The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-02-28
PRIEST GETS DIS. G.
FOR VALOR ON FIELD
Chaplain Attended Wounded
in No Mans Land Amid
Shell Fire.
OLDEST PRIVATE IS BACK
Transport Wilhelmina Comes
In With 1,461 After a
Rough Trip.

iho thHsport WiinelrnlHa, WnlCn spent
most Of sixteen days from Bordeaux
buckins westerly gales and combins
seas, brought here yesterday eleven de-
tschments of convalescents made up
of eighty three officers and 1875 men
under command Of Col. E. J. Cullen Of
the Regular Army.
Chaplain Charles C. Conaty, Catho-
lie priest Of Taunton. Mass, came home
with the Distinguished Service Cross
for valorious conduct at the second
battle Of the Marine. He was with the
111th Infantry of the Twenty-eighth
Division. A detachment n his COM
mand was cut Off while In ascemetery on
July IS and were forced to fall back.
leaving their wounded when night set
In. The chaplain was in charge OF a
small squad OF stretcher bearers that
crawled out into No Mans Land and
brought back the wounded amid
shower OF shells. He also went out alone
and ministered to the wounded and
gave the dying the last rites He was
kassed at Chateau Thierry and in the
Argonne and wears two wound stripes.
Oldest Private Returns.
Private Robert w. Loudon OF AL
buquerque, New Mexico. aged so. be-
lieves he Is the oldest enlisted man In
the service. He served as cook In the
Thirteenth Field Artillery after having
persuaded q doctor and a recruiting ser
eeant to pass him. he averring that he
was about 40. He is a veteran OF the
Spanish American War and when he
found that three OF his sons had gone
to war he decided TO make an effort TO
get into the game himself. He sneaked
away one morning, he said, to a little
town a hundred miles on to put up his
blum there believing that nobody would
know him. He found the recruiting
sergeant an old friend very sympa-
thetIc and quite willing to help the vet
ersn In his patriotic plan. The doctor
pronounced him In prime physical con-
d!tion.
When they asked him his age he asked
them what the age limit was and they
! told him 30. He said he would be Just
that old next birthday. and they let him
in. He was twice wounded In the Ar
gonne forest.
Corporal Paul Bonner OF 14s4 St.
Nicholas avenue fought with the Ma
rinee. won the Croix de Guerre and has
been recommended for the Distinguished
Service Cross The officers of his com
pany we're killed In the heavy she'll fire
In Belieau Woods. Bonner got a COM
pany together and led them to rescue the
wounded. He crawled 800 yards and
picked up his commander. Capt. Jehn
Blanchfeld. and carried him behind the
H. H.. sl.-
was dead
The Royal Italian Mail liner Caserta.
| from Marseilles and Gibraltar. brought
| back the Sixty-third Regiment Coast Ar.
tfNery Corps. which went to France in
! July in command Of Col. Fred w. P1is-
! terer of this city. Regular Army Of
! hcer once stationed at Fort Hamilton
| The armistice came while the Sixty
third was at Metz. ready and eager to
go in. For two months they were sta
| toned at Limoges, and nearly every
officer sent home 10 his wife or his
mother or his sweetheart q set OF the
celebrated ware, appropriately mono
gramrned.
! United States Filler Wins Palm.
Lieut.. IT. L. Stickney OF Ludlow. Vt
nephew of former Governor w. w
| SIrkneE. wore me NTOiX DE Juerre with
a palm for bringing down a two seated
! Hun plane in the Champagne sector.
knocking out two German two seaters IN
the Montdidier sector and later destroy
ing a German observation balloon. He
was twenty -one months In the service
and his machines were -iddled, but he
| never was wounded.
Lieut.. Charles Baskerville, Jr, con Of
Prof. Charles Baskerville OF the College
OF the City OF New York. went out with
the Rainbow Division and was wounded
in the left shoulder IN the Champagn
by fragment of high explosive she'll
| which kept him In hospital two weeks
He rejoined hisscompsny and later was
9assed and put out Of the fighting for
good. He 10 almost well.
The transport JTlua. from Brest.
brought 1.iso men OF the American Ex-
peditionary Force. chiefly negro troops
including the 317th Trench Mortar Bat
terry of Eve officers and l44 enlisted men.
who. according to Lieut.. William Wise
was the first negro artillery to go into
a~-ion in France.