Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1918-05-02
Robertson Has
Ride in ank
Trench Digging Monotony is
Varied by Seeing Sights
at Washington
Quantico. Va. April 20, 1918.

0uoAG1SOS o. "A pI1I ALy 1Slo.
My Dear Mother-It is just eleven
months today since arrived in Nor
folk, Va, and began training. have
often thought since of the number of
things that have happened since then
and of how much l have seen. The
time has gone quickly and although
civilian life seems rather vague now,
it doesn't seem to me that have
been in the service almost a year.
Your letter and others came the mid
die of last week, and 1 realize that l
have been little long in answering.
l am we'll though, and hope that you
and the others are all the same. The
last week has been the hardest have
had since coming into the marine
corps and we can expect lots of work
from now on. They have a regular
line of trenches here just like those
in France and it has rained so much
here this spring that they have all
caved in and we have been in the mud
and water fixing them up. We had
them in pretty fair shape Saturday,
but it rained all day Saturday and
Sunday and they are all full of water
again and we have been all day get
ting the water out of them, wading
in water over cur shoe tops. We have
lots of good hot water in the baths
here though and we would rather by
far be doing this than to be on ship.
board.
Last week General Pershing sent
message over stating that he did not
want any more marines in France.
The officers of the marine corps were
pretty we'll riled up about it, 30 had
meeting in Washington to know
why AS a result of that Pershing
has asked for two more regiments.
We expect to be in either of them,
but we do not know for sure. We
are all hoping so at any rate, / am
the only Manchester fellow left here
| in this Company. We have gradual
ly split up since coming here until I
am the only one lett. We have only
thirty privates in our company, where
there were sixty-four when we left
the ship. Four of the fellows left
for France this morning, they had
been transferred to a replacement;
company. Some time ago we awoke
at reville and heard the band play
inn, "Good Bye Broadway, Hello
France and knew they were on
their way yesterday.
was in Washington, having gone
up Saturday noon. had the best
time and saw more things of interest
than at any time since l enlisted. I
spent Sunday with Ed Donovan.
Saturday afternoon | spent most of
the time going through tie capitol
and that surely is wonderful sight.
also visited the Chamber of the
House of Representatives and heard
the afternoon debates, Then Sunday
the British war tank, which is in this
country had a demonstration in one of
the parks and Ed. and went to see
that. You will no doubt see some
thing about it in the papers for it is
wonderful thing 1t ran against
trees that were eighteen inches
through and never slapped, but broke
them all off at the roots and went
right over them. l was near the
tank all the time and had short rid
in it. The Italian airplane which
weighs three tons and carries eleven
men and ton of bombs was flying
over the city most of the afternoon
dropping liberty bells, the whole affair
was for the purpose of selling liberty
bonds. 1t was the most won derful
demonstration that ever saw Il have
never seen anything that impressed me
az the tank did The tank weighed
twenty tons, but is one of the smaller
types as the largest ones weigh fortye
five tons. | would like to make trip
to Washington every Saturday as
there is so much to see there. Ed
Donovan and some of his friends are.
coming down here Saturday to look
the camp over. I am going to start a
course in bayonet fighting tomorrow,
which will last ten days. l was glad
to hear that you are all very we'll.
Your Loving Son,
Alex. Robertson,
Quantico, Va.