The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-24

he has for the old seth. HIS was with
it during its fighting in the Tcul sec
tor in the St. Mihiel drive, northwest
of Verdun and in the Argonne. Dur
ing most of this time, covering a Le-
riod from August to October 81, he
was assistant chief of staff and saw
much of the divisions work on the
front lines while doing PC" duty.
NO soldiers could have been brav-
er or done better work than the divi-
sion General Wood trained here at
Funston Majo. Goodman said.
From August to the gning o. he
armistlce. the old seth was in action
practically all of the time and the
men were never called upon for a
duty they did not perform. And what
. is more, they fought and endured
every danger and hardship of the
front lines without a murmur or a
kick. 1 tell you it was a wonder full
division-and every officer in France
viii tell you the same thing
Major Goodman, who has been in
army service since 1916, when he en-
tered the service of the United States
from the Colorado national guard or.
ganization, Joined the 89th while it
was in the training area in July, 1918,
after he mad been graduated from the
staff college in France. He did not
leave it until October 81, 1918
Out West persons who are inter
ested in their famous "OW' division
VIII never hear more fascinating
story OF the war than Goodman tells.
without reference to himself, he can
talk by the hour of the glorious rec
ord made by the Eighty-ninth and of
the great deeds of heroism of its in
d1viduals. In fact, the major will not
talk about himself to any extent and
whenever he does it is always to give
an interesting incident about the bray-
hPrOIS nf IL
whom he saw under fire But there
is no end to his conversation about
the Eighty-ninth.
He will tell you that this division
ranked fifth of all the divisions in
france in ground gained, despite the
fact that it did not get into action
until long after many of the other
divisions. He will tell you of its dar-
ing raids. Of its long stays in the fnont
lines and of the fact that it was the
only division to take over a trench
sector in its entirety without aid from
the French Then he will relate how
the doughboys of the division chased
the Boche in motor trucks, how they
to1k prisoners daily in sectors where
other divisions failed to get a single
prisoner ard of individual deeds of
heroism almost beyond belief.
We relieved another American d.
vision that had not taken a single
prisoner except deserters," Major
showed up the other division is one of
their best records. There was not a
day that our raiding parties did not
bring in prisoners and sometimes they
would come in with as many as nine
or dozen. And, greater STILL we did
not lose single prisoner during all
the time We were in this sector"
A Story of Gas.
One of the amusing incidents the
major tells happened when the divi-
sion headquarters were in a little town
within gas reach.
1t was rainy night-as most of
the nights were-and l was out in
front when runner came in with the
report that they were gassing the
town only a few blocks from head
quarters.
81 sent a runner to find out what
kind of gas the boche was using and
went to report to General Wright 1
told the general about it and told him
l thought it was nothing more than
mustard gas. but would go down per-
sonally and investigate. When came
back to report I was sneezing at