The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-01-28
FROM THE BOYS IN SERVICE
Recent Letters Descriptive of the Life of the Boys
5@9fe in Army and Navy

|
ing that | must ] viii have to watch |
myself lest | disclose some military
secret.
| | will start with Oct. 18th, at which
time we left Garden City and went to
| Hoboken and boarded the good ship
! Agamemnon, formerly the Kaiser Will
helm III, the second largest ship afoat.
| The German government very kindly
consented" to let us use the ship in
order to carry soldiers to France.
] The next afternoon, Oct. 16, about
four o'eolck, we sailed out of the har-
Dor, and sometime during the night
We're joined by another ship, and a
destroyer which stayed with us for
three days and then came back.
/ Our trip across was uneventful un-
less you can call getting seasick an
levent and that IS what most of MS did
We were called at clock every morn
ing, had two boat drills each day, and
had two meals day, that is, when we
felt disposed to eat. Safe to say, some
of the time we did not There were a
few on board lucky enough to eat every
Lneal but for my part | don t see how
they did It. Some of the time | was
content to lie in my bunk and dream
of all the good things l would eat. If |
ever got ashore again.
| The seventh day out we were met by
five of the incest looking little destroy
ers | have ever seen, in fact, | never
dreamed that destroyers could look as
good. For FIVE days we had been with
out protection other than our own
guns; perhaps that S the reason the
destroyers looked so good to US.
About the middle of the afternoon,
Friday, Oct. 25th we sighted land and
about sunset we put into the harbor at
Brest, in the northwest OF France. The
next morning we were taken ashore in
a SMALL boat and marched about four
miles TO what is called a rest camp
and while there we found everything
but crest" (more later.
On the way 10 this camp we encount-
cred numerous French kids who sell
nuts and candy to the passing soldiers.
! There is nothing funny about that, but
what did amuse us was the fact that
a the kids were singing, Hail, Hail, the
: Gang S All Here just as though it was
natural We also had our first glimpse
of German prisoners, all wearing light
green uniforms with big white letters
a p. w. stamped on the front of them
and guarded by big brawny colored
:; gentlemen who are as much afraid OF
the Huns as the Huns are of them. Be
/ ing afraid of each other they manage
e to get along fairly well.
g These Huns all looked clean and wei
$ fed and most of them looked eontented
e Well, the sons-ofguns ought to,-they
get better treatment than they die
/ when they were fighting, and also ge
;; paid for working
T; In this camp we lived in squad tent:
y and slept, ate and wallowed in nice
h thick, rich, juicy mud. Honest Charles
n | never saw so much mud in my life
l. 1t rained every day we were there. ant
on top of that, we had a wind storm
one night that nearly blew off the fac
s. of the earth. We stayed awake a goo,
s. share of the night driving tent pegs an,
S. as fast as we got them driven the win,
s. would hammer at the tent and pull
s. them out again.
8. Well, after ten days of that life W
g. finally packed up and moved out. On
W morning we got up at o clock an,
If marched over that four miles again, t
as the station and boarded one of thos
F. funny little French trains, and
WASH t a freight train either. We rod
70 first and second class, 1t took Us fror
in 6 clock one morning until 8 eloc
he the following afternoon TO make tri
or that would have taken about II hour
I'd i'll the states, and then we arrived a
nv st. MaiNent, town of about fly
a. thousand people, situated about sevent
nd five miles from Bordeaux and abou
nd thirty miles from the coast. 1t is
r. very interesting little town, the beaut
re les and wonders of which | will e.
pound when | can see you, because m
70 powers of description are limited TheI
I is one thing | might mention and this
ia is an old cathedral which was built
a the fifteenth century, which is mad
it entirely of stone, not a nail or piece {
at wood used in its construction. 1t W;
.at made famous by Napoleon, being use
of By him as a barracks after his retul
,m from exile. One Sunday | attende
mass there and one day while lookiT
ow around inside we bumped into we
NO ding, which of course we stayed to wi
an ness.
nut Our life here is not very hard; all v
all do is guard once a week and X.
are about once every two weeks, the re
be of the time we loaf, and anxious
on await the order to pack up and
to home. We have all sorts of rumo
ers floating about as to the time of our
/. | parture. Most every day brings for
a new story, and we believe all of the
wn or none of them just as we may fe
all 1t is my candid opinion that we W
md be home sometime during the year 49,
ind That, of course, is a military secret,
on. don I tell anybody.
!. Christmas. arrived and passed rig
i1st over us as though nothing happent
on and the only way we knew it W
Christmas was by looking at the c:
n ender. We did receive a box from t
= r Y. NJ. containing smokes and eho'
arm late, and | ate the chocolate SO fl
al that / forgot | had had it.
Now | think I viii stop, Charl
otherwise you will have a headac
,pd from reading and / might devel