The Nenana daily news., 1919-02-27
R0ICH WRITES OF ARMY YORK;;
 |S DECORATED

Tuesday evening brought letter from Second Lieutenant Francis Rotch former master of the Alaskan Engineering commission power barge Midnight Sun, who is now in the service of the United States in France, where he is known by the title of Tug and Barge Operating Officer.
 Now that the censorship is off", writes the former Nenana skipper, q will try to tell you of my wand
 erings and of the things that l have run against in this fair land of France Not great deal to tell, but it may be of interest to you and some of the boys, and while 1 am at it 1 want to thank someone for the Nenana News, which l see has grown into a daily now. Best luck to it.
 "Our landing in France took place in the rain on July 12 at Brest We marched three or four miles up hill to rest camp God save the name). This rest camp was supposed to be at an old bar racks that Napoleon built and from the looks of the thing I don't think that Nap" had anything to do with it, as it must have been very old place when he was a little boy, Anyway the place was full and they showed us out in small field, and you never saw field lik" that one in your life. Instead of fences, they threw up high dirst walls all around the place and divided the place up into little fields about half an acre each. Well. as I said, it was raining when we arrived, and ] it was still raining when we started to camp out in that field and it was nice wet field at that Of course, there were only our pup tents that we carry on our backs and they are far from the most comfortable things in the. world in dry weather, and in rainy, well, I can't cuss as well in letter as l can out loud. Anyway we put in three days in that rest camp and all of that time it rained. Being a native son of Seattle, 1 should be used to rain, but the old state of Washington never got such wetting as the 57th got at Brest.
 "Brest is that part of France called Normandie. We packed our packs and got ready to leave the third day and it was still raining. Lord. that is all it ever does on the coast. We'll, they herded us into "a train and while we were not put
 into box cars, still they put a squad
 of eight men in one compartment
 that was meant for eight French i, men, though Tank is lot bigger
 than Erenche. Our first squad itotaled 49 feet, inches in length
 and they were mite cramped.
 With us of the after guard it was :. a little better, though they were four second lieutenants in one com /, partment. The old train gave a
 squeak of his whistles tho respect
 ing French train whistles) and off
 we go. Our destination? We'll that
 did not bother us bit; any place . to get out of Brest. The train started up a hill and all of sudden :, it started back down. was sitting - next to the window on the bank |, side of the track. and all of a sud, f den the cut was full of Yank sol. q diers, shouting, Jump, lieutenant l. There is going to be an awfn s wreck" We'll, we did not need 2 i. second invitation, so all piled out f l lit in a pile of blackberry vines il but just the same lit running anC S started up the side of the cut. The train had broken in two (if@.yor f could see the way the French hool a up train you would wonder how d they ever held togetherl and haG
 started back down grade and thu
 second section of the train was com <, ing up behind But they stopped + the loose end our train and tied i