Imperial Valley press., 1919-04-22
BIG WELCOME
HOME PLANNED
TO LOCAL BOYS

The boys are coming home.
They will return to us within a
week or ten days.
This news electrified the Imperial
Valley today as the men of the gal
liant 364th regiment, who bore the
hrunt of some of the heaviest fightinf
that sent the Hun scurrying to cover
disembarked from the trains at Cam
Kearney.
Scores of homes. whose distinguis
ing mark Of sacrifice made on the
tar of country was the service fls
with its proud little star, was ma
Happy by the announcement that ''ti
boy would soon be home, while
every home, business house and offic
there was the kindred feeling of pride
gladness and welcome.
The regiment will be held at Camp
kearney not to exceed a week or ten
days, while the machinery for muster
ing out takes it's slow course. Fifty
six Imperial Valley boys. according to
the register issued by Colonel Bennett,
the commanding officer, belong to the
various companies of the regiment.
AS this is the largest single group
of local "Yanks" to receive their hon
cradle discharges at the same time.
Ell Centre. and the whole Imperial
Valley, for that matter. should be a
unit in welcoming the boys home in
the warmest manner possible.
To that end the County Council of
Defense, of which District Attorney
E. r. Simon is chairman, is consid-
ering a welcome fiesta which will
probably include some Of the follow
ing items:
If arrangements can be made with
the camp authorities an effort will
be made to have them discharged on
Friday or Saturday or next week This
would allow plenty of time during the
week END for a cavalcade of as many
automobiles as could be gotten to-
gether to go to the Coast and trans
port the boys home.
At the city limits it is proposed
that the party be met by an official
reception committee. An appeal will
position to take soldier labor to leave
their applications fer men at the Fed
eral Employment office or the Farm
Bureau.
These will be held until the day of
tiiC al VI tilC ueldCillitlil anu dill
who desire work will be placed in
position to Immediately don "civvies"
and re-enter civilian life in an inde-
pendent manner.
Then it is proposed to hold a street
dance or dinner as the tribute of the
City of Ell Centre for the work the
boys of the regiment performed for
Old Glory over there.
fitf1,r. 4,.,I - L.
failed to come back will be the plant
ing of a memorial tree by the Off
GERS and members of the Woman's
Ten Thousand Club.
Here is something of the immortal
story of the regiment written in blood
on the battlefields of France and de
picted by Joseph Timmons of the Los
Angeles Examiner:
where for eight days and nights it
participated glorioUsly in the hardest
fighting that our soldiers did in
France, the 364th Infantry noth be-
came veteran and wen its place in
the rank of regiments which distin-
guished themselves on the battlefield.
again in Flanders, a month later,
after hurried and exhausting trip
from the Argonne front to the north
ern front, the regiment participated
with high honor in the attack which
drove the Germans back ten miles
and across the Scheldt river and gave
our division the important city of Au-
denarde.
MEN of the regiment lie buried all
the way from the edge of a wood Just
north of Sigalerie Butte, where the
Argonne fighting started, to the
northern edge of the Bois de Baulny,
north of Eclisfontaine. Others sleep
in graves scattered from Waereghem
through the Spitaals Bosscnen TO the
banks of the Scheldt.
THE regiment was organized during
the last days of August, 1917, al
Camp Lewis, and it got ITS first quota
of men early in September. Its COM
mander was Colonel Elmer w. Clark
of the regular army. Its adjutant was
Captain A. B. Richeson, training
camp officer who had been city edi-
tor of the Portland Oregonian, who
as a major leading the first battalion
vas wounded in the Argonne by ma
chine gun bullets and invalided home,
is now back at his newspaper desk.
Training continued through long
months in which the men reached a
high degree of perfection nth the ri
file, automatic rifle ana machine gun.
in grenade throwing, in the use of
the bayonet, and in maneuvers But
during those months men were taken
from its ranks at intervals 10 be sent
overseas as replacements, and new
men had to be trained. Finally in the
NnI Il