The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1919-01-02
LETTERS AND NEWS FROM
KENNEWICK'S VICTORY BOYS

II
Mrs. Gus Person, who lives on the
River Road, has received the following
letter from her nephew who has risen
to the highest non-commissioned rank
in the army:
Langres, Haute Marine, France
~. Nov. "a, 1918
Well, now that the censorship rules
have lifted little / am going to tell
YOU where l am and what kind of a
time we had coming here.
1 am first going to tell you where 1
am. If you look up on your map Il
guess you have an up-to-date map of
France) and find Nancy, then look
little further down, kind of southwest
and you'll find a place with the name
of Langres. That's the place where 1
am now and have been for the last
eleven months. Now / am going to
tell you what kind of trip we had
coming to this place. re ~. IN.
We left Hoboken Dec. Is, 1917, on
the U. S. S. Leviathan-her first trip
across the pond with soldiers aboard.
We had fine trip, little seasickness,
but nothing to talk about. We land
ed in Liverpool Dec. "a, about noon,
then we got on the train and started
out for Winchester, where we arrived
at / o'clock on the morning of the 18th.
We were marched out to what they
called a rest camp about four miles
from the railroad where we arrived
about 2 a. m, all tired out, so we
celebrated Merry Christmas by sleep
ing and resting up little.
We left Winchester in the morning
of the 26th and went down to South
ampton where we got on the ferry that
evening and crossed the channel that
night. We arrived in Havre, France
in the morning of the 9th and then
marched out to an English rest camp
where we stayed for three days sleep
ing on some chicken roosts and it was
about 20 below zero, SO we had a fine
time while we rested there, trying to
keep warm. r.
Leaving Havre we were loaded in
little box cars marked ''S horses or 40
men" and started out for the interior
of France. We rode in the boxcars
for three days and nights with the
thermometer between 20 and 80 below
zero. We had a fine time! We got
some wood along the road and started
spme fires in the boxes to keep from
freezing, so when we landed in La
Courtine we were as black as niggers
from the smoke.
This was pretty good place, so we
stayed there about five days before we
got orders to move. We got loaded in
box cars again and started north this
time. We were all happy because we
thought that we were at last heading
for the trenches, but no, we were all
badly mistaken. After riding in the
boxes for two days we got to this
place, Langres. We got here about
two o'clock in the afternoon with a
real North Dakota blizzard blowing
and the snow two feet deep. We
only had about three miles to wade
thru the snow to our barracks, so we
got there before dark and the next
morning we started in to work. /
was sent down to this Office where I
am now.
Well, you can see by above exper-
fence that / have not had such a bad
time after all. / am going to buy
some pictures of this town and send
you so you can see what kind of a
burg this is.
By what ! see in our latest reports
i will not be back in the States before
next fall some time, if nothing else
turns up.
Well, I'll close for this time, with
best wishes for you all.
Sgt.-Major Edwin Stromgren,
General Staff College, A. p. o. TIA,
American Exped. Force, France.
p. ST. got promoted to regimental
sergeant-major since I wrote you last.
S. D, Lynch, who has been doing
Y. M. C. A. work at Camp Lewis, has
received the following interesting let
ter from his son Norman, who has
been mixed up in some real fighting in
Northern France and Belgium: