Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-10-20
HONOLULU BOY WRITES or LIFE
WITH CALIFORNIA; GRIZZLIES

I scoutinS and so forth. | won't so any
/ further into the WORK or organization
/ OF the battery for fear Of boring you.
/ Suffice II to say that the field artillery
/ is the highest branch Of the service
outside Of the medical and aviation
corps. and il covers some Of the work
! Of every other branch OF the service.
/ We have the horses and TcVoiyeTs 0t
! the cavalry, the foot drifl and guard
duty Of the infantry. the scmiphore
/ and telegraph work OF the signal corps,
while the handling Of field pieces and
/ the ammunition parallels the work Of
! the coast artillery corps. although it
/ Is not OF as high order.
/ To HE Il is the only service; I
) wouldn't belong 20 any other. II is
/ free from monotony, full OF lie and
dash and thrills. Also il requires
high degree OF intelligence and offers
Ia chance for advancement. The class
| OF men in this regiment Is unusually
high There are business men. pro
! ieRsi0nsl mon. college hOyS, farmers,
COW punChers, miners. former soldiers,
professional athletes. adTenturers-
anything you can think of. On second
! thought I could add dozen vocatiOns
to the few have named.
! Here are various ideals and ambi-
tions, but two things are in common -
youth and the desire to get to the
front as soon as possible
Our officers are mostly men OF
wealth and position, in private life.
who did good work in recruiting tho
regiment. They are all fine men and
are we'll liked by the fellows but many
of them have lot TO learn about their
| jobs As far as that goes, We all have:
and the sooner we learn 1t the sooner
We will see active service. Every
man is doing his best, and every day
sees new improvement. The general
opinion Is that we will be in Europe
by January or February at the latest.
Lively Young Non-coms
"Our on-commissioned officers are
mostly young fellows without much
experience, but lots of enthusiasm and
ambition. They are a hard class to
beat. You simply can't hold them
down.
The best have been able to do so
far Is to edge into a caisson corporaIs
gOb anu h1iu II against al
And it's no cinch, either have to
I watch my step all the time. have
been at a little disadvantage, too,
came in late and total stranger No
one OF the other 1899 men knew wheth.
er was horse thief or preacher.
AT present we are encamped at
Tanforn, an old deserted race park
about 10 miles south OF San Francisco.
1t is anything but an ideal camping or
training ground. When it isn't cold
and foggy it's hot and dusty. 1t is
always windy. / never saw the wind
blow SO fast in so many directions be-
fore. We sleep, eight men to a tent
The tents have no floors other than
the good old earth or rather dust.
The dust is in, on, around and all over
everything we possess. We eat it and
breathe it; it fills our eyes. ears, nos
trils and threats. 1t is with us always:
we would be lost without it. | have
heard 1t said that a man eats a peck
of dirt before he dies. If that were
the only requirement for passage
into the next world, we would all have |
had fare tickets long ago.
=" We cheer ourselves with the
thought that we are going south to
Linda Vista soon. We have been on
the verge Of going any day" for the
last month. ~.
Il don't know anything about Linda !
Vista, except that 1t is near San Diego. :
1t may be worse than this place for
all We know. But far fields always
look green, So we are crazy to go there.
I'VE haven't our regular equipment
yet. There are enough horses and
guns in the regiment to man one bat.
terry. SO we have to take turns using
them. The horses are all has-beens
and the guns are relics of the Spanish