The Mena weekly star., 1918-06-06
MENA SAILOR BOY
 IN U-DOAT FIGHTS
William D. Kelly Tells in Graphic Style of Attacks of German Sub marines That We're Defeated by
 American Gunners.

William D. Kelly. one of the Mena lads in the U. s. navy, having been in training in the Great Lakes Train ing station and now on board the U. s. s. LaHoe, under date of May 5, writes interestingly to Mena friend of his experience since going to sea. The letter was written at sea, three days out from Brooklyn, eh the re- turn from a trip to France, oH which he says he had good time, a hard time and sick time. Continuing he says more particularly:
 "we left Brooklyn on February 2S for Newport News and after two days started for France. After being out five days. a storm struck us, and last cd for about seven days. It surely was awful. We had to tie our tables 10 the wall, and even then We couldn't eat off them, but after the storm we got along nicely until we arrived in the mouth of the English channel, when a submarine came up and start ed trouble. There were thirty-two ships in our bunch, and all of us went to work, each ship having one or two guns, and then our torpedo boats dropped depth bombs, and after three hours we thought we had de- stroyed the sub, but later we learned that it had sunk ships after leaving us.
 4The Germans are after the Eng fish and seem to be afraid of the Americans, for they are too goot shots and won't run.
 We went out of the English chan mel into the Bay of Biscay and then to Brest, France, where we remained for two weeks, and believe me we saw all kinds of sights. Everybody is in the service, the women ar taking the mems places. All the lower classes of people wear wooden shoes. While at Brest we vert out to the German prison camp, where they had 5000 prisoners who are made to work in the fields and at unloading ships.
 France is very pretty country, but since the war 1t is devastated and deserted. Brest is the nearest port to l the front in France, so you see we saw many French soldiers. When we left Brest we went up the Gironde river to Paulliac, small town where we finished unloading. While there we received thirty-six-hou leave, and went to Bordeaux, one of the prettiest cities in France. There are many pretty parks and historical buildings, | of Roman architecture. We saw also statute of Liberty and many other statutes. Oh, the train service to Bordeauxl The rate was about 15I miles per hour, and the cars look like our two-seated buggies There are Y M. C. A. camps at all of the French ports and there is where we get our information and our money exchanged.
 'On our return trip, when about two days out, we were again attacked two days out, We were again attacked, this time by three subs. Two of our ships fired 30 shots without stopping from 5-inch guns. It certainly was scme battle, but We never think about going down. We got away, tho the subs followed us for five hours, but since that we have had no trouble"
 Will closes his letter by saying that he is not able to come home and visit homefolks at this time, for few sailors are getting furloughs, but he hopes to come when he returns from the next trip. In the meantime he assures all his Mena friends that he is glad he is able to help Uncle Sam and wishes that more of the boys were with him. He has travelled 10,- 900 miles since going to sea three months ago