Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-05-28
RAY, J. REISER TRANSFERRED
FROM Z. S. S. KANAWHA TO
ARMED DRAFT DETAIL,
NAVY YARD

This week we publish letter from
Raymond J. Reiser, former Wausau
boy, who has been transferred from
the U. S. S. Kanawha, to the Armed
Draft Detail, Navy Yard, New York.
Mr.. Reiser's life on the U. s. S.
Kanawha, has been most interesting,
and filled with many exciting eXper-
fences, as many Pilot readers will re-
member from letters written by him
and published in this paper.
ARMED Draft Detail, Navy Yard,
New York, City Park Barracks,
Executive Office, May %, 1918.
| have been transferred from the
u. S. S. KanaWha, and am now sta
toned in New York at the Armed Draft
Detail, Navy Yard. By Armed Draft
we mean the naval crews that are
placed on the armed merchant ships
to mann their guns. We have about 8
thousand men in this detail at the
present time, and all their records,
accounts, etc, are handled through
this office. The armed guard make
two round trips and then are sent
back here, and new crew is placed
on board. We have about three thous-
and men in the barracks all OF the
time, and we expect to add quite a
number of more men, as the electrical
class which is quartered here in the
barracks also, is to be moved to Nor
folk, Va, next week and that will
make room for about three thousand
more men. The barracks are located
in Brooklyn in City Park and are just
across the street from the Flush
ing Avenue, side of the Navy
Yard. My york here is in the
executive office and am the court
martial yeoman. l have charge OF
the writing of all specifications and
court proceedings of all courts mar
tial, and have a crowd of yeomer
working under me, who do nothing
but this kind of work, and work it is
to be sure, as there are some pretty
tough propositions, who do not care
whether school keeps or not, o1
whether they are shot tomorrow ol
the next day. There is a Summary
| Court martial in session nearly all o.
the time. The work is very interest
| ing and very complicated as every
detail of the trial must be perfect anC
in accordance with the forms of pro
cedure for Naval Courts and boards
| and Just one little mistake in techn1c
ality will cause the case to be throw
out or a revision of the trial ordered
| expect to be in New York for ;
long time, and am afraid that it will
be some time again before will b.
able to go through some of my forme
experiences of my career in the Navy
Yeomen are a scarce article in tn
Navy now and they are hard to OBJ
tain. | have been trying to get tw
stenographers detailed to this offic
for the past two weeks, and have me
with no success so far, so am force
to help the rest get their work ou
as we'll as my own.
New York is still as lively as ever
and when one gets down town abou
all he can see is parade after parade
Last Saturday afternoon they had tn
big Red Cross parade. 1t passed tn
4 reviewing stand at p. m. Dresden
Wilson was in the stand) and the en-
of the parade had not passed tn
stand at $50 p. M, at which time
left. From this you can get an ide
of the enormous size of the parade
The Red Cross people have collecte
subscriptions amounting to more tina
three millions of dollars in New YOr
City already and the drive is not owe
until the end of this week.
| was very much surprised tn
other evening at a dinner that l wa
invited to, at the home of a cousin {
mine in down town New York, to me,
a former Wausau young lady, who VIZ
in High school about the time | wa
This young lady proved to be EleanC
Benson, who is teaching here in IL
5 city and doing settlement work. ST
seems to be of the same opinion {
5 I am, that there is no place like Ne
2 York and seems to be very favorab
S impressed with this large city.
:, called her On the phone one eyeniI
e afterward and she informed me tn
she had met Morris O'Brien and Dc
: Morrison on Fifth Ave-, on the ds
e previous. There is another Wause
5 boy in the Naval Service here in Ne
York, Wells Turner. He is over {
e Staten Island, and / intend lookiI
J, him up in the near future. Mi
: Genevieve Edmonds was in New Yo
a short time ago and spent the di
with Miss Benson, so you see g
though Wausau is small pla
d it is well represented throughout I
s country nevertheless.
IS Well / must close now. extendil
IT nv regards to my Wausau frient
y and would ask you to have my addre
E, changed, that the Pilot win reach I
3. here