Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1918-12-27

record as { is one way of distinguish
| ing several men with exactly the
same name, OF which we have thou
sands OF cases, No report or cores
pondence of any kind is used in con-
nection with a soldier unless 1t bears
his number, so our work is to nave a
complete record of every man in the
A. Il. +. showing his correct number.
We also get our record from the
| Passenger Lists and if il fails TO give
his number. which in many cases it
does, we have to resort to other
means of securing 1t. We have
| thousands OF cases where one man
| has been assigned two numbers in
| error and also where two different
| men have been given the same num-
| Der, and ii is up to MS TO straighten
| these all out and III tell you we
| have no small job on our hands
either. All spondence regard
| ing a man S number comes direct to
this section and is answered by us.
When we were working at full blast
| it required about 50 people to keep
up with the work, but at the present
time things are not so busy We
now have about 1900 men and 500
English girls in the G. r. o., so you
can see it's a pretty busy place. Some
people think that the boys in the
S o. S. have it pretty soft. but such
is not the case. We are up at day
light every morning and re going
till late at night. | am sure there
are very few of the boys here but
what would rather be out of it than
in it. if they had their say
think | have given you a fair
idea of our organization and just
what we are doing, so will now tell
you of some Of my experiences and
some of the places | have been.
Money could not buy my 0 months
service in France as | have learned
great deal and | have had some eX-
periences never to be forgotten, and
am sure that when | get back home
in all it will be worth a great deal
to me in years to come.
We were in Camp Merritt New
York, just six days before sailing
just long enough to get our full
equipment. One day the orders came
to pack up and be ready to go at
any time and we left camp the fol-
lowing morning at 500 o'clock on a
special train for Hoboken harbOr,
where our boat was waiting for us.
We went on board at about 200 in
the afternoon. 1t was a very large
boat, called the President Grant, ac-
commodating 5000 soldiers. l don't
mean accommodating, for we were
packed in like sardines in can.
was on the third floor below the
main deck. They had hunks made
all over-three Highland there was
hardly room to turn around. They
We're certainly using all available
space when they made it into a
transport We were on board Isl
days, and it was anything but an en-
joyable trip.
We pulled out INTO New York har-
bar that night and lay at anchor I'M
til the following night. When we
awOke the next morning we were far
out at sea. And from then on for
six days | was so sick didn't know
what took place and didn't care very
much When | finally got over my
seasickness the rest of the journey
wasn't so bad, as we were allowed
out on deck land could get a breath
of fresh air occasionally. From the
very day we set sail we were all as
signed to life RATS and had drill
every morning. When we reached
the submarine zone no one was al
lowed to take off his clothing and we
had to sleep with our life belts
strapped on. This was about four
days before we landed.
In the day time everyone was on
deck with eyes on the lookout for
submarines. We got up every morn
ing before day light and stood by our
RATS till after sun up, as early in the
| morning or in the evening is gener-
ally when they do their work. And
1t really wasn't a very pleasant SEN
satiOn standing ready to jump over
board any moment in case we were
hit and all the time expecting some
thing to happen, and at that time of
year the sea was rough and the water
cold and it didn't look at all inviting.
| We would stand there for an hour
| and half every morning, no one al
| lowed to speak a word, and | guess
| most of that time everyone was
| thinking of Aome-I am sure | was.
II you remember just before we
| sailed transport was sunk, so we
| were all on the lookout for some
| thing, but they took every precau-
| ton to avoid calamity. And at no
time during the trip was a light al
| lowed to show. They wouldn't even
| allow the men to have matches
| they were all taken away from us,
also all watches with Illuminated
| faces. This may sound ridiculous to
| you, but nevertheless it was carried
| out. There were eight boats in our
| fleet besides the one we were on
and the battleship which was with us
for protection. We had no torpedo
destroyers or submarine chasers I'M
| til we reached the submarine zone,
which was about four days out from
| land.
In case submarine was sighted
the boats were all to blow their whis-
ties, and it finally came one even
ing Unexpectedly. At about 500
O'Clock, just before shutdown, we
were all out on deck, some reading
and some writing, when all of a sud
den the whistles all began to blow
and every gun on every boat haoan