The Robesonian., 1917-06-07
LIFE AT TRAINING CAMP
Molding Future Commanders of Men
Out Of Raw Materlal-Glimpse In
to Camp Life at Fort OglethOrpe

Out of Raw Materlal-Glimpse In.
TO Camp Life at Fort Oglethorpe
Robson county has quite a number '
of fine Young men who are in train. |
ing at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga, for their
special of the End inst. from Chatta-
nooga, Tenn, to the Greensboro Daily
News will be of absorbing interest
to many Robesonian readers: !!
Advance, and thrust! Front pass
and lunge! Retire and thrust! Rest!"
Company No. 16, Reserve Officers
Training Camp, brings its rifles to
the ground, and wipes it's streaming
brows, lamenting. Bayonet exercise
is something to test the stamina of
hardened regulars, to say nothing of
a collection of college boys, clerks,
merchants, newspaper men, ct cetera,
such as compose the membership Of
the Fort Oglethorpe training camp,
and, for that matter, all the others.
To stick to the undiluted truth, there
are only Is companies in the Georgia
camp; but let this one be denominat-
ed No. 16, to avoid personalities.
At the command, "Rest", an aver
age of perhaps 145 of the $50 men
composing company 16 roll back their
sleeves and note with relief that their
wrist watches register 11:27. That
means that the next command will
be Assemble" after which the COM
pany will be marched back to bar
racks to wash up for mess, which in
this case would be dinner, at noon.
A paragrapher on one of the Chatta-
nooga papers recently pulled one to
the effect that this will be mo wrist
watch war;. Obviously, he had not
been to the officers training camp,
or he might have observed that that
is precisely what it will be in so far
as the equipment of the men is con-
cerned. The reason is simple, but
sufficient. The wrist is the only con-
venient place for soldier to wear his
watch. With the cartridge belt on,
the watch pocket just below the
waist band of the trousers is ex-
tremely difficult to get at. To wear
the watch in the shirt pocket means
that it is almost certain to be smash
ed the first time the company is or
dered to advance by rushing, which
necessitates falling to the ground at
the end of the rush, and falling
quick, at that. Consequently, there
are at least 10 wrist-watches in the
camp for every one of the ordinary
sort. 1t will be a wrist-watch war by
huge majority.
The Days Routine
What the paragrapher meant, Of
course, was that it will be no war fol
mollycoddles, and in that he has tht
hearty and unanimous Endorsement o.
the officers in charge of the training
camp. The training, especially fo1
the first five weeks, has been so de
signed that there will not be a weak
ling left among the future officers a
the end of that period. 1t speak
volumes for the discrimination of tn
examining officers that after tn
first two weeks of gruelling work on
~ 30 men out of the $500 at the cam
have succumbed.
10 understand what that means
let US return to the mythical com
pany, 16, now back in the compan
street and dismissed. They turne
out at 5:15 in the morning, and q
5:25 fell in for the first time. Tn
occasion was Setting up" exercise
before breakfasts strenuous /
minutes in itself. Breafast came g
., IN the mess hall opposite the CON
pany barracks, for each company
separate entity, eating and sleel
ing to itself. After breakfast, tn
company street was "policed", thu
Is to say, cleaned up from end to en-
BEDS also were made up and the ba.
racks swept out. At 7 the days wol
started and it was a continuous dri,
from that moment on. The morning
are given over to drill in squads, pl
looms and companies, to bayonet al
signalling exercises and to instru
II tIon IN the. use of small arms. N
hercules himself could go throus