Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-03-11
tBy Earle n. To.t.vin,

(By Earle H. T~O0IoV1nl
Since the first days Sf the American
pitied the poor casual. h poo pit
Of notsam in the sea Of army lie.
s.Consider the poor casual. he sleeps
not neither does he grin, yet Persh-
ing in all his glory has not the tasks
Of one of these"
A casual has been variously 1e-
scribed, humorously and patnetlca!Ly
vat never has q complete or ntting
description been devised. He includes
s man arriving from III states
Without an organization. includes the
men who have been wounded ana
discharged from hospitals, in TACT all
soldiers wrD through various means
in the army have become 1851 OF aFe
in process Of being found.
Yet. while the army world mas Al
ways held a sort of tolerant pity Tor
the casual, the greatest share OF tne
sympathy should have gone 10 the
men and the units who were handling
the everlasting stream OIL m and TnaIs
shifted and shunted, sorted ana maj
o.. ass;ened to some combat or active
And there is where the skeleton OF
the original 164th, infantry. First
North Dakota regiment; where tne
few officers and non-commissioh ed
Len skinned and stripped to the
Mne by replacement demands IN
&nuary, 1918, made their records.
F the 164th infantry, or what re-
Mained of it, handled $1,000 Hen
dom June / to January l, 1sl9:cIhe
lst division. which vas maoe tns
first depot DIVISION nahoAeu q Is eel.
total Of $1,000 men, who were class!-
fed. treated to all the equipment,
training and inspection routine n
then sent on to a total Of SIS di1erent
units. r
AS I have told you in former letters:
the first battalion headquarters ana
supply companies, were assigned IN
January, 1918, to duty at the first
army corps school at Gondrecourt;
the second battalion to the second
army corps school at C~hatillon-sur-
Seine and the third battalion to the
army schools at Langres.
on June %. the third battalion
q Rovd in command, left Langres for
the St, Afghan classification center,
which was headquarters for the 4lst
division. Battalion headquarters were
established. at Meusnes. and there
were in the command just ~ enlist
ed men and ~ officers, ine a,S;ch w sas
also attached to the battalion.
But these TIA men tackled their
iob, Battalion headquarters were
Moyed from Meusnes to Centres and
then to st. Roman. and upon arrival
at the latter place assumed the "orR
Of and became regimental
scattered through towns in three
military districts, the farthest com
Ranies being 81 kilometers or q
miles apart.
Here are the towns various com
panies were stationed: Regimenta
Headquarters company and suppl:
company at Beauwsiers and Soings
Company A at Bourguignon; Com
pany b at Fresnes and Meyers; Com
pany G at the disciplinary barrack
and oisly; Company D at Chouss
and Meyers; Company e at st. Aig
Jan and Meurieul; Company F a
Aeusnes and Varney; Company H q
Sergy and Perrigoux; Companies
<snd L at Centres and Gouddes; Com
panies K and M at Meusnes and Con
tres.
Organised For Work.
Major Boyd Immediately establish
ed a working force in which captai
mental adjutant and Lieutenant Wa
ter. n. Hecker, became personnel ad
tutant. He selected from the old me
an efficient office force.
) The men ana by n 16xtn va
almost entirely draft men from Il
states sent over in so-called month
replacement units.
These soldiers from eve
state in the union and every RAJ
3 and nationality in the world. Thu
arrived dirty, filthy, fl1y-fed, and 'pel
less" Received by the 164th the
were first cleaned up, given oppoi
tunity to battle, then fresh underwes
and complete equipment was give
{ them.
Each company had organized VIII,
was called. q training "cadre" con
posed OF 13 sergeants, % corpora
and the necessary cooks.
The casuals received wero que
toned as to what military trainir
they had received in the states an
some astonishing discoveries wei
y made. Many men were absolutely vi
trained in the use C a rife, q lart
number being found to have on
been issued rifles the day before tn,
sailed for Europe. More than OF
man confessed that he had new
loaded or shot as much as a 20 cal
Der target rife in his life. The nj
were classified according to militia
III training. This took time and hal
e work on the part Of scores Of clerk
81 A six weeks course Of training "
TS >aa> s.-.- --