Tombstone epitaph., 1917-10-07

heir yarn here and there and putting
on the final varnish In the letters TO
the folks at home. making the censor
work overtime reading the dope.
But chewing 1t over among them
selves. the lads suddenly discovered
that they had been cheated. So they
organized a delegation to wait on the
gunnery officer of the ship In the
eyes Of the young bluejackets who had
just come in and are new to the game.
the gunnery officer stacks up highest.
for he is in charge Of the shooting irons
Of the dreacnaught and Is the whole
.hing-like the angels rolled into one.
and enameled at that. With the kids
he has the muzzle velocity Of 15-inch
gun, and to the youngsters the skip
per. In comparison. is just myth
some invisible power In gold lace.
Now. the training given is most in
| tensive In character: each man Ii
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
never seen anything larger than r.
bore shotgun. are assigned arbitrarily.
to start with. as gun pointers and gun
captains; the betty. strong. well-built
lads are made shellmen and leaders;
men OF quick minds are assigned as
sight-setters and telephone operators;
and these men are trained. trained.
tins 81 IL
ways drilled together. they are made
to feel that II any one Of them falls
down in his particular JOB. the work
OF the others Is spoiled. 1t Is all team
work. like on the diamond.
So this gang laid aft and waited on
the gunnery ofiicer and presented their
case thus wise: ''Of course. mister. We
are going to be the next fellows in the
gun crew to go abroad, amt wer
Certainly not you had your trip;
you have Just come back"
"No. sir. we didn't Just come back;
we never got there. You know when
We left you said we were going to Eng
land. and we never saw England at
all. We amt going back home and
have all the fellows guy us and say
that we didn't finish the job and that
the U-boat ditched u.s." They went
back all right.
Here you have a sample Of the met
tie Of these youngsters. some barely
month in the outfit. but getting the
punch and absorbing the spirit Of the
service, the willingness to do the Job.
81
II Is now tolerably well known that
picked men from our battleship fleet
have been sent 10 man the guns Of the
armed American merchant vessels that
70 abroad. This started first several
months ago and gun crew and their
officer in command would make
round trip, over and back across the
ocean 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 must keep while crossing
the sea. and particularly when nearing
the danger zone. And these calls from
the feet have been SO great that raw
recruits have been specially trained to
man the comparatively small-cnliber
guns which our merchant vessels carry.
Intensive training has been the order
Of the day. and the feet Is full Of bully
stories Of how these young and COM
paratively inexperienced men have
taken to the game.
There is such n thing n being gun
shy. and even old-time men might an