The Nenana daily news., 1918-09-14
AMERICAN ARMADA:
 FIRST DAY IN CAMP
The Third Instolmenf

stopped to see the men, two bat
 talions of 800 men each, just march ed in and were preparing to pitch
 their tentts. The great stretch of ploughed ground, just cleared of grain. was rain-soaked, and the storm had set in for the night. The
 men stood ready each with a half
 shelter tent, to drive the stakes
 and lash it against the clements,
 and then crawl in. It seemed an
 endless wait for all the formalities of laying out the camp with engin-
 eering exactness, yet all of this
 was essential to the smooth running
 of such a large concern. At last
 the stakes were driven and soon
 the great field was dotted with
 thousands of little khaki mounds,
 about as high as a mans waist,
 called "pup tents" by the soldiers
 probably because they looked like
 dog houses. Under the tent there
 is just room for two lying down, and if the ground is soaked as it is tonight, the rubber pauncho keeps out some of the water and kindly nature and the iron of youth must do the rest. This was only one typical camp of the hudreds lining the roads for miles in this vast reception camp. Field kitchens and water carts were wheeling up to all the camps as the tents went up. Filtered water is brought in hogsheads and each command has its apportioned lot of hogsheads. Later on there will be splendid system of water mains for the whole camp. But here are the men, and water system is not iiioteilieu III udy. oO lHSledu Ol waiting for 12-inch mains, the prim- tive hogshead is filling the gap. Each man carries his emergency ration for three days. Some of them were nibbling it before climbing into their pup tents, but most of Tod +l,@ II kitchen to get into action with it's cooks, serving out hot coffe and hot soup and meat The item of feeding an army with precision is in itself gigantic task.
 "We served 1,SoO,OOO meals last month," said Major K" or 6OO,OOO army rations of three meals to the ration"
 And besides all the feeding and watering and sanitation there is the immense "paper work" of such an organization. There are 12S separate organizations in the 36,OOO men just arrived. Each of the 128 must be sorted out and brought togther, and every individual soldier of the 36,OOO must be identified and accounted for, so as to guard against losses, and then each organi- zation and man must have his detail to one Of the sectors of the fighting front. This "paper work, as it is called, is prodigious, and like everything military it must be done with absolute precision. And the paper work calls for paper, which is very hard to get.
 "When headquarters called for map of the camp the other day." said the major, 'they got it all right, on the only paper which could be found, which was brown wrap ping paper. But it was a good map, and the wrapping paper maps of the big American camp will go into the archives"
 When taps sounded tonight every man of this 36,OOO was under can vas, although this morning every man had been afloat. It was the record accomplishment in landing, for while one body of arrivals had been large, 42,OOO, the landing had taken the best part of two days, whereas this huge transfer was in daylight hours of the first day.
 "And right on top of it." said