New Britain herald., 1917-05-25
AMERICAN COLLEGE < MEN NEARING FRONT
First Combatant Corps Leaves
 Grand Headquarters in France OFF FOR THE AlSNE

Many Originally Intended to Go Into
 Ambulance Service, But Decided to
 Enter War When United States Was
 Drawn In.
 From Staff Correspondent of tho Associated Press, Grand Headquarters of the French Army in France, May ,24.-The first American combatant corps went to the front today under Captain B. I. Tinkham and Lieutenant Scully of Princeton. Captain Tink-- ham won the war cross at Verdun.
 It was a proud moment when the first detachment of the American field service. consisting mainly of Cornell undergraduates, departed for the ,Aisne battlefield. They were armed with carbines, attired in khaki uni- forms, and drove fve-ton motor cars. As they left, the stars and stripes floating over the cantonment in an hiss toric French forest, spread out i1 the breeze, and other contingents cheered them ,on their way. Clarence Mackay presented the camp with the Ameri- can flag which now flies beside the tri-, color.
 The correspondent of The Associat- ed Press. watched other American sections drilling in preparation for ac- tive participation in the fighting Among them were detachments from Andover, Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard. Johns Hopkins. Chicago and Williams colleges, while . large body from. Princeton was awaiting organization. Lieutenant Daly, captain of the Yale football team of 1910, with Lieutenant William Taylor of New York, was busy putting one section into shape while Lieutenant Kennedy superintended an other. s 4f4g
 Men Display Aptnees.
 French officers and Lieut.. J. w. Os- theimer of Philadelphia. who won his rank in the French army in which he enlisted at the outbreak, of the war, have been appointed instructors of the Americans at the centrAl training school. Some sections are drilled ac- cording to the French method and others according to the American. All officers attached to the corps express the utmost sAtisf1ctfon with tho sn1An. w1io display readtnes4 to perform any task. They all ere strong young men, many of them civil engineers. and they show an adaptability to meet any circumstances. Most of them intend to serve with the American Anbu- lance Corps but selected the fighting corps after the United States decided to enter the war. They have already been undergoing, some of the hard ships of campaigning, sleeping in tents in the forest encampment, but they know that this war Is no parade and entails the hardest and most trying work day and night with many pri- vations.
 The military fashion of taking meals in France has been somewhat changed to meet the requirements of the Americans. Breakfast, which is scanty for the Frenchmen, has been augmented and the hours of other re. pasts have been modified. A French officer of high grade told the Asso- ciated Press correspondent that the arrival of the Americans was greatly appreciated and that he was confident that they would render an immense service to the Allies.
 Paris, May 25.-The third military transport section of the American field service left yesterday for the field service. training camp at the front under command of Horton Kennedy of Hanover, N. H.. last years Dart mouths football manager. and F. ]. Dussossoit, who was captain of the l Dartmouth team. The section in- cludes 20 Dartmouth, Yale. Har- l yard, Johns Hopkins and Chicago University men, and one each from Colum bia. Williams and Michigan. Raymond Harper of Princeton, {; John Heilbuts of Paris and James
 Austin Liddell, of Newton Center,
 Mass, belonging to the field service. ] have just received the war cross. Ltd- dell was cited for an act of bravery 1 occurring on the first day of his serv-
 ice at the front His car was hit sev- 1 eral times and his uniform shot through while he was taking wounded from the field under heavy shelling. BRITISH IN BOSTON.