Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1918-06-22
stif. | am getting along fine. like

got my full equipment now | am
an honest-to-go goodness soldier. We
had big review today. We done
pretty good for rockies. | have been
transferred to the 361st infantry |
guess you knew that because you
knew my address all right. ! was in
the depot brigade for about three
weeks. The depot brigade is where
all new corners go at first Then
they are mustered into the service
and take their examination to see
where they are best fitted. They
sent some Of them to other camps.
There is three besides myself that
came from Mountain Home when
did, They are all in the infantry
but jim O'Neil is in the signal corps.
John Hammond and jolly were sent
TO Florida and jim Esterbrook was
sent to Indiana. There is no one
from Mountain Home in my company.
Bill Commins and Bill Sathy are in
Co X. We have been practicing
semiphore signalling some today.
Every soldier must learn to send and
receive messages with the semaphore
flags. We are using Enfield rifles.
They are bolt action guns. They
hold five cartridges IN a clip. We
have not been out on the rife range
yet, but we are going out and prac-
tice shooting some time this week.
They practice at night just the same
as in the day time. A man has to
learn to shoot quick When they are
shooting at night they have fash
light It shines on the target in
flashes. 1t is on five seconds and off
five seconds. A man has to shoot
during the five seconds the light is
shining and then he reloads and Is
ready to shoot again when the next
fash comes. We get out every day
and learn to fight with bayonets
They are eighteen inches long. That
is not counting the hilt there is
eighteen inches, of steel want to
get some German with that and l
will sure make him squeal. If ! can
| lust get in front of a German and
run that bayonet through his belly
and pull it out again | will be salts
fed. When we get out on the parade
grounds drilling all man can hear
is squads right or squads left, or
| left front into line. They are con-
tinually hollering at us to get little
more pep into it. If man talks
! back to his officers or non-coms he
will be put to work in the kitchen
on Sundays. There is dam little
talking back We have inspection
every Saturday morning. Everything
has to be Just right. A mans clothes
must be clean. He must have a
fresh shave, he must have a good,
clean ritie If there is the least bit
of dirt on rifle or clothes he is liable
to be put in the kitchen A man S
shoes must be shined and all of the
pockets buttoned up on his clothes.
We have a regular pack to carry all
the time. 1t must be on our backs
and adjusted just right We have
our light pack all the time except
when we are eating or sleeping We
always have Saturday and Sunday off
unless we are on fatigue duty. we
come in from drilling at 430 and
have supper at five, so we are through
for the day. There was a fire last
night. It was somewhere close to
Green Park 1t may have been IN
Green Park We had to get up and
form in line in front Of our barracks
at 2:30 this morning We could see
the fire plainly.
When we arrived here we were
vaccinated the first day and shot III
the arm for typhoid, They lined us
ND outside of the infermary and made
us pull up our sleeves and when
we marched past one fellow daubed
some Iodine on our arm and another
vaccinated us and another showed a
needle in our arm and shot some dope
into it. One fellow from California
got so nervous he fell over in faint
when they put the iodine on his arm
The next morning after we goI
our shot in the arm, our arm woulc
be SWOLLEN up and so stiff we coult
hardly do anything with 1t. 1t made
some of them pretty sick. We would
line up for reviele in the morning
and all of a sudden some fellow would
fall over dead to the world III
would have to be packed into hi
barracks | was vaccinated twic'
and shot in the arm three times, bu
they never did get me down.
We were out on a hike few day
ago. We drilled all day and thel
after supper we rolled up our pack
, and marched for about three hours
We camped over night and drille'
out there the next day until abou
eo,r o5clock whom we hacked I'D an