Milford chronicle., 1918-03-22

eyes. Anything that does reacn you Is
| o. X for the censor has passed upon f.
You are doing me a favor at the same
time by letting me get in touch, even il
only thru the columns Of your paper. with
many Of my friends back home. I'd like
to write to them all but / just can't get
the time. I'm in the army now and
have a different boss" than myself.
Did my other letters get thru 20 you
safely and in the order in which ! sent
them? The mail service is rather pecul-
lar these days a letter mailed in Oct
ober will reach us In February. One sent
in January comes in January. The letter
sent you telling you Of our trip in Paris
may reach you before the one [ sent de-
scribing our English experiences. In
this I am going to tell you little Of our
camp and camp life here. Il must be lit
tie. Of course. for reasons that you under
stand perfectly. As / told you before.
We landed ia Foggia late in the afternoon
OF November 20. Before we left the sta
tion II was dark-about the darkest /
ave ever seen. We were dirty, tired.
hungry. and few Of US sick. Il seemed
no one knew the way 10 the camp. which
is about two miles from town After
many twistings and turnings thru streets
that from the evidence Of our noses. had
better been avoided. we saw the lights
Of Camp sud in the distance. Honestly.
never marched longer two miles in
my life. II was nearly p. m. when we
passed thru the gates and headed for our
barracks. We were put in Barracks .
building about as wide as the Milford
Armory and about twice as long. There
was row Of beds, real spring beds. one
each side They were occupied. There
was big open floor space IN the middle
with a lot Of mattresses piled high These
were not occupied.
We were ordered to find a place 10
bunk get a mattress and make our
selves to hum" There were about ten
extra beds. / didn't get one of them.
did manage 10 get two mattresses. how
ever. That was much better than hav-
ing only one between you and a stone
floor. was very fortunate in getting
near the front door-fortunate In these
respects: O Plenty Of fresh air and
floor dust every time the door was open
ed; C2) At night being walked on by every
fellow that came in a little late: CD Thru
the two foregoing blessings. / was able to
soon include in my vocabulary as inti-
mate friends many words that before
this, had scarcely known. lisa Won
derfuI life and you have no idea how
many hidden talents may be brought to
the surface.
Near s p. m. we were assembled in the
mess hall and given our first ItaEan meal
II hasn't varied greatly since that night
except in the form in which the macar-
oni reaches US. Soup macaroni. meat;
soup, meat macaroni; meat, soup. mac
aroni-and so the story goes. In some
way We managed TO stay alive until the
next morning
The next day wasn't very exciting
We didn't jump into plane at once and
90 sailing on. Instead We worked. and
work il was. Here is a sample day-they
are all nearly alike the FIRST month.
Reveille. breakfast dread, coffee and
water). The Italians. understand have
no breakfast and the bread and coffee
were concession TO US. After that some
2f Us swept out the barracks and others
formed the hangar (chaingang) detail I
The latter didn't have much to do-just 1
push machines back and forth all day
'or those who were flying them-shars |
,u
Al lunch we had soup. little meat /
a vegetable and A fruit, coffee and bread. (
Afternoon same as forenoon. Dinner. /
3oup, A vegetable. meat or "a egg. A /
rut. coffee and bread. Instead Of fruit. |
we had apple sauce or a piece (
# pie Everything considered. Marshall, /
{ wasn't so bad-after you get the taste
Il it all accustomed to your palate. Had /
o be in bed and all lights out BY $50 p.
n, unless you had a special pass into
7oggia.
Those OF US VINO were not on duty
'ould go into Foggia each afternoon pro-
-ided we returned at the regular time.
We could walk or we could ride in "ltal-
an taxis" These tavis are little dou-
,le seated four passenger phaetons that
axe YOU into town during the day for
lire and at night for $50 lire. The
harge for one was as much as for four
o you know they were usually loaded
Iere's the funny part-in a very short
ime the cab drivers. usually boys, had
he choicest selection Of 5-l0-l5 cent
rords YOU ever heard. Twas wonderful
ow quickly they learned.
About the middle Of December I went
out the line. That is, l was assigned
, regular instruction in flying. was as
Apply as a kid with a new drum. We're
ways given one ride (our first) as joy
de The pilot takes us up to see how
-e like it, Ny. what a time l had on
" Joy! The air has never been 50
up and down" since or else I have be-
3me more used to it. The first month
had only about five rides because OF
Gather conditions After the first Of the
ear things went much better and I'm
ow thru my preliminary course. Finish
around the first Of this month. When
take a bird off the ground now D. H. P.
As charge Of the controls
There's one thing I came near forget
ng-our Christmas vacation. All Of US
ere given holiday trip-sOme went to
aples. some went 70 Rome chose
aples Tommy and I stayed at the
otel Britannique. This hotel is situated
one Of the highest points Of land in
e whole city and commands the best
ew possible Of the wonderful Bay Of
aples. When we got up in the morn
a min ]