Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-03-29
INTERESTING STORY OF MOHAVE COUNTY
 BOY IN BIG BATTLE
Wienan, Germany. February 2Sth, 1919

Wlenan, Iefmany
 February 2Sth, 191e
 Dear Don:
 l was on guard last night so will
 do my writing tonight. I will begin
 by telling you all my experiences in
 brief.
 l left Kingman as you know Aug
 ust End, 1917, and landed in Los An
 geles August 3rd. Of course you
 know what we did there for nearly two weeks. After you left for King
 man l went to the recruiting station
 and enlisted. They were going to
 make me stay in Los Angeles couple
 of days until some more fellows en-
 listed, but was so glad to think I passed examinations that I paid my own way to Arcadia, California. landed there August 18th and was sworn in August 18th. Then I spent two weeks of awful homesickness get ting my shots in the arm and vacin- ation, but it finally passed, and I join ed my Company K, then seventh Cal ifornia Infantry in San Bernardino on the 3Oth day of August. I was with my Company nine days, then I was sent on detachment service at Victor vile, California, guarding railroad bridge. There is where I had the real soldier life, and it was just like picnic to me. I went to dances in Victorville, had lots to eat, and river to swim in, so was we'll satisfied. But at last it all came to an end when we received word to pack up. We left there on Friday October 18th in a | freight train, and had a lot of fun on our way down. But we made up for it when we rejoined our Company on Monday, tearing down tents and cleaning up. We left San Bernardino 1 Tuesday morning for Camp Kearney, Cal, as we thought, but instead land ed in Arcadia.
 But on the way there we stopped three hours in Los Angeles and had the time of our lives. We stayed ten days in Arcadia, and then pulled bag gage for Camp Kearney. This camp was newly built and talk about dust, we had it there, especially the day we landed October 31st, as the wind was blowing about two hundred miles an hour. .
 Then began the real drilling, from i 7:30 A. M. to 11:30 A. M. and 1 100 P. M. to 400 P. M. and believe me you f had to soldier. To tell the truth | didn't like that at all, what I wanted was to get to France to see some i Dutchmen.
 One day It. Starr called us all in J he mess hall, and asked who wanted t % go to France, and believe me he l. got enough volunteers, as there was V 'nly to be six to leave. We'll, he pick sd five other men and myself, and s hen was real happy. We stayed a a week in the Company street most of t he time waiting for orders to go, and a finally we got there on the 18th of v March. We stayed in the Casual il lamp until March 25th on which day n ve left for Camp Merritt, reaching t, here on Sunday seven days later. a ur1ng this time we were examined W bout a dozen times, but I passed o. T {. i, We left Camp Merritt on the third f, ay after reaching it and got aboard \ he U. s. Transport America, April u tn and left the Harbor Cat Hoboken) Ipril 9th, 1918. I was kept busy on al ha trip over in the kitchen, or galley u 8 the soldiers call it, so didn't get u ga sick, but nevertheless quite dizzy. fc The America carried about seven tl ,ousand troops, and talk about eats n, ley had them on the boat. The only th 'ouble it was awful cold and rainy, v didn't stay out on deck much. We sf i'd not have any trouble with sub ca larlnes on our way over, so landed tn afe in Brest, April 18th, 1918, and sf it the boat the next day. We hiked ve miles to the Old Napoleon bar w 'cks with full packs, and believe me tn was all in when I got there. We lii ever got anything to eat until ten te clock that night, and that was rot A n. That wasn't all it was showing. ca Id cold. l had three blankets but fe early froze during the night, and TT 'uldn't even keep warm during the bu 'y. The three days we were there, oh emed like three months, but it fin of ly passed and we left for the depot do get on the train. There were many to -ench boys and girls standing on the I , les of the road begging cigarettes nj, we passed. We waited all day at an @ depot, and then loaded on box lin IS, about half as big as ours, and re, aded with forty men. We spent on rec days on the way, and expected we y minute to freeze to death. I have ra, ne through the same experience gu my times since, but was touehened. didn't mind it, much. CTS We arrived in a little berg late in sis evening, stayed there all that of