Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1919-04-24
Our Soldier Boys.

D0A OOAotSA AOyo"
A lettel has been received from
Emmett Gillian, 362d Infantry, 91st
Division, known as the famous Wild
Cat Division, saying he reached the
United States on the transport Luck
endach, on April 18th. They were
in the battle of the st. Mihiel and
Argonne-M ense drives, and Emmett
was fortunate enough to escape I'M
hurt. He has been in France, Luxem-
burg, Germany and most of the coun-
tries of Western Europe, but is thank
full to be back in the old United States
once more.
Lawrence Aldrich writes to home
folks that he has enlisted for another
year. For nearly a year he has been
at Base Hospital st Camp Grant, and
the discharge Board assured him he
would not get out before November.
The boys who have made good and
are lots of help find the Government
loath to part with them. Lawrence
will get q 80 day furlough at once,
with mileage and pay and food rations.
Win also get his $4,000 bonus, and
have the comfort OF knowing that he
will serve his government at a time
when they need him badly to take
care OF the many wounded and Grip :
pied boys who r. returning from
overseas.
/ Most of the 35th Division has now
sailed. The 138th Infantry will land
in a few days. The boys were in many
hard battles, and all of them will not
return. If we would listen to the COM
plants made by some Of their friends
of casualties suffered by them, and
the unwise bowls of some of the St.
Louis papers that they do not get
home before other Divisions do, we
might think they were not as brave a
Division as some of the others, who
took all that was coming to them and
never complained, But we are sure
the boys deeply resent these unwise
acts of their friends, and that they
are brave and true men, who will
never whimper nor complain. Per-
haps by next week we can publish
the names of some of our own boys
of that Division who are back.
Lionel Hartzell writes that he has
returned from a run around Europe.
Visited Luxembourg, Lorraine, France,
Italy, Spain and back to Germany.
He finds it a small world after all. 81
do not want you to think [ am like
the boys whose one thought is Il want
to go home,' but still l think the fell
lows who have never been to
Germany and furthermore who never
got even into q battle or even in ear
shot of a field piece nor heard an
Austrian IS or a German n go through
the air and explode 20 or 80 yards
away, they are the ones who should
keep the watch on the Rhine. But |
guess it is up to me to stay in the
A. o. until my contract expires,
which is about four months after the
peace is signed, or as long thereafter
as Uncle Sam sees fit. Our Band is
now in the Bridge Head city of Cob
lenz doing duty with the I'd Bn. of the
58th Infantry. VIZ play parade Gone
hour) in the morning. Guard Mount
Gone hour afternoon one day, and a
boat excursion trip up the Rhine
the second day. Thus alternating
parade one day and excursion the
next day. l am going to Kelberg On
business tomorrow. Leo Flynn is a
Sergeant Major in the Second Bat
talon ofthe 58th and | see him every
day while here. In order to get me
out, l would have to have a widowed
mother, 3 helpless grandmother, a
wife and IA sick children and the wife
dying and all my ~neighbors starving
before the discharge was considered.
Lieut.. Walter D. Kendall, 33S In
fantry, 85th Divisisn, has been dis
charged and is now at home. The
whole Ssh, or Custer Division, has
returned. Lieut.. Kendall left Brest on
March 26 and arrived at New York
on April 2. He says he was ten days
at Brest. That it was cold and rainy,
of course, but he did not suffer at all,
That eve while he was there he saw
continued lmprovement,an and that they
have a splendid messing system. That
they also have lots Of barracks now
and the men who are in tents are
comfortable. The S5th Division was
only in the front lines the last two
days of fight, but that they sent many
requirements to the other divisions
those men being replaced in theil
division by newer ones coming in
That he himself had taken men up tc
the 35th and other Divisions.
The parents of Russell Riggs have
been informed-by the Graves Regis
tration Service chat he is buried il
the Communal Cemetery at St
,Etienne-Arnes Ardennes, France
They knew the battle OF Blanc Mon
Ridge was fought near st. Etienne
but as the Marines on October 9th haC
pushed On beyond the town, they die
not know that the body was ,brough
back and buried there. In the Cam
payne Drive the Second Division dill
not fight with General Pershing, blu
with the French General Gcuraud 0