Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-03-20
OVERSEAS LETTER
Boncourt, France.
Jan. %, 1919.

Dear sister:
Here it is nearly February just
few days and / will have been in
France six months, will be wearing |
a gold stripe on my arm as SER
vice mark. A gold one too, to dis
tinguish between being in the rear
and in the advance zone. Wearing a
gold service stripe, the ambition OF
many many soldiers, not only that,
bv special order we are to wear not
"Croix de Guerre," but the Lor-
raine cross on our shoulder. I'M
portant? Why yes, we must all be
important. We were not exactly
brave but we were needed Oh, its
all wonderful, ostentation, glow and
glitter, a soldier in the fighting zone
of Lorraine. Just an engineer, here
one day and there the next. Just
dirty engineer, track builder,
/ section hand, the goat, a Stacker, but
now a soldier of the advance area
of Lorraine Engineers, men who
have cursed the day they were born,
now sporting gaily tn cross of Lor-
raine, just wonderful, can't be beat.
This is not "sour grapes" as you
might think on first sight. On the
other hand it is just the essence of
what | would like to ask. Before
| ask it though | have some more to
say.
In the first place the war is over
in so far as all practical ends are
concerned Men are returning home
from the camps and from France
No doubt they are being received in
an effervescent gulf of JOY and cheer
ing, silent or otherwise. Nearly all
of them soldiers of that great civil
ian army drafted into the service,
not their choice, it mattered little.
Some went early and some went late,
others were just mediocre. Men went
unwillingly into the army to later
become leaders of high rank. Some
went to France others didn't, even
some lodged the chance of going and
many othrs had their hands up at
every opportunity. So it goes as
the war is over, that the soldier
boys" as we have been called, are
returning home. To be welcomed :?
O! yes, we hope so. To be cheered :?
Yes, that is in good usage too. To
ha h0t 4l-4 L IL.
law. Now what else to be classified :?
1t follows naturally that the soldier
who has fought hand to hand with
the Hun should be in a class mark
ed "A No. |" and so on down to the
men who were not even in the army.
However this matters little in so
far as the individual is concerned.
should all this end in just ragtime
celebration on the return of ones who
went away to fight. Yes, it might
cause Jim Smith to tell the rest of
the bunch that Bob Jones needn't
feel so high up, that he was only a
"buck" in the S. O. S. in France, and
hadn't been close enough to hear the
rumble of twelve inch gun. So as
| say this will matter little with the
individual as such things will soon
be forgotten. But now is this all
that IS awaiting us at home, except
a chicken dinner, ice cream and cake ?
The average American soldier from
buck" to general knows that dis
I tlnctlon as far as service is concern
! ed IS matter of form A GOOD
idea to fool the people at home. AS
usual thing the fellows who are
4 decorated a dozen times for bravery
were simply under orders and al
I things being equal, they performed
I their duty as ordered.
! Now outside of a smile, cheer
chicken dinner, ice cream and cake
there is something else we ar ex
pectng, no we are not expecting, We
are wondering. The wonder whether
due to America being thrown intt
militaristic state, autocratic il
\ some degree, will be as it was before
the war, or changed What will tn,
change be? We soldiers Of al
4 classes and distinction went to figh
to put down militarism, kaiserisn
and the like. Its down all right too
a Now comes the question, will Amer
lea change will she become militaris
Il tic as guard against militarism
q Will there noiselessly creep in al
4 American caste system, putin,
heavy lines between classes, the mil
itary from the civilian, the uppe
military, the lower military? Al
necessary to be disciplined as it i
& in Europe, our high-ranking over
: sea officers will perhaps tell tn
h people. Of course not in these in
y elegant words of my own, but bette
a comouhaged, more diplomatic.
q VIII the American peonIe vote A.