The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-08-29
Letters From and About Soldiers

Mrs. A. T. Lautefbach. has TWO sons
Ben Z. and John F.. IN service IN
France. 1 The former IS d member II
the 42nd regiment OF engineers, while
John Lauter5ach IS chief gunner u a
battery manning antl-alr craft guns
In letter TO his mother Ben Lauter-
bach saws that one Of the things that IS
interesting the doughboys most ~
France now of course their enthusl-
asm IN work that Mill tx them for ad-
ministerinc caStlgauOn 10 the nun
comes first ~ Is the French orphan
Hundreds of little boys and gIrls, LETT
bv the great var without parents. are
being adopted by contlngents Of Amer
lean troops. one balloon company mas
attopted sin of the younsterS, and Ar.
Lauterbach's company of engineers has
appropriated a part of their pay Tor
the maintenance and education OF an
other half dozen Of the homeless WAITS.
Mr.. L.auterbach sent his mother a
COPY of The Stars and Stripes, the
official organ of the eXpedltonary
forces, containing the following article
on adoption of orphans
The balloOnists We're flying high
again this week. The atmosphere was
clear and the orphan visibility excel
| lent
1.-The officers of one balloon squad
ron. already materially represented by
the enlisted men, requested one or
phaned child of France to father for a
wear, and a balloon company sent in
B. 900 francs for SIX. Yep, slX and
( it's record. In fact. the nervy APP
I pendants of the saCsages, 10y their hb-
eral adoptions this week. broke two
records.
First, they take all honors for the
largest number Of child mascots adcp pit
ed bv a single unit of the size of a
company, squadron, detachment and
the like. A few infantry companies
and aero squadrons are fatherng five
orphans. but the Balloon company,
formerly Company A. Balloon Squad
ron, of A. z. Q. III, is the first t.
take SIX. And. as the strength Of a
balloon company is much less than that
of company Of infantry, for Nuisance,
the individual contribution was proper
tionately heavy. 1t was equivalent tc
a good days pay in the IT, 5. A. avant
al guerre and several dasy pay in the
army.
"Second, the balloon service. as I
whole, by virtue of this week s adop
tion, leads all the other man branches
of the A. f. f. in the number of chill
dren adopted in proportion to its mem
bership,
"The roll of Stars and Stripes par
rains contains the names of 26 children
who will te supported for d year by
the balloon men.
/" # here isn't anybody named Rock
efeller or Carnegie or Morgan on oul
rolls who might have played the an
gel, wrote the spokesman for the bal
loon company. The deal has beer
financed by nobody except crowd 0.
average (which means. of course, higl
class aye ee etfers, but just th'
same we set the record for the aye ct
eff.
We're not at all fussy about tn,
ages, names or color Of the six adopted
children. The only specifications W,
make are that they shall be split 50.5'
three boys and three girls and tha
their names shan't be too dlftlcult be
cause we have as mascots now tw
dimnutive French foxes captureC
someW here in the wilds of the S. O. S
and they are going to be hOnored b.
being named after two OF our young
sters. Of course, we can t name a 70,
Lucille Cecilia Madeline or Castor
Claude St. Cyr Something short anC
snappy is whatswe want.
'Outside of the activities of the air
men, it was quiet week for the or
phans numerically, at least TIT
adoptions numbered Ia, which ran thu
total of the A. f. f. family of mas
cots up to $40. But there were
couple Of adoptions out of the ordin
ary.
" Enclosed, said Company A, En-
gineers, in brief penciled note, i
1000 francs for the care of two Frenc
orphans. This il being sent Just O
the eve Of our entrance into battle; w
will write more in detail later.
Another fortunate little chill,
gained "a very distinguished godfather
He was given the CroiX de Guerre fo
heroic work in an American ambulance
unit at Verdun, and he won the d.
G, few weeks ago when, althoug
wounded shell had wrecked hi
ambulance, and later gassed, he re
fused to stop his work of succoring tn
wounded He was in the hospital an
received the decoration few days ag
and, just to observe the occasion, cor
tfibuted 500 francs for an orphan.
Credit it to my mother, he II
structed, and list it as "Pawhuska
~