The Pensacola journal., 1917-05-31

reserve camp at Fort Mcpherson, !
Ga. He has written the following
letter to a member of the staff, and
it is so interesting that we repro
duCe it below, eliminating only a few
personal items.-Ed.)
Sunday Night.
Have intended every day I've been
Injun, we haven't had a spare mo-
ment from the first day up to date.
This training is the most intensivelv
interesting | ever experienced or read
about. We are supposed to have a
rest on Sunday, but the three Sun
days I've been here have been the
hardest of all. In camp slang. we've
been "shot" three times each and
every Sunday yet. These shots"
are vaccination and inOculatiOn. We.
were vaccinated once for smallpox,
and inoculated three times each for
typhoid ad paratyphoid. Every time
they've "shOt" me I've been on the
very sick list for some twenty-four
hours thereafter.
We are being treated in fine style
up here. Everything we could pos
sibly want is given US free: two uni
forms, including shoes, the best of
| quarters and beds, excellent meals.
| our railroad fare refunded at 3 ID
cents per mile. $4,000 in cash per
month, 1--WE draw oE first check on
| Nav 81 for the time we've been here)
| and various other things too runner
! Gus to mention.
! We we're presented on our arrival
in camp with six text books. in which
We have daily classes They are
Field Service Regulations,' Man
ual of Interior Guard Duty" "Rules
Of Land Warfare" Signal Book"
Infantry Drill Regulations" and ~.
S. Army Regulations" Others will
follow in due course Of time.
The $500 men here are divided
into fifteen companies, and each com
pany is entirely independent of the
others in drills, living quarters, and
| everything else. Each company has
a regular army officer for senior in
structor and three reserve officers
as assistants.
AS YOU probably know, the train
ing in military schools, including
| West Point, and also the training in
the regular army has nearly always
been, up until recently, disciplinary,
with special emphasis given to "CjOse
order" drills. ("ClOse order drills
! are formal and "at attention. merely
given as disciplinary exercises and
never used in time of war;. Now
the point I want to make is that all
this stuff IS given but small attention
here. They are not teaching us how
to handle men in dress parade, in
fancy drills before audiences, but how
to handle them on the field of battle
in the face Of an enemy. Drills are
in "extended order" and "skjrmish
line" "Success in battle is the ulti
mate object of all military training
reads the first sentence in one of my
text books. In the intensive training
given in these camps, success in bat
tie Is not only the ultimate object
but the direct, indirect and all the
rest of the objects.
The day after we arrived in camp
We were given guns. the new Spring
fields, said to be the most accurate
and perfect rife in the world. Well
they didn't give us these guns just
to make US look like soldiers. We
work with them every day and al
day long exercises in different shoot
ing positions, aiming. etc. Not only
the practical side of II but the tech
nioue and mathematics Of it.
On the field we pract.-c charges
full speed. retreats (alsn tGTl speed,
Soldiers never attack hS snem!