Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1919-03-08
GLENN HACKER BACK,
TELLS ABOUT The WAR
AND ITS EFFECT ON men

First Class Sergt Glenn Hacker of
the One Hundred and Second Engi
neers, of Palisade, returned from over
seas last Saturday, the first of the old
Twenty Regiment contingent to
return on the Rochambeau, which
locked in the Hudson river near Four
teenth street last week Friday about
4 30 y. IN. The big ship did not have
on her all the requirements of com
fort, and there were some times when
leaks in the old hulk were discovered
and quite Il lot of pumping was in
dulged in to keep the boys muscles i'll
trim Glenn, aside from Il hacking
cough brought about by his having
his life He looks Il bit more mature,
perhaps, appears taller by inches and
is much heavier in stature.
"Would / like to go back?" he asked
in answer to IL query ''Well, now you
don't want me to say yes TO that ques-
ton No, stree | have had enough.
When any fellow tells you he did not
get enough. send him to me and I'll
look into his case, as IL true sergeant
should 1t may be that | was seques-
tered off with the British in Flanders,
where the ration is not as large us the
American boys have. But, anyhow, |
was generally either hungry or wet.
We got right into the thick of action
three weeks after we arrived in
France last May. We got near the
German trenches from the very out
set We had all the occupation, too,
that anybody could ask or stand. Our
work with the engineers kept us busy
every minute. The engineers could
only operate by night, and always
without lights. We fast became owls.
What we could not see we felt. But
we could always hear, and many Il
night when we We're laying rails or
surveying and building new line of
narrow gauge or constructing trenches
we heard shells whistle at all hours
and sometimes every minute. We got
so we could tell about where they were
going to strike. | had them fall around
me, but | never got hit but once and
that never amounted to anything
much 1t was Il shell that caught me-
but | never so much as WINGED, nor
stopped work Il minute. Once you
get the meaning of occupation, you
do not, know anything else. Was |
scared? Candidly, we never had time
to be scared. OF course, we were OBJ
servant. For instance. the bosche
whiZbangS made us do IL lot of think
ing as well as lodging we would not
otherwise have done. perhaps. What
is Il whizbang? Why, it is II range
finding shell with il different sound
from anything else, and | believe they
travel faster. They come singing over
with whizbang, striking somewhere
before you can think. That's how they
get the name. The other big shrapnel
shells make il longer whistle and can
be lodged, and their point of impact
may be really calculated by their
sound. We have done that many
times. Yes. many shells fell near
where we We're operating, but we were
just lucky, that's all | am glad and
sorry | went over-glad for the sake
of the country, and sorry the contract
was so hard on our boys, myself in
cluded. There may be certain extern |
uating circumstances in war. Patri |
otiSm is the basis of it all. But in t
point of fact. one time in ii war is I
enough for any man, and this is not +
discrediting my own or any mans pa
triotism. Being back on American soil 7
is the proudest experience of my life. I
Palsade looked to me like paradise
and ii is in the fullest sense. My joy
is really ineXpressible.
And the dear fellow really looked I
the part, and any listener in on his
might have had two sen
of interest, the other just
to gather him and give him a hug and +
forget anything like moist eyes
Sergeant Hacker stood an eXamina-
ton at an officers school in France I
before leaving and was given a signed T
certificate appointing him to the office
of second lieutenant in the army.
fiKCCD TuIo Manu-