Evening star., 1918-06-16
THE AMERICAN ARMY
IN FRANCE, June s.

IN FRANCE, June s.
~ LIMY trenches with mud to the
~ knee. No flag or color flying.
n The soft breeze rolling up
W from no mans land laden
with gas and death The sky shaking
with the burst of heavy shells and
the earth twisting and squirting.
Mist and the feeble dawn.
The sons of Lexington sheltering
in hole and gully, behind trees and
hillock, just as their fighting ancestors
did more than hundred and forty
years ago, have met the first Of
fensive of the enemy and crashed
it back into the earth. Again they
have fired the shot heard round the
world.
We have had many raid and
many a skirmish on the American
front. Our men have gone over the
the top again. They have answered
German blow they have struck a
harder blow. That, perhaps, is why
the enemy gathered thousand
'stosstruppen" (storming troops), and
in the days commemorating for us the
battle Of Lexington they drove that
human storm against our line. They
meant to blot and burn out the con-
temptible Yankees"
-
For four days and four nights, without
sleep or rest or food or clean air to
breathe or clean water to drink, our men
fought against the raging waves Of this
German offensive. the first n our pages
Of the history of this war. That we
defeated the enemy is known, not only
who sought the honor Of inflicting the
first humiliation upon US We did
more than defeat him. We assured
ourselves of our strength.
We can defeat him again. We
can defeat him every time. So our
officers, our generals and our second
lieutenants, they who lead and who
know our men. can now tell you with
pride but without arrogance, for our
men have stood the test.
They are real men, these sons of
Lexington and of our first great fight
for freedom. There is no measure for
the depth Of their noble manhood and
great deeds. They have already
equaled some famous in history. The
very frst incident told to me when 1
men who bore the heaviest shock of
the first battle are resting, was about
an American boy who threw his body
upon German grenade which was
hurled among a group of soldiers
He gave his life for them without
hesitation and with the certainty of
death. They do not even know his
name.
This is the story Of First Class Pr;-
waite Rudolph Foster. He went up
the communicating trenches the first
hours OF the fight when a report came
in OF casualty. He went up with
a stretcher and found his man lying
IN trench unconscious and bleeding
freely.
Foster bandaged the wound. He re-
vived mis- man. and despite the heavy
German fire he got him back safely
TO the advanced medical post
so far he was sticking to his job
But he had seen enough OF the fight TO
reaIlze mat services such as he could
give might be called for at any time,
other hands Foster lodged back into
the trenches and remained for three
days and three nights.
In SUCH a battle, composed Of nu-
merous small attacks and frequent
periods of quiet or intensified bom-
bardment, Foster found many oppor-
tunities of administering to the in
fantrymen. In those seyenty-two
hours in the front line and in no
mans land he clamped two arteries,
dressed almost a score of wounds
and carried wounded back When the
battle was ended his commanding
officer. Dudley. said to him:
Foster. it's strange there are no
shock patients among those men you
cared for. ! was going to give you
did not know how to handle it,"
"Hypodernic" replied Fosfer. s.I p.ve