Arizona republican., 1918-07-28
H|S
 VEHICLE WHILE
 HE FIGHTS HUN
Director of Transport InI Striking Letter Tells
 About Labors--Hauls New
 and Broken Guns By Ton

Sitting back in the tonneau of a | friends car one may appreciate what the motor means to modern man kl peace but one does not appreciate what it means in war. Captain Charles c. Percival writes an interesting letter home to tell of riding in limousines. commandeered for service, while di- recting a trip of half a hundred great trucks which were each hauling three tons of arms-yes, three tons of rifles to the load, 150 tons altogether which at l2 pounds to the rifle means 25.5O0 individual weapons. He took the good guns up by the ton and hauled the broken and discarded ones back for reclamation-also by the ton directing operations from limousine which may have at some time served as my ladys carriage and the dust-but why antici- pate. let Captain Percival tell his own story:
 T am at Advance Ordnance Base No. 1, only a few hours from the front We have wonderful warehouses; shops. railroad systems, etc. Thousands of motor trucks are in constant use.
 We receive every hour truckloads and trainlOads of all sorts of salvage picked upon the battlefields, horse shoes, cantaens, cannon, machine guns. revolvers, rifles, daggers, bayonets and the Lord knows what more including leather and canvass goods and all the rest of the stuff that a fighting army of half million or more men leave behind them. To the list also may be added bicycles. motorcycles. passenger autos, trucks and locomotives These we either junk or repair. We take three broken bicycles and make one We take the rifles all apart and re- assemble them. And it's the same way with machine guns. etc.
 We get everything that the mobile repair shops cannot fix on the spot. The stuff we cannot use we send 1 further back to other depots near the ocean. where it is worked over again or melted down. We send out hundreds of cannon and machine guns every day and rifles and revovers by the thous- ands.
 T am convoy officer now. Have been two weeks in the shop learning the machine guns and small artillery. Last week l conveyed. l. e.. took charge of. 90 big Packard trucks up to the iioHt. I>dcil Ollc CdTTleU us IulI three tons of arms. We made the trip at night and brought salvage back We hadn't had any rain for three weeks and the roads. which are of white lime stone. were some dusty and the dust coated us at least half an inch. I had two fine Winton limousines on the trir and rode in one of them. But it didn't do mo much good, because I had to get out so often at the different crossroads to find the right way. We averaged fifteen miles an hour and covered al told ninety miles on the round trip ir
 twelve hours. Had no sleep for 2. hours straight.
 We have as high as 5000 trucks or
 hand just now-have sent out 300 il
 the last 24 hours loaded with all sort.
 of stuff. We expect to send that man,
 over the road every day.
 By the time I get through here will know the make of every firearn in the world and be able to take then all apart and repair them. Our worl
 also includes the salvage and repair O
 gas masks, grenades, trench daggers clubs. motors, rangefinders. periscopes
 airplanes and balloons. It's some de partment storei
 T hope to get crack at the tank
 some day. They figure to put ever,
 officer into every department so tha
 later we can jump in anywhere an,
 make good.