Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1917-09-19
DUMMY GUNS
AT CAMP c \ DODGE
What Awaits the :Hew Recruits
When They Arrive IN the
Training Camp.


Special Correspondence to the Will
mar Tribune.
Division Headquarters, Eighty-Eighth
Division, First Overseas Army,
Camp Dodge, Ia, Sept. Is.
When the newly commissioned Of
fcers invaded the great rows of bar
racks at Camp Dodge to take COM
mand of the conscript soldiers to
which they had been assigned, many
of them looked into the muzzles of
French 75's", the guns that stepped
the Huns at the Marine, the Long
Toms" the long-nosed "Bertha's"
that are blowing the way of the Brit
ish Tommies to Lens.
The ISIS, the three-inch field artil-
lery pieces, were drawn up in front of
a number Of barracks. Interspersed
among them were the 'heavy artil-
lery" pieces, all "armored" according
to Hoyle. (
When the officers investigated, the
gums" proved to be iron sewer pipes
of various sizes, mounted on wagon
wheels and buggy wheels, protected
with wall-board "armor," and equipped
] with gear to raise and lower them to
get proper range.
They had been built by the newly
arrived conscripts from material they
found in the hooks and corners of the
great cantonment, built under the di
rection of men of former military ex.
perience, that the drafted boys in
khaki might learn the rudiments of
artillery drill while they waited for
real guns.
And that is the spirit Of the con
script army which next spring will
sail the Atlantic to join the ".poilus"
of the tri-color of France in the march
to Berlin.
They are in it now. They want to
| get at it. They want to become good
: soldiers so quickly as work will do it.
And with the American resourceful-
ness which will make them better
fighting men than the Germans, they
| built practice guns without the sug
gestion from officers, that they might
lose no more hours than necessary
2 "getting ft."
7 If any conscript in Camp Dodge to-
day ever thought of being a Stacker
he soon lost it In the enthusiasm OF
! his comrades in arms.
2 Those who have watched the new
soldiers agree with General Edward
H. Plummer, camp commandant, when
r he said:
5 "Three months hard work will put
, the new national army into fighting
trim, and they will not only be able
to Ego across" but they will be able
: to cope with the best armies Germany
ever produced"
Let US follow Private Anderson Of
Kandiyohi county thru the rough and
: rigid way from the raw recruit, thru
his early camp training, through the
school of building hand grenades and
bombs and gas masks, thru the trench
es and bomb proofs to the iron-mus
2 cled fighting man he will be when he
boards the transport for the blood
red fields of France.
Private Anderson stepped from ar
) interurban car to the receiving depot
with his suit case in his hand. HI
was confronted by one of hundred
= officers in the long receiving line ant
directed to the registration barracks
He went through the gauntlet" of of
u ficers where he was formally ant
quickly enrolled in the United State!
y army. Then he was ready for hi.
duty as soldier. And as a soldier
he had to wait on himself He wa.
+ told where to get cot, blanket rol
and nose gear. He was given a bed
sack" and directed to great straw
9 stack He filled it with stray until i
= bulged. 1t is his bed. He returned
to quarters to await orders.
For two weeks, Private Anderso,
a will do light drill. The pressure will
gradually be increased. But he mus
first receive three shots in the arm
that will render him immune from ty
phoid fever for period of seve,
years. He will be given another sho
that will protect him from para-ty
- phoid. He will be vaccinated agains
. smallpox.
If he is a good mathematician. h,
will go to the artillery. If he is al
" engineer, he will 60 to the engineer
% ing corps. If he ever studied teleg
;. raphy or wireless, the signal corps
~ will get him. He will go to the branch
, of the service he is best fitted for.
= He will drill forty hours a weel
~ - with Wednesday and Saturday after
Moons off. If he should prove a hi