Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-02-05
NEWS FROM E. p. OERTEL

The following letter was received
by the Pilot yesterday from E. P.
Oertel. and will be read with much
interest by his many Wausau friends;
Dear Editor:
1 am receiving the Pilot regularly
each week, and l must admit that had
| not received your paper | would
never have been at ease all this while
as to the folks back home, because
there is nothing that can take the
| place of news from home" whether
you be in an army camp or elsewhere.
So long as / have written the above,
I might add some of my experiences
while | have been here and since
enlisted to help Uncle Sam keep this
Glorious Country the garden spot of
the world. So much has been written
| on this subject, and it may not interest
all the readers of the Pilot, but will
| a few.
Glenn Helling and Reno Kurth en-
listed the same time L did, but we
have parted. They were first sent to
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and |
to Camp Grant at Rockford. Mr..
Helling is now stationed at Camp Gus
ter, Michigan, and l have not heard
the definite assignment of Mr.. Kurth.
1 have not heard of a better Camp
| than Camp Grant
Without question your readers have
| read considerable in the various news
papers regarding Senator Chamber
lain's So-called revelations concern
ing military conditions in the various
| cantonments. | would like to give
the following facts which will con-
vince the friends and relatives of the
| soldiers in Wausau that Camp Grant
is the Camp and the soldiers are per-
fectly well and safe From the var
ious papers which find their way into
| the Camp l have made note of these
| figures. The death rate in this Camp
| is one in two thousand. $500 soldiers
have been here since August %, 1917
| and we have had but twenty-three
deaths. About $4,000 Selected Men
and only twelve deaths have been re-
| corded-three from appendicitis, six
from pneumonia, one from a disease
contracted in civil life and two from
| alcoholism from which they were suf-
fering when they detrained on Deem
Der 21st. The average admission to
| all Camp Hospitals. was IVA Camp
Grants was only 40. Conditions in
| the hospital will speak for themselves.
OF the $4,000 men in Camp there are
| approximately only no patients in the
| Base Hospital. 1t contains 1850 beds
We have IS Medical Officers, some
| of them are world famed specialists
| There are seventy women nurses and
| three hundred enlisted men to care for
the sick. You will agree with me
when l say that if l am booked to be
! sick there is no better place than right
| here at Camp Grant, where every IA
| cility to care for a man is in absolute
| first class order.
| Certainly the above is a remarkable
! showing.
The training 1 am getting here is
| going to do me world of good In
| fact, it has already and without ques-
| ton is going to add ten years to my
| life or take it all, willingly given for
the good of the cause. We are only
| too willing and anxious to prove our
| loyalty to our country, and it is the
| ambition of every man here to have
chance to prove that loyalty by de-
tending the rights of his government.
| l have been assigned to the 341st
Infantry, assisting the Regimental
Supply Sergeant-E. E. Harrison, and
| like my work very we'll My ambition
is and before long l hope to be hon
ored with a position that carries the
stripes, for it's the stripes on a mans
| arm that prove his advancement.
| [ see considerable of the Wausau
boys. They are all feeling fine, and
it makes me feel very much at home
when we get together for a chat.
want to say a word about the
splendid work being done in this
Camp by the Army Y: NJ c. A. and
the Knights of Columbus. Both these
organizations deserve the life long
honor and respect of the Nation. l do
not know what the boys at Camp
would do without them.
trust this note finds you as we'll
| and happy as it leaves me.
E. P. OERTEL,
First Glass Private,
341st Infantry-Supply Company,
Camp Grant, Ill.