New-York tribune., 1919-09-05
Officers and Men Return on
Five Transports; Two
Fighting Preachers Ar
rive With Decorations
Record Troops Land
Third Battalion Claims 1t
Was First on French Soil
and Last to Quit Battle

Five transports from Brest brought
in yesterday more than 5000 members
of the First Division, which paradcs
Wednesday. The ships completed their
work as troop carriers.
The Rev. Clinton D. Bowman, famed
among the men of the A. f. F. as 1.-The
fighting chaplain" who became a lieu
tenant OF infantry, was a passenger on
board the transport Callao. He used
to preach in Presbyterian church at
Tulsa, Okla. He wears the Croix de
Guerre. Not content with his spiritual
work among the troops, Bowman went
over the top with the 141st Infantry of
the 36th Division at St. Etenne and
won for him the French decoration.
Chaplain Bowman is now with the 18th
Infantry.
The Callao, formerly German
liner, brought the I'd Battalion ano
machine gun unit of the 26th Infantry.
in command of Major R. K. Whitson
and the 3D. Battalion of the 10th Infan-
try. with headquarters and medical de-
tachments, in command of Captain
George A. Longstreth, of Little Rock.
Ark. Twenty civilian war workers Of
the A. E. F. returned on the Callao.
On the Edellyn were 9S5 officers and
men, part of the 1st and I'd Battalions
of the 1st Engineers. Colonel E. j.
Atkinson, who was troop commander on
the transport, wears the Distinguished
Service Medal and the British Distin-
guished Service Order
Monuments to Heroes of First
Also on board was Captain Frank
Willetts, of 1904 Heath Avenue, Bronx,
who went overseas in 1917 with Com
pany A, Of the list Engineers. He was
in charge of the erection of monuments
for heroes of the 1st Division at
Cantigny, Scissors, St. Mihiel, Sedan,
Beaumont and Argonne. Some of the
monuments have 1000 to 100 names
on bronze tablets.
The Finland brought 2,1O1 men of
the 1st Division, making up almost the
entire lst Battalion, including forty
officers and 1855 enlisted men of the
26th Infantry; the Field Staff of the
Headquarters Company, the Supply
Company and the Medical Detachment
In charge of the men was Lieutenant
Colonel Charles w. Rider. The colo
mel, R. A. Brown, is acting brigadier
general.
Also on the FINLAND were several
welfare workers, including Belle Gold,
months appeared before soldiers under
the auspices Of the Y. M. C. A.; Louis
(. Straus, secretary to Herbert
Hoover; Captain Henri de Mast, who
was assistant military attache at Lis
bon; Mrs. de Mast and Major Ferry
K. Keith, of Grand Rapids, Mich, who
after the armistice was at the head of
the American Relief Administration in
Finland. He said that there was little
occasion for alarm over reports that
Leon Trotzky and the Bolsheviki would
soon send an expedition into Finland,
Another Fighting Preacher
The Finland will be turned back to
the international Mercantile Marine
and will ply between New York and
Antwerp.
The two other transports were the
Liberator and the Santa Teresa.
The first battalion to land on French
soil, according to some of its officers,
arrived on the Liberator. The battal
ion is the Third Battalion of the 2Sth
Infantry, Company X of this battalion.
SAID to be the first group of American
combat troops to disembark at St.
Nazaire, France. The Third Battalion
was also the last battalion of the lst
Division to remain in action, doing it's
last fighting at Sedan on November 8,
1918.
On the Liberator were twenty four
officers and 1872 men, in charge of Major
w. f. Lee. In response to requests from
the headquarters of the 1st Division at
the Hotel BiltnDre, each of the soldiers
on board wrote out his experiences.
The Santa Teresa had on board l,197
officers and men, mostly members of the
18th Infantry. One Of the casual off
GERS on board was Chaplain U. N. King,
a Presbyterian minister, of Lima, Ohio,
who went overseas with the Cloth In
fantry of the 18th Division. He took
part in three major operations, and for
his work at St. Mihiel wears the Dis
tingushed Service Cross.