The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-02-08
Major Goodrich
j Describes I rapelssDm-
ing His..FTst Leave

1
finest hotel in Paris, and took New
Years dinner at Monte Carlo. Since
it was our first and only leave, and
not knowing when there would be an
opportunity of another such, we did
it up properly and had a most beau
tiful time.
| Now We are back at our labors
again, with no idea of where or when
We move, but with quite stiff
"hunch" that we are preparing for
forward movement either into Ger
many again, or into Russia, with the
bets in favor of the latter. We have
rumors, and rumors, on the average
OF about six day, none of which, of
course, we pin any faith to, but,
strange as it may seem, none IT
them bear upon an early return to the
States, but rather the converse.
Along about he middle of Decem.
Der we rambled into Langres, the old
Staff College site, where I was sta.
toned for three months while at the
college, to look up Major Collins,
whom guessed to be there from the
mailing list of The Courier you sent
me with his A. P. o. number on it.
And, sure enough, ran into him and
had quite pleasant chat with him,
Found him to be the same old Collins,
and under the impression that he
would soon be returning to the States.
He had just returned from short
sightseeing trip over quite a bit Of
the ground we had fought over some
weeks previous, and could gain pref
ty good idea of the tough going we
had through the Argonne Forest dur
ing the Meuse-Argonne offensive, in
which we took quite part. Let me
tell you right here that that Argonne
Forest was no joke, nor any picnic.
In the words of famous General, 1t
was all that he said war is, and then
he only told half of the truth. It was
in the middle of that Forrest, at Brio
quenay, that Jimmy Van Fleet got his
little plug" in the thigh from splin-
ter Of a 3O0-pounds Of explosive bomb
dropped right on top of us from a
low flying B0che plane at night. Is
Gaping that incident unhurt was one
of my luckiest incidents throughout
the game, although | had lot of 9TH
er close calls. / consider myself
more lucky than any other fellow Il
know, coming through with but one
wound chevron, when, by all DEGREES
of Boche, should be wearing at least
six, or else wearing six feet of earth.
Now, however, We are in fine
shape again, with only slight limp
from bum right leg, which said limp
| even expect to lose in the course Of
another month or so, and few little
scars which resulted from not much
more than little scratches"
Have been receiving The Courier
very nicely of late, and, as usual, find
them very entertaining and interest. |
ing. think read every line in
them. and sometimes twice over. To.
day received the issue of December
3, and note therein the Thanksgiving
menu of Colemans company. Oh
boy! Some of the things on that
menu / have not even dreamed about
since l left the States. Would YOU
like to know what our Thanksgiving
dinner consisted of? remember IL
well, for the occasion, as you know,
happened to be my fifth wedding an.
niversary. We are on the hike.
coming out from the Verdun front
after the armistice, with an eighteen
day hike ahead of us to get back to
rest" area-hiking all day. every
day, putting up wherever we CHANGED
to be over night, and off again the
next morning. We were just about
In the middle of our tramp Gas we
finished it up on December 6thl
when somebody remembered that II
was Thanksgiving day. We called a
rest for that day, and prepared to
have a dinner, The menu, in full
was as follows, for our mess, which
comprised the General, myself and
three members of my staff: Hard
tack, black coffee, fried bacon. ciga
rettes (from our individual supplies)
However, we had plenty of it, such
as 1t was, at that time, and enioye1
1t Just as much as if it had been tur.
Fey, FOR We were hungry bunch
when We started to eat. Many a day
we would have given quite bit .
have tarried long enough even for a
supply of that menu during our trim
through the Argonne However.
those days are over, and we are get.
ting a good issue chow now; no on.
of course. TO increase our
larder beyond the issue rations. as we