The Mena weekly star., 1919-04-24
MENA BOYS IN 11O ENGINEERS.
What Colonel Slayton Thinks About
 His Men.

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 While Mena folks will not have an opportunity to take part in the recep- ton that will be given the 10th En- gineers as they pass thru the country from Camp Mills, N. Y, to Camp Funston, Kas., where, in due time, they will be mustered out, there are two members of that gallant regi- ment that can be given a reception when they return to Mena. They are Russell A. Burtch, son of Mir. and Mrs. L. E. Burtch, and M. A. Spen- cer, son-in-law of Mrs. ]. C. Hudgins. Most of the members of the 10th are boys from Kansas and Missouri, but Mena should be proud that two came from this city and were a part of the organization which Col. E. M. Stay ton, commander, says stood every test. Continuing, Colonel Stayton said
 What do you think of them? Ever see greater bunch? I am proud of every single one. They have been through every kind of a test and they have delivered the goods every time. Man alive, you do not know how proud it makes a man feel to be leading regiment like this back l home"
 The Kansas City Regiment.
 Its different from leading them off to war. For after you have been through battle with them you realize more than ever what men they are. Do you know that in the 35th they called this the Kansas City regiment !? For it had more men actually from Kansas City in it than any other unit. I wish there was some word l could send back to the relatives of these men, not only in Kansas City but auso in Topeka and the surround ing Kansas and Missouri towns, to convey what fine soldiers they have been. All can say is that we'll soon be home. And we send our greet i ings."
 Never Battered Under Fire.
 "The worst test soldier has is to be fired at by every sort of weapon and have to go right on with his work, without chance to crack back. That's what this engineer regiment did. Nearly three days they worked with pick and shovel building roads, doing every sort of work im- aginable, working with the tanks to get them up, helping out everybody. Always they were under the most severe shell fire and gas attacks, and doing backbreaking work. But they never faltered or kicked They went on, hardly without eating and prac- tically without sleeping. Then, when they were needed and the call came, the regiment, to a man, took up their rifles and fougth as infantrymen. We held the reserve line thirty-nine hours in the fiercest kind of fighting, fought the boche to a standstill. We lost two hundred and sixty men killed and wounded in the battle-in fact our losses were the fourth heav- fest of any engineer regiment in the A. E. F.
 "The regiment was cits1 twice = once for it's effective work as engi- neers in roadbuilding and trench building under severe fire, second time for it's 39-hour fight as infan- trymen, holding the reserve line in the critical hours.
 That's the story of my regiment in brief. Is it any wonder that I am proud of my men? And when they march in the welcome parade back home, although several have won individual distinguished service crosses, every parent and relative can remember that the entire regi- ment has won two citations that be- long equally to every man in it."