The weekly Alaska citizen., 1918-03-25
EMERALD ISLE TRAINING BASE
 FOR RECRUITS

About as Tar up the rlVer rom here as Yonkers is from New York is the first United States naval training station in Ireland. It is built along the bank under cliffs and reminds the Americans of the Palisades of the Hudson. Here naval recruits from all over the United States are being trained for the American destroyers, the most recent arrivals being 200 boys from Pensacola, Fla.
 This naval barracks which some of the older men call Cob Dock, after a part of the Brooklyn navy yard, was formally commissioned with the arrival the other day from the United States of its commanding officer, a commander who came to the navy from Louisiana. He has a staff of a lieutenant, two ensigns, a pay master and several surgeons who can take care of several thousand men. They are instructing men still green to things of the sea in methods of fighting the submarines.
 To the station which covers five acres, come the recruits from training stations in the United States. There are regulars, reserves and state mili- tia, but their identity as such is lost here and they are alike while the war lasts. Most of them were in civilian life a few months ago. Here and there is a college man; few were secretaries to railroad presidents, the paymaster himself being the son of railway magnate who owns a 150-mile line of railroad in North Carolina.
 These wartime sailors are housed in big old granary which was the When the Americans came along the soldiers cheerfully moved on, for the submarine still is regarded as the most dangerous enemy over here and men who come to fight 1t arc welcomed. The granary is really four large buildings joined together. They are of rough stone which makes the barracks appear not unlike some American prisons. The walls are. three feet thick and there are four floors. The Americans have white. washed the walls and made won- derful transformation in the place.
 The men sleep in hammocks swung from the rafters in the ceiling They eat at long mess tables from enameled dishes and get the same food as those on the American ships which is hard to beat nowadays in this par ticular part of the world. At first there isn't much discipline in these new arrivals, but after few days they know how to salute an officer and how to speak to him.
 Reveille is sounded at 5:30 o'clock while outside 1t is still dark and cold But these new wartime sailors rise without murmur. dress, pack their hammocks out of the way and march to breakfast below as if they had been born to 1t. All the cooking is done outside the barracks where the Americans have set up few field kitchens. They also use trench stoves for cooking bean soup and stews. The adaptability of these men is what first impresses the visit or. Many have given up lives of comparative luxury and ease to sub init to naval discipline which proba, bly is less comfortable here than in the United States.
 The station is shut in by a high wall upon which armed sentries are posted. No liberty is permitted fol visits in the village which boasts fif teen saloons and shipyard. The only time the Americans are seen in the village streets is when company of them passes through from a cross country hike, part of their daily routine, and on Sundays when those who desire can attend services in the Protestant and Catholic churches. But the men are always under guard on these occasions.
 The only liberty granted the re- cruits is to the more pretentious will lage a few miles down the river which is the base of the American destroyer flotilla. A sea-going tug boat makes one round trip a day with the liberty party. At the base village the recruits are free to visit the United States naval clubhouse, the British Y. M. c. A. hut or the village movie shows. The liberty men leave the barracks each after noon at five; the curfew rings for them at II at night when they board the tug for the return voyage. For those not on liberty taps are sound cd at the usual hour of nine.
 The state of health of men con tinues excellent. despite the raw. damp climate peculiar to this part of Ireland and the sick-bay does a small business. The drudgery of the daily routine of training and the swahhtnp ETAOIN ETAOIN avETA