The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-12
TRAIN HIN SUNNY ITALY F OR AIR SERVICE.
Men From United States Suffered Much From Cold During Winter and
 Complained

American Seaplane Training Camp, Central Italy, April (Correspond- ence of the Associated Press s.)-Italy's coal shortage has been severe blow to this camp, the second aviation camp for Americans on the peninsular When the camp was built by the Ital- ian navy in mid-winter right on the edge of a big. deep inland lake, no pro- vision was made for heat. The Italians put up two fine regulation barracks. 1 with concrete floors, wood and concrete walls and picturesque red brick roofs, and in these the Americans .live-or
 rather they sleep there at night be-
 cause there is no other place to go. The Italian instructors were sur prised when the Americans began to complain about the cold as generally speaking, the United States is regarded as much colder than Italy. But one of the curious climatic effects on al, l Americans is the sensation of cola in so-called sunny Italy.
 Most of the American students here came down from Paris having for the most part enlisted in the aviation corps fresh from the American Red Cross oy other ambulance and motor corps As they have had experience on the front. 1 they are used to making the best of
 bad job and instead of complaining
 especially about the cold they merely
 Keep on the jump during the day and at night before going to sleep they put on all their flying clothes then pile five or six blankets on bed and glide in under the hey" as an Iowa country boy expressed it.
 The cold, however. has not had the
 eifect of preventing them from writing long letters home. None of them have vet caught the writers cramp, accord ing to the officer who has the duty of censoring their mail. It is also a pain
 ful but necessary duty to inform their home folks that the cold hasn't crip. pied their imaginative powers. The
 man who reads their mail says they
 relate the most thrilling kinds of ad-
 ventures with Austrian airmen. If all
 the fights they. tell about having while flying came off there wouldn't be any enemy fairmen left: @'t
 They have not yet been permitted to
 attack ,anM of the enemy. for two req
 scns: First, they are not permitted to fly more than IS miles from ts,e lake, and
 if they do so they will be reprimanded
 The Italian seaplane men stationed along
 the Adriatic coast attend to. that little job Once and only once have Austrians flown across Italy and that was in an
 old Zeppelin that bombarded Naples in early March. As fS
 . .The folks at.home know we are over here and we have got to give them some -tnis1g to keep them interested" laugh .ingly explained a youth from an eastern
 state. We have got to give them an
 idea that the job fisn't half so dangerous as they think; it is so we always -wIn those fights" es <s
 It also appears that the avators are
 good hands at love letters.
 "ff the girls at home know how desper- ate are the efforts made by the Italian girls here to win an American husband, if they know the wiles exercised by some
 Of the American girls in Italy to accom- plish the same end, they would surely be jealous.' said one Of their officers. But if these selfsame girls at home knew how, desperately their sweethearts over here fight shy of these foreign girls, they would be comforted. It's good thing, too. for fellow with too many
 girls on his mind is apt to have acci- dents. Somehow, they always prefer to traye. in parties, wherever they go if it's only for walk across country or along the mountain roads. and it's
 hard job to lasso a fellow unless he's alone"
 The Italian language is also handicap
 in this respect, as well as in others. For
 this reason the Italian navy department
 has provided instructors who sneak Eng fish.