The evening leader., 1919-01-06
Returning YANKS
A HOMESICK LOT
Never Want to Look Statue Of
Liberty in the Face
Again.
ARE WILD TO GET ASHORE
~Mhen Get the United States Under
MY Feet I'm Going to Stay There"
Said One Homeslek Sol
dier


New York.-To understand tne feel
ings of the Americans boys released
from the war and pouring back into
the United States as fast as steamers
can bring them from Europe, one must
have known the pangs of acute home
sickness.
They are downright homesick.
You read it in the hungry eyes that
peer from the troopships when the gov
nernment revenue cutter with it's little
handful Of Americans in civilian
clothes runs alongside. From every
inch of space along the gunwale, from
yardarms and rigging, from the top
most pile of life rafts to the bottom
most portfolio, are yearning faces.
They know the coming of the cutter
is sign of deliverance after the trans
port at the threshold of home has been
detained at overnight quarantine off
Fort Hamilton. Now they will be able
to go on up the bay.
Faint "Ee-yow" Grows to Wild Yell.
At first a faint "ee-yOw!" comes
from one or two throats, and then rip
pies along the deck, increasing in vol
ume and shrillness till it becomes a
wild whoop, reverberating across the
bay. A month ago it would have served
for battle cry. Today it is shout
of 'bOyish delight, of greeting for the
little cutter load of civilians-the first
group of Americans the soldiers have
seen in months.
Somewhere in that shout there is
plaintive note, and you get it's mean
ing if you are one of those first civil
ians who board the transports as the
group on the United States cutter I'm
migrant do, scrambling up a ladder
while the boats are under way, for
the trOopships lose no time in starting
their wheels at the signal from the
customs officers.
Does it feel good to get back?" you
ask the first boy who grabs your hand
on deck.
"GOOd? he repeats fervently.
Gosh! Nothing ever felt so good in
the world. You can tell 'em all when
l get the United States under my feet
it's going to stay there. Some bird
said when he got back from the war he
never wanted to look the statue of
liberty in the face again. That's me.
In little bit she's going to see me
coming home for the last time.'
1t was Tom O'DOnnell of Chicago
who made that long speech. He was
one of the third CONSTITUTIONAL COM
pany aerial service, who came home
on the British boat Orca, and he and
more than 10000 other "Yanks" re-
turned from Europe this week and are
now at Camp Mills, L. l., waiting to
be mustered out.
AS these troopships come through
the Narrows into the upper bay the
sun is rising like huge red ball above
the roofs of Brooklyn, silhouetting it's
spires and towering buildings and CLINT
ing across the ripping bay. Through
an avenue of bristling masts the trans
port bears its soldier cargo on toward
the North river till Fort Hamilton has
been blurred into the morning mist
and the masonry giants of lower
Broadway stand out against the north
ern sky.
"Giad Pm an American" ..
And the homecoming soldiers, Off
GERS and men alike, lean against the
rail and drink in the beauty of it all
as if they never could get enough. An
old-timel bark swings at anchor close
by, her four masts and square rigging
in picturesque contrast to the crazy
quilt camonflage of half dozen ocean.
barges moUred near her. Ferries load
ed with New ,Yorkers going to work
scurry by, while their passengers wave
handkerchiefs and cheer the home
ward-bound soldiers. - -. So.
An officer of the aviation CORPS,
these first troops to come back are
nearly all of the air service-takes a
long, deep breath.
.SThe most wonderful roadstead in
the world. It's glorious. I'm glad I'm
an American" he said.
'You said something, brother" said
a private who was leaning over the,
rail at his elbow. And the officer was
too intent in his survey to note that
a subordinate had addressed him with
out saluting.