The Ordway new era., 1917-01-19
Life In Naval school

xorran Weldon Who Is In the u g.
Naval Training Station AZ Great
Lakes. III. has written the following
letter to his mother. Mrs J. H. Wei
don. gfviuz description OF Naval
training LIFE
10. s Naval Training Station.
I Great Lakes, Ill Jan. s. 1877.
NJ Dead Mother
/ an going to write you about
some Of the many life IN speak OF
some Of the good points and Of some
Of the bad ones
IL the morning ~e get mp al 5
= II sharp. and have till Sis to
lash orr hzunocks. the first thing
a. ron know that is our bed in the
navy. In Iashing the hammock you
fold your bedding up on the inside
OF the hammock and then lash It With
your rope and stretch 1t up tight BE-
tween ports Then ~s all fall in for
bath which Is done every morning.
and Of course is one Of the bad points
for ne Next. all hands turn out on
deck With scrubbiag brushes and
scrub down the deck Then -e shift
into the uniform OF the dag. fall in
for muster and inspection and march
into mess al = II
Al 5 o'clock -e start our drilling
for the day which consists OF battal-
ion drilling. rigging loft boat drill.
small arms instruction. signals and
education Then Ee have from $50
.. =. till 5 p II 10 ourselves Then
supper formation and after supper
ve have the evening in which we may
DO what We wish till o'clock when
everyone must be n his hammock
This IS the drilling that IS done
every day except Saturday and Sun
cay. On Saturday morning ~e have
bag inspection That is TO see that
our clothes are neatly rolled up and
that they are clean. after that We
have or diune-. Then the liberty
party falls in at one O'Clock. that is.
all who have passed inspection and
wish to 20 ashore The ones Irving
within fifty miles OF here get thirty
six hours to go home and the rest
get Twelve hours shore leave
On Sunday morning the Catholic
church party falls in at $40 and
marches to north Chicago which is
one mile from here Then at ten
o'clock the rest Of Us go to the Pro-
tastaut church which is here in the
Station We are required TO go
whether We care to or not That is
the general routine Of the week. In
case Of accident or sickness the per-
son Is taken TO the sick bay for treat
ment and II necessary is sent to the
hospital. 50 you see they are taken
good care of We get good. whole
some food. good. clean sleeping quar-
ters and regular hours for everything
So you take the navy on the whole
il is mighty fine thing. OF course
they are pretty strict on you in such
things as staying ashore overtime,
smoking. swearing, shirEing duty, re-
fuse to obey orders and the like.
, These are all big ofenses, and are
the same as jail. so 1t pays TO walk
pretty straight while serving Uncle
Sam
Ny comoany IS billed to go to sea
March sth, so that means that We will
get our furIough February %. But
as this is an east coast station and
have g chance to transfer to the west
coast it will probably be little lon
ger before / go to sea. that is. II
decide to transfer. it will take some
extra time but will no doubt be in
March or April as no one Is required
to stay in training more than four to
six months AS l have been here
since the 26th of Oct. 1916. I will
not be held much longer Before 60
ing to sea every one gets 10 days
furlough. so you can look for me in
a month or two.