Mexico weekly ledger., 1919-01-30
WRITES OF NJ. 7. c.
John EctOn Tells of Experiences and
Work in Service.

John Ecton, of this. city, who is in
the U. S. Motor Transport service,
writes the Ledger the following inter
esting letter concerning his work:
Dear Editor
Jan. 26th, 1919.-As per my prom
Use l will write a few lines explaining
the work of the Iotor Transport
Corps, while l know what l have 20
write will not be near so interesting
as letters from the boys overseas.
However it may be of interest to some
So far have not heard of any Mexico
boys being in the NJ. T. c., so guess
I shall begin and give a complet des-
cription of the work cf the corps.
The NJ. T. C. is new branch of SER
vice hardly three months old. Form
erly the work now being done by the
Gas Hounds" was handled by the
Quartermaster Department.
Like all other branches we have
nick name, which is "Gas Hounds"
In November all truck light car re-
pairing and transporting supplies was
assigned to the new corps. We were
then given purple hat cords in place
of the Quartermaster cords, and now
our new insignia is motor car wheel
with a winged hat in the center the
wheel, denotes power and the hat
speed.
The hat is reproduction of the one
worn by the Greek God of speed.
For overseas duty the corps are di-
vided into two kinds of units, base and
field.
The field units are equipped with re-
pair shops on large trucks and their
duty is to repair crippled trucks near
the front providing the work to be
done on each truck is estimated to take
less than eight hours. If it should
take longer. the field units tow them
into the base units, which are per-
manently located and much better
equipped for repair work.
The field units consist of only 35I
men while the base units contain $50
and some times more.
In the base units there are to bel
found nearly every kind of tradesman
such as blacksmiths, carpenters, weld
ers, radiator repair men, motor mech
anics, motorcycle repair men, vulcan
izers, painters, timers, storage battery
repair men and electricians, also store
keepers to take care of the large
stores of repair parts.
was assigned to the Storage Bat
terry and Elec. Department in Base
Unit No. 316.
and were scheduled to leave for over
seas on Nov. 18th, but after the Ar
mistice was signed we remained in
Ft. Bliss, Texas, where we were sta
toned.
Our intensive training soon slack
ened and we were set to work trans
porting supplies ad making necessary
repairs on trucks. We handled all re-
pair work for the 5th, and 7th Com
panies, and the Sth and 9th Engineers
also work from Camp Cody and other
nearby Camps. We cleaned up nearly
all work on the Border and were then
transferred to Ft.<Sill.
Believe me I am sure glad to ge back
to Goods Country" Of course l
wont say anything against Texas.
However, am not much in love with
that country and I do think we should
be allowed to wear gold stripes for
being in "No Mans Land"
Since we arrived here we have been
busy driving trucks, so far we have
done very little repair work for the
new shops here are not yet completed.
SO far we haven't heard anything
official about being discharged, how
ever l am very we'll satisfied for was
lucky to be transferred this close 20
home. Part of the boys at Ft. Bliss
were sent to Toledo, Ohio, Salt Lake
City, Utah, Camp Lewis, Wash, and
Douglas, Arizona. So I was sure pleas
ed to get in the Et. Sill branch.
Well as it is neailK. mess time l will
close hoping I haven'G taken to much
space in your paper.
AS ever,
PRIVATE JOHN ECTON,
NJ. T. c. Hdq. Deatch., Ft. Sill, Okla.