The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1917-09-29

Jheir yarn here and Their" and putting
on the final varniSh in the letters {"
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. :" ul'F
organized Il delegation In wait ON 'I''
gunnery officer of the ship. In me
eyes of the young blueiaCketS VII" had
just come in and are new 70 the S''li''
the gunnery officer stacks up highest
for he is in charge of the shooting irons
of the dreadnaught and X the Whole
/ thng-like the angels rolled into one
and enameled nj that. With the KIDS
| he has the muZzle velocity of Il l0-lh'h
/ gun. and 10 the Youngsters III" SKIP
per. in comparison, i just a myth
some invisible power in gold lace.
Now. the training given is most IN
tenSive in character; each man II
made to sDeciaIiZe a. far aS possible
and every effort Is mace 10 pelfec
each member of the crew in the WORN
To which he is assigned. Inc MOST
likely youngsters. even those VINO nave
never seen anything larger than IL
bore shotgun, are assigned arbitrarily
to start with as gun pointers ana gun
coptains: the hefty. strong, weil-Duli'
lads are made Shellmen and Leaders
men of quick minds are assigned as
sirht-setters and telephone operators
and these men are trained, tralned
, trained. and instructed, cautioned Al
, ways drilled together. they are hlau'
, tn feel that if any one of them fail'
> down in his particular job, the worl
, of the Others is spoiled. 1t Is all team
work, like on the diamond
e So this gang laid aft and waited %
4 the gunnery officer and presented thel
= case thus wise: "Of course. mister J"
=. are going to be the next fellows IN III
d gun crew tn go abroad, amt we!
h Certainly not; you had your trip
It YOU have just come back.
? NO. sir. we didn't just come bacH
o va never got there. You know whe
9 we left YOU said we were going to En-
Ie land and we never saw England
lie all We amt going back home al
lie have all the fellows guy us and 81
Of that we didn't finish the job ana III
I'd rho U-boat ditched us They we
IL back all right.
nd Here you have u sample OF the me
~ tie of these youngsters. some barely
In month in the outfit. hut getting q
at punch and absorbing the spirit Oh !.
rd service. the willingness To do the j
the desire to play the game
ed II is now tolerably well known III
M nicked men from our hattleShip IL
lis have been sent To man the guns of
he armed American merchant vessels u
I'D. 90 abroad This started hrSt SeNe
nd months ago and gun crew and tn
,se officer in command would make
lff round triD. over and back across
ed oce,n and then return to their 81
.os Won know how well these men h;
done their duty, and truthfully III
sed EXHIBITS have been reported III
red public press.
inp Rut in hunting the U-b0at little
ing been said about the long. uhtir
TO- watches and the ceaSeless vigil |
Ieet these men must Keep WINE ''"SH
ain the sea. and particularly when near
the danger zone. And these calls II
he the fleet have been so great that
ay? recruits have been specially TRAINED
,ag- man the comparatively small-cal
t of guns which our merchant VesSei" I'd
We Intensive. training has been the OF
the of the day, and the fleet Is full of h
err" stories of how these young and
the paratively inexperienced men !
the taken To the game.
all There is such thing as o'ihs
up shy, and even old-time men might