The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1917-09-19
SOLDIERS LEARN
TO use FISTS
Boys at Camp Dodge, Under Tutilase
of Boxers Of National Reputa-
tion Taught Art Of Boxing
NATIONAL FAMED INSTRUCTORS
Art VIII Come in Handy When the
Boys "Go Over the Top" After
They Cross the Water.

eighth Division. Overseas Army, Camp
Dodge, Sept. 1S-Every fighting man
in the Eighty-eighth division of Uncle
Sans first overseas army will learn
to use his fists at Camp Dodge.
Under the tutelage of boxers OF ma
tonal and international fame, they
will be taught to stand up in the ring
of ropes and educate their brawny
arms to an art that until that time
has been lost to them.
And the instructors they will have
are Jim Corbett, Abe Attell, Kid Mccoy
Bennie Leonard Mike Gibbons and
scores of others who have volunteer
ed to do their bit in turning out sol
diers superior to the kaiser's own.
Boxing will be catalogued under the
title Of recreation and amusement. 1t
will be one of the greatest sports OF
the cantonment But that isn't the
primary purpose.
When soldiers "go over the top for
the great adventure in the trenches
of the enemy. it is with fixed bayo-
nets. "Over there" they meet Fritz
and Fritz's bayonet isn't in its scab-
bard. Rule One of the game as it is
played today is Get your man or he'll
get you" There is no such word as
retreat in the manual OF bayonet fight
ing now. It's man to man, and the
best man wins.
The best man is he who can parry
a thrust or leap quickly aside. let his
adversary plunge into air and then
catch him through the neck before he
can recover Its against the rules to
stab man in the body If it can be
averted. The bayonet usually gets
stuck and 1t is necessary to shoot 1t
free. Another adversary may come
before the extraction is finished.
The man who can step aside is the
man who is quick with his feet. No
man is quicker than the boxer. And
there is Uncle Sans secret in teach
ing his soldiers to box. Boxing Will
also put steel into the arm muscles,
the steel that is needed to put the bay
onet home.
But the boys at Camp Dodge will en-
gage In other sports. Every company
win have its football team. To coach
them are scores of the football stars
of the colleges and universities of the
middle west. There are number OF
"All American" players wearing the
olive drab. Hundreds OF the newly
commissioned officers won their let
ters on the gridiron. There will be
baseball, soccer, hockey. outdoor pas
ket ball and wrestling.
To direct the athletic and recreat-
i've department of the Eighty-eighth
division, the war department has Sc
lected John L. Griffith, for many years
coach of the gridiron warriors of
Drake university. He will be called
upon to prepare a program that will
r,,ps1 1ic1, n r0rrnltinn
every man in camp. There will be
competitive football games this fall.
Major General Plummer. the camp
commandant, is an enthusiastic ad-
vocate of the game.
Interest at Camp Dodge today cen
ters in the coming transfer of men
to the ranks of the Thirty-third divis-
ion at Camp Cody. Deming, N. NJ. Ma
tional guard regiments there were de-
pleted by the draft of thousands to go
to France with the Rainbow Division.
Five thousand men will be required to
bring the division to war strength.
Plans now are to draft the men
from among the first 5000 who re-
port at Camp Dodge under the call for
the second increment of selectives be-
ginning September 10Th. 1t is calcu-
lated that all the men who are sent
from their home stations the first day
and large part of those dispatched
the second day will make up the draft
contingent. They will go south with
out delay. No doubt they will sec
service in France weeks before the.
first national army. They will train
with the seasoned guard troops which
the war department hopes to send
across before winter is over.
Camp Dodge is ready for the $4,000
men who began pouring into the great
cantonment September 10Th and the
four days following. The men are be-
ing turned into the skeleton regi-
ments that have been formed with the
men who came in the first five per
cent increment.
Four regiments of infantry, two of
heavy artillery, three battalions of
machiL,s gunners, a regiment OF engi-
neers and a depot brigade. together
with ammunition trains, signal corps
battalion, ambulance and supply trains
are being organized.
The soldier boys from Iowa, Him
ois, Minnesota and North Dakota who
go into the field artillery regiments
will furnish the barrage fire that will
pave the way for their infantry COM
rades to attack They will use Al
inch guns that have range of six
miles. They will be stationed close
to the front line trenches and through
constant communication with aviator
observers, observation balloons and
artillery observation points, will drop
shells into the first line trenches of
the Germans to wreck the dugouts, de-
stroy barbed wire entanglements and
shatter the nerves of the front line
TeutOn foes.
A trench mortar battery, the 313th,
will also be organized at Camp Dodge.
This unit will be equipped with chub-
by trench mortars that will hurl large
explosive shells high into the air to
fall into the German trenches and ex-
plOde on contact.
Soldiers will learn not only French