New Britain herald., 1919-01-24

Frank McKeon Is Chief.
 Word has been received by the friends and relatives of Frank Mckeon that he has been promoted to chief petty officer of the S. c. 43, which at the present time is doing duty in for eign waters. Chief Mckeon enlisted in the Naval Reserve force over a year ago and was stationed at New Haven for about three months, after ward being assigned to the s. C. 43, which left for Spain about six months ago. McKeon is the son of MT. and Mrs. John McKeon, of Wesleyan road. Harry McKeon, a brother, is also in the Naval Reserve force and at the present time is doing duty in foreign waters
 Sailor Ventres Writes.
 The following letter has been re- ceived from John Ventres, who is on the U. s. $. Chester and has been doing duty in foreign waters for over six months. He relates some of his experiences during the period when the German submarines were a men, ace in Atlantic waters.
 "Sheerness, England,
 Dec. ?, 1918,
 "U. s. S. Chester.
 Dear Mother:--Well, here goes to say that all is well and hoping that all are well at home. Did Harold get wounded again on Oct. 22 or 23? I saw his name in the casualty lists in two or three different papers but the last word that I had from him was dated SepteTn Der 21, but not a word since. I have sent two letters to both OrvilIe and Harold but as yet have re- ceived no answer. You most likely saw in the papers about the H. M. s. Britannia being sunk in the Straits of Gibraltar. Well, our ship relieved her at sea just two days before she was sunk. She was our last convoy from Gibraltar to Plym outh, England. This locality is where we did mosa of our work, usually making two trips a month.
 We left Provincetown, Mass, on Sunday morning, August 26, 1917, and was at sea for just week run ming by ourselves. We hit the Azores on Sunday one week later than the day we set sail and stayed there ex- actly three days. I got five or six hours shore leave here. After our tim was up we returned to our ship and left the Azores on Wednesday morning and got into Gibraltar Sat urday morning. I have surely climbed the rock all over a number of times, believe me.
 "A year ago last October we were in Milford Haven, Wales and 1t was there that I made my trip to London and the second trip the 22nd of March. We then sailed to Brest, France, last July and it was there where I met Ida 8 hubby, Ensign Jos eph Kaminski, and another New Brit ain fellow.
 "Srheerness is about two hours ride from London or about 52 miles. It is the entrance to the Thames river. We are leaving here about next Thursday and where we are going I don't know. I hear some talk about going to the Kie1 canal. Well, old Kaiser Bill got his full share of fight ing all right believe me, for there was no retreat for those Tanks. I have met some Australians that the Tanks relieved and they told us that when the Doughboys went over the top they just cleaned up everything and got what they went after. They also stat l ed that they never saw any army put up such a stiff fight as our boys did. "Oh yes, we have run-ins with subs. One night, September 5, I had l the 12-to-4 a. m. watch and we en- countered three submarines and we cleaned up two out of the three of