Alma record., 1918-12-26

father, in which he tells many Of his
experiences in France. The letter
was written to his father on Dads
Day"
K. NJ. Tinkham will be remembered
as former high school student. and
member of the football and base ball
teams Of two or three years ago. His
letter follows:
Marcy, France.
Nov. 90. 1918
Dear Dad:
The Y. NJ. c. A. has started a
campaign for all the fellows to write
home to their dads, so | guess you
will have TO be the goat. The censor
ship is lifted for this letter and we
can tell nearly anything we want to.
! First of all the Germans are licked,
which is no news but somehow it
seems good to tell about it anyway.
B Although we did not have any active
part in doing the job We did our little
bit with the rest of the S. o. S.
(Service of Supplies).
When We first came 20 this place
all there was 10 it was few wooden
buildings and one railroad track off
the main line. There wasn't build
/ ings enough at first so, the first few
weeks we slept in pup tents. II you
never have seen one Of these tents
you can't appreciate sleeping in them.
In the summer time, as it was when
we slept in them, they are quite
comfortable. except that you have TO
20 outside TO change your mind. Two
fellows occupy them and there
about 20 feet OF space TO be equally
divided up so after you get inside
there's not much room to argue about.
We got busy as soon as we got here
and some of US started building our
permanent camp and the rest Of Us
started building our railroad. | was
elected to help build the railroad
1t was the first time | ever worked
in that line and if | have my right
mind, it will be the last. Well, We
worked hard continually for about a
month and a half and we had fin.
ished the yard.
There is west yard and an east
yard of five tracks, each about a halt
mile in length. Besides these
there is the yard in which the round
house is located, with number OF
small tracks in il.
was assigned TO the car repair
department and worked for that dc
partment about month. The fore
man decided that ne needed cierl
for that department and | was ap
pointed, and in that capacity | hav,
worked ever since.
Our work has been important il
the success of the American Army il
here the French were running tn,
. trains carrying our supplies and o.
course couldn't give it the attention
because they were also carrying
their own supplies. There wer,
about two train loads of American
supplies going up every day unde
, the French but after we took tn
Transporting of supplies over, i
steadily Increased until now. Gu
average for the past two weeks ha
been about twenty-five trains a day
This happened in four months, $
you can see we have made quite
record.
/ suppose we will remain here I
supply the American Army as lon
as there is force of any size KEEP
here. They may take some Of tn
railway transportation troops bac
= though, as the traffic is bound to b
0 lighter than il was. ! surely hop
we will be one of those.
We have comfortable camp on
d small hill near the railroad yards
I They make improvements every da
j. until it is almost like the camps a
I home Just the other day they CON
0 pleted a set Of shower baths. The
+ were nearly all home made but the
: 7erve the purpose as well as any
r ever saw.
e We have a regimental mess hal
d where we all eat our slum (which
e q ormv term for beef stew). w
1 A t,..t d. g.,