Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1918-11-29
Letters from the Bows

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recently transferred from Barron
Field, Texas, to Taylor Field, Ala
banla, writes an interesting letter to
his parents regarding his "trip to the
new field.
Taylor Field,
Montgomery,
Alabama.
Dear Mother and Dad Am settled
at last so will send my new address.
We changed our plans en- route so ar
rived yesterday morning instead of in
the evening. | like the new field
real we'll although it isn't as COM
pletely fitted up as Barron Field was
The weather here is much cooler
than it was in Texas, which. is to be
expected seeing we are farther north.
There are trees all around the field
which is a welcome sight after spend
ing the summer out on the cactus
covered plains of Texas where there
was just one tree within radius of
five miles from the flying field, and
that looked more like a north Wis
consin rampike than a real tree. This
field looks more like Gods country to
me than Texas ever did. am in
charge of the Photographic hut here
the same as over at Barron Field SO
my work is just the same. Like to
tell you all about it but Uncle Sam
and his aerial photographers have an
explicit agreement as to what we do
in the air and that dope is strictly
shop talk.
Now about the trip | was in
charge of the boys. We left Fort
Worth Thursday evening at Z o'clock,
Nov. 14th. Went to bed as soon as
got aboard and next morning had our
breakfast on the train, also dinner at
l o'clock. l. cost something to feed
our hungry bunch with such service,
but Uncle is a good proyider. Just
after dinner when we were half way
between Fort Worth and New Or
leans we came upon wreck that de-
layed us nine hours. Our train was
held up and we had good chance to
view the smash-up. 1t was the worst
mess / ever saw, and. i we. seen a few
since being in the air service.
Two freight trains came together at
eight o'clock that morning and the
Wreckage was still burning when we
arrived. One of the conductors was
burned to death. / saw his body, or
rather, what remained of it. The
head, arms and legs were burned off
and one could hardly tell it was a
human body. The man had been
caught under the Vreckage. We
watched the wreclling crew lift the
oil tank cars up and clear the track.
saw one man get killed in that
operation. The big hosting cable
they used to pull one of the engines
out of the ditch with snapped in
two and as it swung around it cut
the poor fellow almost in halves an
awful sight. Then | saw another
workman get his leg broke. The
cable slipped from the wheel trucks
of a tank car and caught him on the
leg. 1t was a hoodoo day for the
wrecking gang. Everything was afire.
A whole carload OF beef burned up
and you can perhaps imagine the
smell. Besides that, four oil cars
smashed fat, one locomotive stood
INSIDE down over q steep onfbank.
ment and several sections of track
were ripped up.
/ didn't eat any supper that night
and neither did the rest of the boys.
Uncle saved several good meals on
that end of the trip.
To get back to the trip. We were
delayed nine hours and when we did
finally get started | was sound asleep
in my berth dreaming of wrecks and
hungry men trying to eat that car of
burned beef.
We reached New Orleans, at 6 a. II.
Saturday and didn't have to pull out
until $50 in the evening. We had
one grand time looking the city over.
New Orleans is one Of the oldest and
most historic cities in the United
States. Its & new-old city. The mod
ern part OF the city is as good looking
as any have been in with many tall
buildings and improvements that be-
speak progress. The old quarter is