Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-04-18
COLONEL DURHAM HAS FINE LETTER
FKOM HIS son, ON DUTY WITH ARMY
ENGINEERS SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE

The thrills of trip through the
submarine zone on an American
army transport and the life of our
troops in training billets behind
the lines in France are described
by Second Lieutenant John B. Dur
ham, American expeditionary force.
in two letters which were recently
received by his father, Colonel C.
W. Durham, assistant chief engin-
eer at the United States engineers
office.
/ The first letter was written at
sea on March %. one day before
landing at a French port, and the
other was dated two days later and
was written at a large training
{ camp Tor American engineer regi-
/ ments, somewhere in France. 1"
/ The letters, which are full of the
spirit of optimism, characteristic
of our troops in active service, are
as follows:
AT Sea.-Dear Dad: This is the
last night after spending about If
teen days on the ocean, and land
will be a queer and welcome sight
after gazing off into space for so
long a time.
We are proceeding through a
hornets nest at the present writ
ing, but we are amply protected. l
take 1t, by about fifteen destroyers.
when those little boats appeared
over the horizon at the appointed
place and at precisely the appoint
ed time, it was a sight that made
an impression. When they arrived
on the scene just outside the zone,
our cruiser that brought US most
OF the way over turned back from
whence she came and disappeared.
Ours is one of the largest con-
vOys that has come over so far, |
hear, but today We split up and
some are going to land at one port
and some at another. Tomorrow we
will be in sight of land. We haven't
encountered any very rough wealth
er except the first few days out
when everybody most got seasick
l had to suck a lemon, though, to
escape the ailment
For the love of Mike. write me
: all the news and write often al
though you do not hear from me
Something tells me l am going tC
be pretty busy from now on, and ]
may not have much chance to write
and some of my letters may be
thrown out by the censor and ]
wouldn't know anything about it.
. I can't date my letters or mention
places, etc, and about all we are
allowed to write is hello and
goodbye but some time I'll tel
you all about it. We had a nice
. exciting time with a little some
thing that stuck out of the water
just before we entered the danger
, zone, but it didn't take our boys
long to put it out of sight. I'll be
J glad to shed this life preserver. pis-
toll and canteen, which we have tC
wear continuously, even il it is tC
, put on a pack in its place. We have
: a fine bunch of black boys and they
are going to make good soldiers
, which was clearly demonstrated
when comparison was made be-
tween our troops and some Others
= that happen to be aboard during
: something that happened here. The,
/ rely more upon the Judgment o
their officers and are more inclin
D ed to obey orders promptly. neve,
e knew how big they were until
saw them alongside of other troops
o We must have at least 400 that over
;, top the six-foot mark, and Their
are no small ones at all. None o
d them like this method of travel an,
:, huddle around in all corners of tn
l. ship like blackbirds I have seel
o more funny things happen on thi
I. ship down in the mess hall whel
:. the sea was rough. I have ha'
charge of the mess all the wa
o lover. the other officers having var
T.. ious duties also. and all of US hav
been working in conjunction wit