Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-06-06
The Navy Did 1t

ers, negotiated the transatlantic
flight, things were not a whit out of
their proper sphere and order. For
the navy has been accustomed to
move around over that thr9e-quarters
of the earth which is water, and took
it as a matter of course that three
quarters of the air over the earth vas
to be their flying field, to be cut by
their air lanes and roads. They were
not appalled, by the big space or dis
tance. Teey were used, by old habit,
to thinking in big numbers.
And that's just a way the navy has.
They are willing to tackle three-quar-
tiers of the job any time and any
where. And why r they able to
do it? Preparation, boy, preparedness
that starts clear back at the laying of
keels and the teaching of sport and
starboard," and boxing the compass
to the kid apprentice seamen.
Thenavy takes a lad from the farm,
the high school or business, and starts
him right in at the "Blue Jacket Uni
yersity." He goes to school, he learns
how to do things he likes, well. He
becomes a trained man technically,
and all the time he is having the time
of his life. He lives well, takes part
in the sports and amusements that
are partHof the navy game wherever
there are sailors or ships and he re-
ceiyes good pay while going TO school.
In this war the navy was answering
s'Ready, sir! Only need to coal up"
just twenty days after war was de-
they we're ready because they had
been on the job all the time, and they
have kept on that job, only stopping
to coal. and are at it yet. They brot
'em all over, marines and army and
supplies. They kept piracy down on
top Of the water, under the water, and
in the air above the waters, moving
around in more media than any other
arm of service-Water, under water,
air and ven IN land.
And with that desire to be in the
s'thick of it,. which is a ruling pas
sion with every Navy man, they sent
over to the front lines some of their
fourteen inch guns, designed for bat
tleships. And they manned those
giant guns with sailor-boys. just
imagine, up at Verdun, fighting on
land, were seamen. A Chief Boat
swat MS Mate instead of a top SER
geant was piping out his commands.
A ships crew was preparing "chow,"
and a shipfitter was working on the
cars or which the guns were trans
ported. And they talked their own
lingo while they fought. They
called the dug-outs ''down in the
double bottoms" telephone wires
were rigging" and ''over the top"
was getting under way" Their
shells fell alongside the Huns lines
of communication, and demolished
them, killing the land pirates. These
guns were the most powerful artilI-
cry in France, and were one of the
reasons why the Germans threw up
their hands as a nation and begged
for peace. And this fourteen inch
show was a Webfooted show from
start to finish. They were Navy
guns, brought to France by our Navy
and manned by our own Navy boys,
many of them Wisconsin lads, who
had enlisted enlisted in our own
state, been trained at Great Lakes,
and had gone over to tell the world
that the Navy is a dead ringer for
ability in any line it takes up.
One of the men who was in France
with those guns, is now a foreman in
a big plant in Milwaukee. And I'll
say the plant knew what kind of a
man they yer getting when they
sought out a Navy machinist to do
their work.
The Navy has a most intimate
connection with the 32nd-the RED
ARROWS. They were the bow that
shot those arrows over and back.
Your Uncle Sam was the archer, and
pulled the cord, but the good hickory
bow was the U. S. Navy, which is
mighty proud to have let fly such an
arrow as the Barred One.