Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1919-05-23

Choumont, France,
Feb. 10th, 1919.
Dear Chappy:
wont promise to make this much
OIL letter but 'can at neast ac-
knowledge receipt of that last letter
Oh yours. After receiving it I sort
OF looked for you over here. I sun
pose you felt good deal like I did
When they declared an armistice.
know was sitting back here eating
three squares a day and telling N.Y.
self how was going to get on with
regular hero like tn crest of the
boys in khaki. 1 have been here so
long that feel good deal like the
office furniture. Yesterday I hit the
captain up for release 1--WE have
new captain now and he sort of
kldded me along by promising to
send me out on a lot of trips over
france to pick up some material
etc., so l guess my address will be
Chaumont for little while longer.
We seemed to have cleaned up all
the construction work here except
one Job which we will start on foot
sweet" suppose every man, woman
and child in the States knows now
what foot sweet" means. We are
to erect steel frame building 100
feet by SO feet TO be used as a ma
chine shop here. We will go out and
tear down one, they are used for
aerodomes here, haul it in on trucks
and erect it here; that's one place
the captain promised to run around
and see France.
| will not bore you with the long
list of things l HAVE DONE, it has
mostly been petty larceny stuff, but
will say that it has kept me from
worrying about everything else but
the job, By the time l get back
will probably have it all rehearsed
so | can tell about the time / saved
the generals life, etc. One thing
am rather proud of is the power
| house. While we threw it together
with the material at hand it pre-
sents a very creditable appearance
and has made an unusual operating
record; three months operation "a
hours per day without a shutdown
or failure of voltage of any kind.
In years operation | don't think
We have been shut down more than
80 minutes.
The plant now consists of five
so HIP gas electric units made by
the G. E. company and two 25-HP
French sets; 120-volt direct current.
II addition we have 100 XIV IN
transformers of the French high ten
sion lines, but it has been very UNI
reliable and have had to arrange to
throw everything over onto DC. The
switch board is mostly hand made,
most of the marble came off French
fireplaces, we didn't even have Jugs
or copper tubing to make them.
For a year now we have been
erecting buildings, enough to house
5000 men who are on duty here.
There are four camps, each with
complete sewer, water, and light sys-
tens and with macadam roads. You
know it rains so much here every
road must be built of rock. Right
now we are equipping rock quarry
complete with crusher and handling
equipment for our own use, For
personnel we have had most of the
time a captain, one 1st and one End
/ loot. Captains and End loots seem
to come and go but am stuck for
ever We have worked from rs to
500 men during the past year. The
original 90 men l brought up here
1 from the regiment formed the nu-
cleus for the organization, most OF
them being sergeants in charge OF
our work now They were all vol
unteers in the Oregon Engineers
which you know formed one batta-
lion of the 116th Engineers. The
old outfit is on its way back to the
States. so the men feel s. o. l.. all
right,
Being at headquarters, we have
seen quite a little of the pomp OF
war, also have seen damn little oil
tie real war. I have managed at
various times on official business
of course, to see the great supply
depots back on the lines of commune
cation, and CATER the armistice was
signed) was up around Nancy ana
Toul. most certainly figure TO
make thorough inspection OF some
of the front lines before getting back
to the States.
Well Chappy, old top, l expect TO