on the platform and looked at about
500 Of the uniformly best looking girls
! ever saw in my young sweet life
And they're sociable lot, too.
We also stopped half day at Las
Vegas, New, but it was so hot didn't
leave the train much. | rode on the
pilot through small corner of Death
Valley by moonlight, just the other
side of Daggett and Barstow, and it
was an awful looking mess. We didn't
stop long at Los Angeles, just long
enough to get a few buckets of coffee
for breakfast. We ate cold stuff all
the way out and for three days after
we got here, except when we hap
pened to hit town at the right time
for hot coffee.
Got my first sight of the sea about
so miles out of Los Angeles, and she
sure looked big, and WET and GOOD,
but mostly wet and big. Haven't been
swimming yet, but I'm going to try
and get, down this week if possible.
Hit camp in the middle of the after
noon, and it sure looked discouraging
at first sight. Nothing but bare shacks
and red dust mile deep. But after
looking it over, we found that we were
in bird of camp. would like to
see any of these new cantonments
come up to Camp kearney.
We live in tents, and eventually we
are to get floors and framework for
them, which makes very comfortable
little house for warm weather. We
have fine wooden mess-houses and kit
chens, and bath-houses. AS soon as
we get in permanent camp with the
l57th we will have little electric lights
also. The dust isn't SO bad. We had
little shower the other day which
accounted for most of that. We are
about six miles in the direct line from
the sea, about the same from Linda
Vista, which is nothing but siding,
and about 16 miles from San Diego.
We are up on a big flat plateau at
about 200 feet elevation. an ideal To-
cation for a camp at such low al
titude.
Went down to San Diego the 9th
err day on combined business and
pleasure trip. / don't think much of
the town Of San Diego, although /
didn't get to see much of it. There
are bunch of side trips that l want
to take in when get to it. Colorado
Beach at San Diego; Tia Juana, which
is only IL miles from San Diego; La
Jolla, big pleasure resort near here,
and number of other trips. The
cruiser and the new battleship are now
lying in San Diego bay. Pm going
to try to get down and look them over
before they leave. Some of .ne fel-
mess on board one of them. All you
and "leathernecks," meaning the mar
ines.
l don't think of anything else to
say, so I'll quit. Old papers are al
ways welcome. BRYAN.
Until further notice:
David B. Herrick,
Sergeant, Troop d,
First Colorado Cavalry.
Cann Kearuey Calf