Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1918-05-08
VICTOR HOEG WRITES
FROM S. CAROLINA
Son of DR.. and Mrs. G. Hoeg at
Camp Sewer, Greenville, S. c.
Writes Letter to Otto
Anderson.
CAMP is IN THE
BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS
Says Every Time He Reads The
Paper it Makes Him More AnX-
iOus to Go Across.
Camp Sewer, S. c.
April 26, 1918.

Camp Sewer, S. c.
April 26, 1918.
Friend Otto:
Hello Otto, how are you, am
we'll and happy. hope you are the
same. 1t has been quite while
since / wrote you last, we have
moved from Camp Dodge and are
wey down here in the South Caro-
lima forests. This camp is in the
Blue Ridge mountains, we can see
some of the higher peaks in the
distance. This camp is right in the
big pine forests and that is about
all that grows here. All the land
that we passed on our trip here
wasn't worth a cent for farming
all hilly and the low land was
flooded. Shorty Hoare was married
a few days before he left Camp
Dodge, | don't where he is now,
there are no DEBORAH boys with me-
Robert Quandahl wrote me a let
ter this week SO did Dave Thompson
The days are real hot here when
the sun shines but the nights are
cold. 1t rained last night and is
cold and cloudy today, have worn
my overcoat all day. They maze
us send our suit cases home with
whatever clothes we took with u.s.
They have been issuing us so much
clothes that l don't know where to
put them. You see We live in
tents here, there are men in my
tent and it makes it rather crowd
ed. We have no tables with dishes
to eat on here, but when we get in
the regiment we will have it better
again. / have been assigned to B
Company in the regiment. but we
will not be moved up there for a
while yet. There were lots of cases
of mumps and measles here but
wasS lucky and did not get sick.
This is Liberty Loan Day so we
have this afternoon off. We are un-
der quarantine yet so cannot go to
town, but / think it will be lifted
this week. They gave us rifles again
we had to turn in our rifles at Camp
Dodge, and we were on the rifle
range Wednesday. We each fired
60 shots at targets 100 and 200 and
800 yards. My shoulder got a little
sore as these rifiels kick pretty hard
if you don't hold them tight =,
like to shoot tho and want to go
on the range as often as possible.
l had several lessons on the work
ings of the Lewis Automatic Rifle
last week. They're sure a deadly
weapon, 400 shots per minute.
One of the Corporals said that this
whole division would march in
parade through Greenville May 9th.
Most of the men in this division
have benn in the army service since
September but / don't think they
have anything on us in drilling
and we have only had about 6 weeks
of drilling, the rest of the time We
put in fatigue duty. They have
that southern talk and it is rather
hard to under stand. 1t gets US
mixed up in drills quite often on
that account and we get bawled oub
for it when we are not to blame.
We had to drill two hours extra
one day for not having our tents
cleaned out. We didn't have time
that morning either. like all
these officers here except our head
sergeant, and no one likes him.
Some of our Corporals and serge
ants were down at the Mexican
border during the mixup with
Mexico.
A soldier put in the regiment,
not far from our tent, committed
suicide by shooting the top of his
head off. We were lined up for
supper at the time and heard the
bullet whistle over our heads. We
had the good luck to see meteor
cross the sky Wednesday night
about O'Clock. There was sharp
report and a flash as it crossed,
leaving a long streak Of smoke
which remained in the sky for "a
bout ten minutes. At first thought
it was a signal rocket but found out
by the papers that it was a meteor
which could be seen for hundreds of
miles.
They do not give us very good
grub here, mostly beans, bacon,
bread and rice. The cooks are not
as good as those at Camp Dodge,
anyway the food does not taste
near as good. When the wind blows
we get about pint of sand with
it also. If il was not for the ex-
change / would be going hungry
all the time. / buy most OF my eats
there, but it is the same thing over
and over again. They do not have
ice cream and only few poor
grades of candy. l received a box
of candy from home and 1t sure
tasted good. ! sure would like to
be in your place for about ten min
utes, l think / wiuld buy it out If
had the money. Just wait nutil /
90 to town, / sure will buy. We
generally have two or three ball
games here on Saturday and Sun
day. have been playing most of
the time. We play the non CONS
team
| think my chances OF coming
home for visit are pretty slim
now, guess / will wait until after
4. Rrc hnttff a the