McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1917-12-07

II you will allow me space in your
paper again, will give my friends a
little news from Camp Jackson. The
last time | wrote | was in Camp Cor
don, but since they have moved me
twice. We left Camp Gordon on the
18th of October, and was attached to
the S2lst Inf; stayed in the infantry
about one week, then moved to the
machine gun Bat.
10 some respects was proud of
my last move and in some was not;
| was real glad to get out of the in
fantry, but was sorry to leave SO
many of the boys knew. left al
McNairy boys when | moved last.
Now some may wonder why | was
anxious to get out of the infantry, /
will tell them why. In the infantry
they have to drill with guns and bay
onets all the time, and that is quite
worrysome; | notice some Of the boys
have corns on their shoulders; while in
machine gun Bat. we carry no guns,
except pistols. One squsd of eight
men goes with each gun when in SER
vice; it takes three men to operate
the gun: one to sight, one to feed,
and one to operate the gun.
The machine gun that we are prac-
ticing with is the Coils, thirty cali
bre, and shoots 480 times per min
ute. We have not done any firing
practicing yet.
Now as to which place | like best,
Camp Gordon or Jackson, 1t is hard
10 decide; some things like better
here and others there; though camp
life is practically the same in all of
the camps.
We are only FIVE miles from the
South Carolina capital (Columbia) and
can 20 over there most any time We
want to when We are off duty, though
for the last three weeks this company
has been quariantined on account of
measles, and it has been so we
could not go anywhere, not even to
the Y. M. c. AS, and | sure do miss
them, for they are the soldiers
places for pleasure.
was very proud to see McNairy
reach the goal on the Y NJ. c. A.
fund and then 60 much over the al.
lotment.
have heard that some Of the boys
were reporting home that the soldiers
in camp were very much discouraged
and homesick, and were not being
fed we'll. Now, that is not the case
here; the boys all seem in good spir-
its and are beginning to like camp
| life fine, some OF them real anxious to
cross over and join their comrades on
the firing line. You seldom see any
signs of homesickness now, for the
boys are all learning each other, and
can pass off the time together better
| though you can hear someone say al
most every day, Il sure do want tt
| 90 home Xmas"
| When We left Gordon | think mos
of the McNairy boys went to CAM
| Sewer at Greenviile, y c., bat | vii
mention the names Of McNairy boy
that ! have met since | have beel
here: John McAfee, Harold Gam
Robt. Townsend, Dwight Maxedou
Grover Dillon, Luther Jordan, Leon
ard Sheffield, Murray Milsaps, Will
Thomas. There may be others her,
but | have not yet met them.
They feed US well here. | thin
most all the boys have gained fror
FIVE to twenty pounds since the
came here.
| think on an average we are fe
better than we were used to at home
> | weigh thirteen pounds more than
did when | left home. ! judge tina
3 Uncle Sam feeds his boys all abou
9 alike. and probably those boys tina
: are reporting nothing too eat, ar
t Just Too homesick to eat. | concluf
E ed a long time ago that it was useles
h to be homesick. though | have q
much to be homesick for as mos
o anyone, but we are in this to sta
! until we can see brighter futurl
/ and by the way the English an
Franch are treating the Germans n