Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-10-03
DISSEMINATING MEN
IS A MONSTER TASK
Record Time Made In Landing
SO, Soldiers and Get
ting Them to Camp.

American Port. WcsteYn France. ttl
mat'.-Loue lines of kai,ii. ci.ld ,ner
'Eat embarked from American trans
tports and nov On Sic WAY Ia ti,ci,
NrSt camp. packed The streets from
cur, to curl, and stretched away fol
mics. 1t WAS four miles ard up hi.
"noat OF the WaN-tiarou.li city. suburbs
"hd country lanes, from the sea front
30 the great reception ramp LOCATED
outside III" town, one Of the iarges,
amps in The world add capable oi
airing Tor ilc population Of Il metro
i'ofisan city. Hour after hour from &
~ the morning until late in the after
moon the steady tramp OF marching
thousands had been Going GA. for this
.'tcady stream is lsle arms OF 81. 00O
l'lst arrived on IL American transports,
making the record deharkfnert from
''i1ii, to ann within 1. hours.
with Major y, the engineer officer
81 the camp, VIC Slirtcd alongside this
moving stream. from The landing TO the
amp, n had an opportunity or seeing
"ach stage I'm the huge movement up
20 the time the tired msrchers pitched
heir shelter tents on The soaked
grounds and crawled inside Ia sleep.
STIRRING as ii was TO sec these men
t'olne tn swell the million men in the
American ranks. yet there was a grim
aess and Erayncss 10 the scene sr..-
.sestins the stern reality of war.
a STEADY downpour swept GRO the
faiikS n the men were dripping as
hey trudgcd through the rain soaked
mud. The. were AT route step. without
ne regularity OF parading troops. and
%acil man carried. beside his rifle. all
MS belongings on his hack. 20 pounds
OF tent, blankets, clothing, Shoes. and
All the miscellaneous equipment OF a
soldier headed for the front. Their
'ast camp was in the we'll equipped
c~antOninents in the United States,
where they slept ON cots and had II
semblance of modern comfort. Now
,hey were on the VAL swept soil OF
france and had seen the last OF cots
and comforts. 1t was their first glimpse
ei real war conditions. II anyone who
says IL is cheerful shuts his eyes 10
The Erimness OF war.
There are more troops arriving"
said the major as he led the way, than
The total strength OF the United States
army a short time ago And with
very elastic camp. capable of immedi-
ate expansion from 1000 up TO Toe, 900
men"
The major was we'll qualified to ex-
plain the magnitude of the work. for
ne had been chief constructing enei-
neer of the New York subway system.
.iad planned and built 4 good part Of
~st0 Atu lllfNIS INC DC)uil.
ton figures on which subway consrruc-
ton was based.
"To get a. idea of the camp" he
said. compare 1t with Central park.
We 1--we $500 acres here, Central
park q 500 acres. Why. the entire
ares Of New York city on Manhattan
On both, sides OF the road, for mile
after mile as we sped along in an army
q city OF tents was rising and
there was h hum and hustle Of camp
activity on a vast scale. This morn
ing all the ground had been stubble
fielo from the newly cut wheat and
But now every available foot
was being laid OFF by the army engi-
neers. working with tripods and in
like a party OF surveyors.
Tented streets and avenues. headquar-
ters tents. mess. kitchen and hospital
tents. and vast parks for supplies and
Fields and spreading Tor 40 square
miles over this huge enclosure.
Never Modest Growing Grain.
We never take a field Of growing
grain" said the major. but as fast as
che grain is cut we take over the fields.
'tttu with harvest time well advanced
this entire farming section will soon be
into an American camp"
In one of the fields where we stOpped
= - Az VI OVV
each just marched in and were
to pitch their tents. The
great stretch Of plowed ground, just
cleared Of grain. raj rain soaked, and
the storm had set in for the night. The
men stood ready, each with a half of a
shelter tent. to drive the stakes ana
last It against the elements, and then
crawl IN. 1t seemed IN endless wait
For all the formalities Of laying out the
CAMP with engineering ~exactness. yet
MI of this was essential to the smooth
OF such q largo concern. At
last the stakes were driven and soon
lie great field was dotted with thou
MS a mana waist; called pup
Ients" by tho soldiers probably be-
rause they look like dog houses. I'm
Ter tho tent there Is just room for two
lying down, and II the ground is
Soaked, as 1t Is tonight, the rubber
keeps q some of the water
and kindly nature and the iron OF
youth paust do tho rest.
This was only n typical camp OF
The hundreds lining h eiroads for miles
this yaxt reception camp. Field
Kitchens n water carts were Wheel
aug mp to all the camps 40 the tents
up. Filtered water Ia brought
IN hp6oheads and each command has
- apportioned lot Of hogsheads. Later
1N.theFe WAN be- q sptendid sayptan OF
sYatsr mains Tor The Whole Camp. nut
hxeoaefe the men. and a water system
y MT n talled In q day. On insAoad
awaiting f~oyss13sinch mains. tho prim.
five hogshsadS n filling tho gap. Each
nan caErlee hts emergency ration TOR
lhkoo days. Come Of them were nib
ylnG II befot0 climbing into their pup
tentss but m0et o6 thssn waited for the
ainokyne field Kitchen 20 get into ac-
With ~ cooks. serving out hot
o. feeding IN army with precision
4 In itself d gigantic task.
8jssfWH served l.9o0.000 meals last
Snthss' sald Major =. ''or 100000 army