Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1918-08-16
With Our Soldier and Sailor Boys.

With Our Soldier and Sailor Boys.
Boyd McVety enlisted at Kansas City
No, last February in the Aviation
Section of the Signal Corps. He was
sent from Kansas City to Los Angeles,
CAL, then back to Jefferson Barracks,
from there down on the Mexican bor'
der, then to Kelly Field at San An
tonic, Texas. From Kelly Field he was
sent to Wilbur Wright Field near Day
ton. Ohio, where he was put in Ar.
morer Is school to study machine gups.
He wrote home that his particular job
was to ride in the back seat Of an areo.
plane and work the machine gun. Be.
fore he could leave the. school 1T Viii.
bur Wright Field be bad to be able to
take q machine gun apart and put II
together again blindfolded. He could
have stayed At Wilbur Wright As an
Instructor, but could not then have
gone to France and was determined to
60 across.
Following is letter from him. dated
June 10th. to his aunt. Mrs. Cora Ad-
die concerning this matter:
r "Just q few lines to let you know
that this is the day I've been looking
for ever since I joined the army. We
leave sometime today on our way to
France. Our train is all ready and
they are hauling provisions on now.
We 20 to New York from here. At
least we think we do. We spend lots
Of time trying to figure out where we
are going. Sometimes we hit it and
sometimes we don't.
( am feeling fine now. Can hardly
wait until the train leaves. l had quite
. time talking the Major into letting
me 90 with the bunch. They were 60
ing to make an instructor on machine
guns out of me. If had taken lit, it
would spoil my chance of going to
France. talked to him for four hours
and then he was undecided, Maybe he
will stop me get, Am trying to keep
out of his way. That's what l get for
studying so hard. Never again. j
When we get to New York oil our
mail will be censored, be careful what
you write to me - l don't want to
loose out now on going across. They
are awfully strict about such things. 1
have had to give the family: history
about . dozen times already inlthe last
few days" .5S
] He sailed about June q. A card tell
ing of his safe arrival overseas was re-
.eipAd- Aug. 2nd. and Aug. 6th the fol-
lowing letter dated July tn WAS re-
ceived. r.. - ..
"Well am here at last all we'll and
happy. 1t is hard to realize that We
are in France. We sleep the same and
eat the same just like we did in the
good old U. s. A. .-.-
We had . fine trip across but l never
want to take another. I would much
rather be where l could get off, and
walk when 1 get tired. never knew
how much water there was in the
ocean before. wasn't bit sick COM
ing over. And that French cooking
we had coming over. We sure Were
glad to get our supper from an Amer.
ican kitchen. We had this canned
roast beef and it tasted so good We oil
%horrh< Il uaa duck E,&f -
And this country! you can't realise
what beautiful place this is. 1t sure
me. Everything is built of
stone and concrete and Ill of the roofs
are of red tile. J. J. Sobolik's home
would look like . shack along side of
some of the places I saw yesterday.
The French are strong for seclusion be-
cause almost every home had high ev-
erRreen hedge around the place.
When we landed we marched up thru
. good sized city and it sure was .
queer place. The streets were paved
with stone about six inches square and
- rough o. the Vernon road. The
street cars are about the size of .
Ford. The streets are so narrow that
trey don't have . team of horses. They
drive one ahead of the other. We
turned q corner down in the business
district and run into big herd of goats
running around the street. All Of the
homes in town are built out to the
sidewalk and they CO. straight up.
There are lots of pretty girls here