Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1918-11-21

( ellie, Tenn, we are IN receipt OF IN
following letter from her son, Altol
Pryor, who is with the American
Expeditionary Forces in France.)
) Somewhere in France.
Oct. Z. 1915
Dear Mama and Bud:
lshould have written sooner
but'owing to some of the officers
being transferred but OF
some of the organizations the last
minute before we left the states
-. for various reasons unknown tC
me and others. of course. we left
without our full quota. and ow-
ing to the prevailing shortage of
officers in our immediate outfit,
of course more work was requir-
ed of the rest OF us, and you
have no idea how much, either.
There are plenty of officers in the
! u. S. and plenty of them in
France, too, but we were sent
across so quick and Kept on the
e. so much since until we haven't
yet been replaced with our full
quota of officers, only two being
with each company, instead of
three. You have no idea what a
| job it is to care for so many men
on such a long journey. 1t isn't
like crossing with no one but
yourself to look after and BE- re-
sponsible for, and believe me, we
all, the officers, had lots of prob
lens we, of course, didn't expect
and had plenty of chances to use
our heads for something else be-
sides a hat rack. The seasick
men are the very worst and hard
est of all to take care of. | did
M have time to get seasick my
self and therefore neglected. feed
ing the fish myself, but, believe
me, there were plenty on board
who didn't neglect them.
Well, after all it was won
derful trip, in fact, it could not
have been better. | mean the
conditions and route, for, believe
me, ] certainly have covered
some territory and seen some
country as well as sea. To be-
gin with. starting from camp
where was stationed, | covered
almost the entire width of the u.
S. on east by train, of course,
seeing lots of the country | had
never seen before and going thru
several large towns, two or three
of the most important in the
states, and embarked from one
OF the prettiest, most up-to-date
camps in the United States.
Then, after working like fury to
equip our men, we stepped down
to the nice little canoe which was
waiting in the harbor stepped in
and steamed out just as if we
were going all alone. Before
we got out of the harbor others
joined US and the further we got
the more vessels joined the mer-
ry throng. Yes, we had COM
pany and protection, too. Hy-
dloplanes were buzzing around
US like buzzards. Submarine
chasers dashing around in the
water like minnoWs. Destroy
ers on all sides. Guns on our
boat ready for action, with gun
ners alert. Submarine lookouts
on deck at all times as well as the
lookout in crows nest on mast,
who stayed there day and night,
rain or shine, regardless of how
rough the sea was or how much
we rocked to and fro as bird
in limb.
The wireless operators were
also on the alert, picking up all
messages afoat. 1t twas no place
for a submarine, therefore we
sighted none.
Now. for those who are used
to wiggling their toes in the sand
as well as. splashing in the red
mud. it doesn't take very long to
see enough salt water when they
are on board a ship, and when
land was sighted everybody put