The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-11
THEY CALLED HIM COOT|E BUT HE DIED
 ABELOVED HERO
Single Handed He Attacked and Silenced a Machine Gun Nest, Dying With a
 Smile On His Lips

Major John A. Fillmore of the Federal ting with a group of friends a few days ago and reminiscing about the days lover There" when during his long stay in France, he had so many opportunities to see and hear and experience many excit- ing and impressive scenes; during the conversation he related story about a young sergeant which had a very human touch and which prompted the world-old question: What's in a name"-when it comes to the stun heroes are made of? And. by the way-someone asked Major Elmore during the conversation why he wore the initials "J. A." both in front of his name and back of it-his identification tag bearing the inscription "J A. Fillmore. J. Az, when the Major replied; "The initials in front of my name stand for John A.. while those back of it, stand for Judge Advocate
 The story Major Elmore was telling about the soldier with the queer nick name of "Cootie" was this:
 "The story I'm about to tell,' said Ma jor Fillmore, lis about soldier who by
 
 round cussedness, had tied to him by the members of Company the euphonious name, The Cootie," and, of course, you can imagine he had few associates, and no friends-but, the time came when he was lifted tenderly by rough and ready hands, and placed beneath the good soil of France, and then tears ran down the hardened cheeks of other soldiers who had not known that underneath "Cootie's' forbidding exterior the--heart of hero beat. Here is the way the old Top sergeant told it."
 "The fellows didn't have no idee what kinder feller Coote wuz. He wouldn't give nobuddy chan'ct, was allus to his- self and kinder gloomy like, but today we found out. Company was being en- filaded by Boche machine gun hidden in shell crater, and it was sho gitting next to us fellers and twas all me and the Lieutenant, (captain was kled), could do ter keep whut wuz left of the Company from going rum the little cover We had; finally sthe Lieutenant saw sam thin had to be done and he sez, Is there two men game enuf to go and take that gun?"
 Fer a mint hit was not a man sez a word-then Cootie stands up and sez, will any of youse go wit me?'
 "Nobuddy answered, and then Cootie, he says, Well, buddies, goodbye. I'll do 1t alone, alone And, sir, he did. l never seen a snake cFaNl over if1t Sfouilu idSl- CT nor squimier. Fritz seen him coming and put his whole fire on him, but that didn't stop him, he jist kept agoing and when we seen him last, he jumped up with his rifle in his hand and run right into the machine gun nest. We never seen him ma mo, but in a couple of min nits the machine gun shut up, and me and another feller crawled over to where he wuz. And this is what we saw: Five dead Boches, one breathing his last, with Cootie's stiff fingers still clutched in his throat, and, sir, he, why he had holes all thru him and a smile on his face like an angel In his blouse pocket over his heart was picture of a baby girl, and built lhoe thru hit; the bullet that made that | hole is the one that sent Cooties soul to Heaven, and made us know what hero | is"