Evening star., 1919-03-16
Leon Poore of Ten1ey-
to,On Tells Of Exber;-.
ences Along the Battle
Lines IN France A
Stay at Brest The
Last Great Drive
Gas and a She'll Hole.

7 EON POORE. the only District
boy in the only gas and fame
II regiment in the American ex-
peditionary force. is back at
the home on Grant road, Tenleytown,
in which he was born twenty three
years ago. There he had spent nearly
twenty-five years of his life. with his
sisters. Ada. Florence. who is now Mrs.
John Polony, and her husband, and
Clara. few years his senior.
Hastily summoned from his Christ
mas dinner fourteen months ago by
the word that his regiment was to be
mobilized and he must report at once,
he was en- route to France on the
President Grant twenty-four hours
later But he reached home In time
for his birthday dinner on Febru-
ary 10.
In between he had seen a year Of
life and death. He went over after
less than months training at Ameri-
pany A, 30th Engineers, in which A
and B were gas and fame" men-tWo
poor little companies. which were the
nucleus of that one overworked regi-
ment. which, because 1t was the only
one. was in the thick Of things. moved
up and down the entire battle 'front.'
wherever the A. E. F. was most up
against 1t, from the time the German
drive began last March until the ar
misice was signed in November. Never
a week Off duty in all that time!
Young Poore shudders at his mem
cries Of the transport going over. The
men were literally packed in layers.
hunks one over the other. three or
four deep, the men all strangers to one
another and to their surroundings the
vessel feeling it's way across In abso-
lutte darkness. no man allowed to light
a cigarette after dark and all required
to put their watches--if they had lu-
minous dials--under cover, ana OF
course increasing tension IN the
watch for submarines as they heareo
the other side.
Their thrills began early, Their ma
jor-their own major. miho VOW
man. young Poore says, who spoke
such broken English that the boys
could hardly understand his orders; 1
don't see how he ever managed 70 see
as far as he did" was discovered sls-
mailing with a fiashlight and was ar
rested and taken from the vesse. mr;ea
they reached Brest. He was hurrIeu
away. the boys understood, TO Paris
where they believe he was shot as
spy. IT., ..,+o oy
And young Poore had his TASTE oa
Brest. 1t dIA not seem so pao Wnen
they landed. In fact, ~ was that
relief to be able to land at all tha'
nothing would have mattered much.
But they were there nearly three
weeks on the way home. and well. II
was pretty bad. Mud up to your knees
most everywhere; raining all the
time: worst food we hao any any ..nio an
we were over there. and no comfort IN
eating It; men and officers lined up to-
rether for 1t seemed like hours un-
der a dripping shed, and our chow
handed out to u5 in the most misere-
BILE discomfort. One thing we were
loused you know: but honest-to- good
ness, hadn't been troubled with 'em
at all--had scarcely met a cootie at
close quarters until after I got there!
but got 'em there. all right.
"Infiuenxa! Well. we'd heard about
1t down at the front. but 80 far as !
know none Of our boys had suffered
from 1t much At least ! don't think
1t boosted our mortality any until we
got to Brest. There A Company lost
three men from it-men who had
stood all the hard fighting. the
months at a stretch and gone through
unscathed; then to die awaiting ships
at Brest. 1t broke us all up when
the parents of one of those boys came
to Camp Mills to meet him-came
good many hundred miles. and he
wasn't there.
Il
II believe we were supposed to get
cleaned up and rested and generally
made At there before returning to
our folks, but how could we2 There
was plenty Of rain. but no water
worth mentioning for washing pur-
poses. No hot water anyhow. And
cold water, when you're wet and
muddy. and your quarters are wet and
muddy, and everything in sight for