Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-07-13
With Islanders
NOuU in Service

Mr.. and Mrs. Gustav Budelier,
1920 Seventeenth street, received
word yesterday from their son,
Lieutenant G. J. Budelier. telling
that he had arrived safely in
France. Another son, Private Har-
ry Budelier, is attending the Off
GERS training school at Camp Tay-
Tor, Ga.
Arthur Thordsen, 100 Twenty
ninth street, has reported for train
ing at the Great Lakes naval sta
ton at Lake Bluff, Ill. He enlist
ed July s. Mrs. Thordsen will re-
main at the same address.
Yesterday we witnessed our
first air battle writes William Don
Jones, former Rock Island high
school youth now with the United
States engineers in France. THE
fight lasted about Is minutes and
, then the enemy plane fell, a mass
of flames. 1t came to earth very
close. and We had an opportunity
to see our first dead Germans"
Enlisting here early in the war.
Jones spent several months in
/ training camps in the south. Writ
ten from Somewhere in France
his letter proves interesting. He
says in part:
We are at present attached to
the British forces, but will be with
them for only a month or so. On
the night of our arrival at our
hnahn drnnnnh
two bombs very near TO us, so you
see we were initiated into the reali-
ties of war right away. Being at
the front we of course see quite a
few boche planes, but yesterday we
witnessed our first air battle.
There were two men, one pilot
and one observer The pilot was
riddled with machine gun bullets
and the fall had broken almost ev-
cry bone in his body. His skull
was broken, but the observer was
whole, although his neck was brok-
en-. The machine was broken, bent
and burned. and was a total wreck.
"As for the country. In general
| must say that il is unusually
quiet and not at all unlike farm
life in the United States. There are
quite a few Chinese here doing I'M
skilled labor, though the bulk Of
fighting men are made up of French,
British Americans and British Aus
tralians. At present a famous
French regiment is stationed near
u.s."
Cards have been received an
nouncing that Fred r. Atkinson,
1902 Seventeenth street, who is in
the engineer corps. has arrived
safely overseas.
Mrs. J. c. ChansIy, sol Twelfth
street, Rock Island, has received a
letter from her son, Private Roy
Chansky, who has just arrived to
join the American expeditionary
! forces over there. Private Chansky
gives a good description of life on
a troop transport. He states that
the boat on which he sailed was IN
charge of a British crew and that
When in the hull of the vessel he
I imagined he was in a hotel He
says that the gangway on the upper
deck is like a race track and that
four and a half times around the
gangway is one mile. The men
were drilled on the upper deck ev-
cry day to keep them in a healthy
condition.
Not a submarine was seen on the
trip according to Private Chansky.
who states that the ships gunners
have the credit of sinking several
of the under-sea boats, and are at
all times anxious to try their Prov
ess with the big guns. The boat is
said to have made on an average Of
twenty to twenty-five miles an hour
throughout the trip.
The troops, he says, were slightly
seasick at first. condition that did
not last long as the big boat did not
rock much.
Private Chansky states that his