The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1918-12-19
MAJOR PERSON TELLS
OF SCHOOL Of fire

Well known Mino4 Officer is Back
After Spending Sixteen Moaths In
Five Camps, with Service in
Three Branches.
Major Edward S. Person, of the
68th Field Artillery, returned from
Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the first of the
week and has resumed his work as
President Of the Union National Bank
Of this city.
The Major has had an unusually in
teresting and varied army career dur
ing the past sixteen months.
First, he enlisted in the officers
training school at Fort Smelling,
where he won his Captaincy. He was
transferred to Camp Grant, ILL.,, where
ne remained for several months, and
an hopes that he might see service in
France sooner, he applied for transfer
into the Cavalry. He was transferred
to the Cavalry at Fort Riley and later
was transferred to the camp at West
Point, Kentucky, where he was trans
ferred into the Field Artillery. Two
artillery regiments were made out of
each regiment of cavalry, and the
members of the cavalry having be-
come familiar with handling horses,
they readily took to the work in the
field artillery. The regiment was
transferred in August from West
Point, KY, to Fort Sill, Okla, where
the officers attended the Advanced
School of Fire, preparing them for
early service in France. In fact, had
the hostilities not have ceased, the
Majors regiment would at this time
be enroute to France.
The Major thus spent six months
in the infantry, six months in the
cavalry and four months in the artil-
lery.
The Major shows keen disappoint-
ment at not having had an opportun-
lty to 60 to France, but now that the
fighting has ceased, he is glad to get
back to his desk.
II could still have gone to France,
had l have decided to remain in the
army, but / am glad to get back to
my own business. l never cared for
the army in time of peace and am
glad that am not in France at the
present time. While am disappoint-
ed at not having been sent to France,
get some consolation in the fact that
there are about a million other army
men in the same boat, even West
Point graduates, who were kept in
this country to train the men,"
"The American army is the great
est body of men ever gotten together
and there is a good reason why the
war ended SO quickly"
The Major completed an eight
weeks course in the school Of fire at
Fort Sill. There were about 1000
field artillery officers in the school.
The course was very hard, requiring
much work and study. The various
studies in mathematics, such as alge-
bra, geometry and trigonometry had
to be mastered, studies that most of
the men had either forgotten or had
perhaps not learned. The Major got
along fine and passed in each branch.
One has to figure angles and circles.
Firing data consists of figuring the
tain target. The Light Field Artillery
uses a rs millimeter French gun,
equivalent to an American 3-inch
gun. The maximum range is from
5000 to 10000 meters, or approx
mately from five to eight miles. For
weeks they actually fired at the tar
gets on the range from three to four
miles away. The targets would US
ually consist of pile of sand bags
or old artillery carriers. The gunner
= Of. course could not see the target,
neither could the commander. An air
plane, which lowered above the tar
get, would give certain signals by
wireless to the commander who would
in turn give his command to the gun
ner. Signals were sent by the gun
.ner to the airplane by means of a
large panel, several yards long, which
could be seen from the airplane. The
indirect firing method is used. For
instance, the gunner aims at a tree or
some object which he can see. His
aim is corrected by means of a var
lance of certain angles, which the
commander must be able to figure out
correctly and within short period
For instance, on the last day the Ma
ior was working out his firing prob
lem, it required AZ shots to hit the
target. It costs $18 to fire a shot
with the 3-inch gun, therefore it cost
$3.50 to hit the one target. In one
forenoon's work on the range, $50, 600
!. is often spent for ammunition while
4 during the entire day the cost will 60
over 100000. This looks like big
and # is, but when we
ss8are at war, one must forget the cost
s. Results are all that are required.
One has to learn the British, French
:sssAnd American guns. learn each sepa-
rate part and how to use them. They
de trained in driving six horses tosa
team hitched to field piece. They
drive thru rivers, down gullies and
thru the woods. It takes real horse
manship to do this.
Speaking Of his work as an artillery
officer, the Major said: II didn't want
to. be an artillery officer. All the men
in the Cavalry were sore when they
were transferred. I then applied fol