New-York tribune., 1919-02-26
$500 Soldiers
Arrive on
Wilson's Ship
Troops Laden With Trinkets
Debark From the George
Washington at Hoboken
President Liked by Boys
Executive Was a Irregular
Fellow OH Trip From
France to Boston Harbor

A minute after the last of the $500
returned soldiers on the Presidents
ship George Washington filed down the
gangplank at the Hoboken army piers
yesterday afternoon, stalwart sailor
appeared on the deck, heavy bronze
statue under his arm. AS he stepped
into the mass of uniformed men on the
pier wild cheer went up.
"Where did you get ?" chorused the
crowd.
Before he had chance to answer a
line of sailors passed down the gang
plank on their first "liberty" since leav-
ing Brest. Each one was weighted
down with bric-a-brac and other oddi-
ties. The crew of the George Washing
ton had been to Paris while the ship
awaited Mr.. Wilson at Brest, and the
statues and other things were "the evil
4 dencc."
1t was the second time in a few
months that the George WASHINGTON
made safe voyage with the Presiden-
tial party. The fighting men were still
talking with pride Of the 3,OOO-mile trip
with the President and of the send-off
they gave him when he landed in Bos-
ton Monday.
President Regular Fellow"
They liked him, they said, not only
because he is great man, but because
he went below decks and chatted with
them. Another thing, he laughed out
loud at the same motion pictures that
made the soldiers and sailors laugh He
was just plain regular fellow"
But 1t was not only the George
Washington's crew which brought back
souvenirs. The men of the 146th Ma
chine Gun Battalion (complcte), six
teen officers and 246 men; the 5th En-
gineers and the 5th Engineers Train
(complete), forty-scven officers and
1906 men, and number of casuals, in
cludlng men from virtually every state,
were loaded down with trinkets.
While the great majority of the men
did not take part in the actual fighting,
they were under fire at all times from
the Argonne to the Meuse.
Machine Gunners Idahoans
The 146th Machine Gun Battalion
was reorganized in October, 1917, from
the Sd Battalion, I'd Idaho Infantry,
which had seen service OH the Mexican
border. 1t received orders for duty
overseas January II, 1918. After train
ing at Champcol, in Loir ct Cher, for
two weeks the battalion was made the
first replacement contingent to the
41st Division and was sent forward at
once to fill the gaps. The battalion has
record of training, equipping and
forwarding 1000 machine gunners for
the army.
The 9TH Engineers was formed from
the old I'd Regiment of Engineers
in May, 1917. In France it was at
tached to the 7th Division. The 9Th
Regiment train also operated with the
7th Division.
Captain John Wanamaker, who
served in the Quartermaster's Corps,
was among the casual. officers to re-
turn on the ship. A New York physi-
clan, Major Edwin Sternberger, of 43
East Sixtieth Street. Manhattan, was
another casual officer on the ship. He
has been in charge of Base Hospital
No. 1, situated just outside Of Paris.
Chaplain P. F. Bloomhardt, U. S. n,
who has been attached to the George
Washington since she became an
American transport, is also editor-in-
chief of the "Hatchct," the daily paper
published aboard.
The army transport Hcredia, five
days behind her schedule, arrived at
Hoboken last night after u desperate
fight with heavy seas. She carried
ninety-one army passengers, eighty-five
of whom were women nurses of che
Roosevelt Hospital and Johns Hopkins