The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1918-07-03

Of the typical southern negro.
Camp Hancock il q strictly ordan-
ance training camp and is capable of
handling 10000 men. It is made up
Of several departments Of training,
having the ordnance supply school, to
which / am attached and q machine
gun school. 1t also has several pro-
visional companies, or casualty COM
pan;es, being troops held for use until
they are needed to take the place Of
the fellows who make the supreme
sacrifice "over there"
The particular organization to
which the writer is attached as have
mentioned above Is the ordnance sup
ply school which is q school to train
men in the handling Of ordnance
property in field dep to in France and
also this country. Ordnance prop
erty may be defined as that property
which has to do with the fighting
equipment Of the soldier. It has
to do with all makes of machine guns,
rifles, hand and rifle grenades, shrap-
mel and small arms ammunition.
There are also hundreds Of other ac-
cessories which / will not mention. I
will say that have had the wonderful
opportunity Of handling the three
makes Of machine guns and wish to
say that the new Browning automatic
rifle which you have been reading SO
much about in gun that any Of the
kaiser's cohorts will do well to avoid.
1t shoots 600 shots a minute and is
easily operated. 1t isn't generally
known to civilians that this gun is in
the hands of the u. s. Troops over
there today. and it undoubtedly play
ed a big part in the successful drive
that the u. s. marines made recently.
Our course in the school is eight
weeks in length and we are now on the
fifth week. The personnel of the
school is Of high class, being made
up of men who are college graduates
and who have given up very bright
careers to help Uncle Sam in this big
game. There are nearly 1000 men
in the school and as fast as the course
is finished the men are transferred all
over the country to depots for further
training. would make it clear that
the men who are trained in this chool
are to have charge of supplying the
troops at the front with all necessary
fighting equipment. They are to be
non-commissioned officers in charge OF
OIulldicc supply uCpOI0s
To turn to a more general subject,
Georgia.is all that we northern people
have read of it. Augusta is city of
about 100000 people, is typically
southern. Here we have the typical
old southern homes and plantations.
The people are very pleasant and hos
pitable to the last degree. / am of
the impression that the negro does
good bit of the work down here yet
and the personal characteristics of the
white people are also what we have
always heard. One thing they have
in their creed and that is never to be
in a hurry. 1t is very evident, for
when we order meal in a restaurant
we have time to do our shopping and
then come back for our meal
| have written more than / intended
when / started out, but there are lots
Of things to write of and | haven't
written nearly as much as / might of
the various things here in camp.
10 wish to say that the Y. M. c. A.
is the home of the soldier and as often
been said by others who have yexper-
fenced army life before myself, the Y.
NJ. G.. A. is a wonderful thing and we
who are here in camp or any other
camp could hardly get along without
It. would say to everyone to boost
for the Y. M. c. A. if they wish to do
the soldiers good turn. ,o i
/ will close at this time and send my
best wishes to all of my friends in
Belding. / will be extremely pleased
70 hear from any who will write. This |
etter may be painfully incoherent but |
we people here seldom have time to |
clearly collect our thoughts and put |
hem down in proper sequence; so If
he good editor is not TOO harsh in
MS censoring / may be able to do a |
title better next time.
Yours very truly,
Pvt. Arthur j. Reed. i
Supply School, Ordnance Training |
Camp. Camp Hancock. Ca. Co. f. |