Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-05

MarysviIle, Pa, July 5.-Of the
! slightly less than one hundred
Marysville parents who have given
sons to Uncle Sam, Albert B. Palm
er of Myrtle avenue, is one of the
few Marysville parents with two
sons in active service.
One son, Sergeant Robert P.
Palmer, after serving with the regu-
lar army for four years, is now in an
officers training camp iTf faraway
Honolulu, and another son, w. Fos-
ter Palmer, is serving with the
American Expeditionary Forces
along the French battle front.
Robert enlisted with the United
States Regular Army early in 1914
and since that time he has been
located at Schofield Barracks, Homo
lulu. Palmer has been attached. dur
ing the past severay yearseto the First
United States Infantry, serving with
the Machine Gun Battalion, in
which he has risen to the rank of
a sergeant.
Recently, when the demand for
more officers to command the grow
ing United States Army came, it
was decided to select 142 men from
the first regiment of approximately
$500 men, Palmer was one of this
small number chosen for general
proficiency in drill work, etc., to re-
ceive instruction in an officers train
ing camp to be located at Schofield
Barracks in Honolul, where he is
now in training. The remainder of
the regiment has been moved to the
states.
w. Foster Palmer, the other
brother, is serving with Company
B, Fifth Field Artillery, along the
~, 10,
err at that time a member of the
clerical force of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, in its Marysville yards, en-
listed shortly afters the declaration
of war against Germany. He was a
member of the Marysville Dauphin-
Perry League baseball team and dur
ing one year, was captain of the
team. He is a graduate of the
Marysville High School. Glass of
1910. He is having some thrilling
experiences along the line. Recently
he was appointed clerk by the cap
tain of his battery. He says his
office is directly between two of the
battery guns.
In a recent letter, he tells of how,
the American troops had taken
quite a bit of land from Germany,
saying: 'I am not afraid to bet
that the Boche thought hell had
broken loose. The enemy was push
ed back quite piece and our troops
also captured large number of pri-
soners."
Yesterday afternoon" he con-
tinues in another part of the letter,
''The Germans tried to get back the
land they lost in the morning and
opened up on us full force. Our
captain came out to see the gun pits
and yelled to the men at the guns:
Give them hell; the Boche are COM
ing over the top and that is all that
was needed. You should have seen
our fellows ramming shells home in
the guns and seading them over to
the Boche. Every gun around this
neck of the woods was shooting as
fast as shells could be put in them
and there surely was some noise.
II had cotton in my ears, because
the noise and concussion of the guns
firing nearly burst my ear drums,
At that it was music and several of
us sat up on the bank along side of
our guns to watch the different bat
teries firing and, also to watch the
French airplanes flying around TAX
ing in the sights over the German
lines and directing the fire of differ
ent batteries around here.
After we got started firing the
Boche artillery did not send very
many shells this way or we would not
have been allowed to sit up on the
bank and take in the sights we did"
A letter received several days pre-
vious to the one above quoted, con-
tains the following excerpts:
II feel sort of grouchy to-day as
the Germans chased us out of bed
this morning at 4 o'clock, by shoot
ing hell out of this place and most
of 1t was gas, too, at that. 1 hap
pened to get awake this morning
and my eyes, nose and throat were
burning like blazes.. The fellows had
been digging all yesterday in our
dugout, so at first I thought it was
the dust of the chalk-like stones
they were digging in. ! rolled over
and took another big Whit and could
hardly get my breath. yelled at
the other five fellows to get up and
made a grandstand dive to get in
to my gas mask. Until 1 got my
mask on the tears were running out
Of my eyes in streams and my nose
was trying to keep pace with my
eyes, and my throat burned like fire
all the way down. The gas guard
was not on the job and the gas
caught us all asleep, but fortunately
nothing serious came out of it. This
no lot of