Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-01-24

ever, can say this much, that
have not been sick a minute
since l came on board; that
have not missed a meal or wink
of sleep and have been for duty
every minute of the time. My du-
ties as Adjutant have kept me on
the jump, especially during three
days OF very rough sea, when
practically every man aboard was
too sick to raise his head out OF
his own vomit. Our ship is the
smallest of the entire convoy and
rolls great deal, making the rid
ing very rough and the footing
very unsteady for a LAND lubber''
without sea legs"
OF course the Navy is in charge
of all these troop movements and
everything is done secretly, even
TO leaving the U. S. A. A great
deal OF the paper news about pre-
cautions on board, etc, are very
true. such as running without
lights, camouflage Of boats, etc.
Johnny and Fritz have been
sick most of the time, and Elder
was sick one afternoon.
We have no orders as to our
destination or the work we will
be started in on. but as | wrote
you before. l am of the opinion
that we will begin on cantonment
construction or something of that
kind. AS you may know, there
are probably - American
troops in France right now, and
more going all the while, and that
country is SO war worn and i'm
poverished that accommodations
for our men must be built before
many more can he taken care of.
We must also construct factories
in which to assemble our war
planes, artillery, trucks, tractors,
tanks, Liberty motors, etc, as
they are shipped knocked down. !"
l think that all of the 4tst div
ision will be with us before long,
but that, you understand, is just
my guess, as such matters are
necessarily kept very secret.
Until today l have not had an
office, but after considerable
diplomacy and "politicing" l have
arranged with the commander to
give me a cubby-hole which
have rebuilt into an office. There
is so much detail work, so many
reports and assignments, ETC.,
that | have been very much han
dicapped for place to work and
keep records.
Conditions as to life boat drill,
mess, exercise, bathing, etc,
aboard ship are very much as
stated in the magazines. surely
could write you some very inter
esting things about it, but such
things, as the DIRTY Dutch" say
it, are "verboten."
My roommate, Major Coe of
Duluth, anlOfficers Reserve Corps
man, has been appointed as
chairman Of the ships board OF
censors. Practically all the Of
ficers aboard, himself included,
are graduate engineers, electrical,
chemical, mechanical, construc-
i've, civil. ETC., so we Idaho Off
GERS are about the only ones who
are not specialists in this line of
work.
If you want to know why this is
so disconnected and disjointed,
will have to confess that / have
been all day writing it, and will
probably not finish it for another
day or two. have had to clear
the typewriter no less than twenty
times since starting it because OF
one interruption and another.
have been quite fortunate in
my acquaintance with the ships
officers, from whom 1 have
learned many interesting details
regarding the handling of the
ships, precautions against sub
marine attacks, etc. 1t has been
a part of my duty to make the as
signments to the life boats, and
of course, as the papers state, we
have daily drills in the practice
OF assembling abandon Ship
etc. have learned quite q few
nautical terms, SO | generally I'M
derstand what The sailors are
talking about.
There is one consolation about
the whole situation and that is
the return voyage, we hope, will
be under better conditions. Ac-
commodations will be better and
precautions against the sub un-
necessary. Fred has figured it out
that he will return by way of ST.
IBERIA and Alaska, walking down
the western coast TO the good old
y. S. A. He calculates that Ber
ing Strait, which separates Siber-
ia from Alaska, furnishes the
shortest sea route between the