The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-22

and the longer I remained in the army
 the more l learned to appreciate that fact"
 Before Hanks enlistment had got cold,
 and long before his thousands of friends
 and baseball admirers realized what had 1 become of him, he was in camp garb do-
 ing squads right, learning to handle an
 army rifle and taking severe physical ex- ercise.
 The stay in Camp Karb was short three
 weeks to be exact. The Rainbow division
 had been formed and the Fourth Ohio | infantry had been changed into the 166th United States infantry It was com
 manded by Col. Benson Hough and was still commanded by Colonel Hough when | the regiment came out of Germany
 crowned with glory
 BECAME COLOR SERGEANT | Hank Gowdy aptitude as a soldier was 1 quickly noticed. His giant six-foot fig
 ure was also noted, and he was appointed color sergeant of the regiment. He never 1 had to serve in the grade of corporal.
 Men like Gowdy were badly needed in
 the higher grades. Men of striking ap
 pearance are always sought as bearers of the colors and Gowdy was an ideal se- lection But don't get the impression
 that all a color sergeant has to do is to carry the flag. The army has sur prising way of finding some necessary work for those fellows when there are
 no colors, or, rather, when the colors are rot in use. Hank had to be every inch a soldier to hold his job and sentimental i ly he's still got it. In three weeks he was
 no longer ball player in thought or | appearance. Affairs of another nature
 were moving too swiftly.
 | After leaving Camp Karb there was brief stop at another camp and then the entire Rainbow division was ordered to | Camp Mills, on Long Island, preparatory I A ri rk- l ing fast in those days. The Rainbow di- vision arrived in Hampstead plains while we were down at Camp Upton struggling to build up division out of the recruits drawn in the first selective draft
 l The Rainbow division was a complete organization. The 166th regiment, Hanks regiment, was the S3d infantry brigade. l In the same division were the l65th in l fantry (the old 69th of New York;, the f67th infantry (the old 4th Alabama) and | the 16Sth infantry from Iowa. The ar, tilery brigades and the machine gun bat. talons came from everywhere-hence the name Rainbow Division"
 l In these extensive preparations and rapid movements Hank Gowdy was sim ply little cog in the big machine. There were no big crowds there to applaud his | individual efforts, as in baseball. While the men in his company-he was assigned to the headquarters company, by virtue of his rank as color sergeant-knew that 1 he was a famous ball player, the great body of fighting men did not know. They did not care. To those with whom Hank came in contact in his military duties he was known simply as sergeant Gowdy, and that was the way he wanted to he known It is a rather interesting psychological twist that once man gets | in the army he doesn't care to think of what he had been or what people Tn other walks of life are doing. By mental preference he desires to consecrate himself to his job and make good in I that Only the doings of those immedi- ateIy around him are of interest.
 Gowdy did not miss the baseball club In fact, he did not regret his absence He did not miss the plaudits of the crowd l A great glow of satisfaction came over him as he thought about being away from it-and in the army of his country
 Mind you, he did not lose his love for the sport Today he Is more interested than lever He simply was content to lay II jaside-in mothballs as it were-and do | something that he considered more lm- portant
 If you will pardon the personal all fusion, I experienced the same lack of interest in my former pursuits-my pro
 fession, and my quasiofficial connection , | with baseball. And now I find myself
 more interested than ever.
 This peculiar mental phase of man l in the army was the subject of quite a , discussion between Gowdy, Damon Run- yon, Grantland Rice and myself one night in Germany. It is rather difficult to explain or to understand. It is true, never
 theess. For instance, out of eight or 1C baseball people that were casually en- , countered along the western front last fall, nobody could remember positively what clubs in the two big leagues had . won the pennants, and what had hap I pened to the worlds series. We were all astonished and amused at our ignorance. our lack of concern.
 ARMY GLAMOR ALL OUTSIDE The army, we find. is looked upon by the kind and devoted public, that we had left, as a great martial institution, en- circled in kind of a halo. The civilian
 attaches a glamor to the armed forces that the soldier does not. There is no glamor inside the army-all that is out side That is because the public does
 not see the seamy side and daily grind of continuous, sweating work. The fight ing does not come often but the hard. physical work is there all the time. Hank Howdy found that the life of the enlisted man in the army is not an easy one. Even that of the officer is hard. ! The officer has longer hours of work ! and more responsibility, but he is accord ed many privileges that the enlisted man is not And, mind you, this popular ath-
 letc had been accustomed to privileges for many years.
 Hank Gowdy harbored no illusions as to
 what he should expect. He knew that
 as a private he would have to handle a
 pick and shovel and that he would be
 called upon for jobs of drudgery that he
 had almost forgotten existed. Luckily
 for him he was made a, sergeant within
 a short time after his enlistment and N non- n-commissioned officers are not de Y tailed to work similar to that of a com.
 mon laborer. The dignity of their rank II is rigidly respected They must see tha U the other men do the work properly While that may sound easier it is not II The non-com must be man s man, ever, inch of him. He must have that qual T. ity of strength and determination tha
 makes the men obey and follow him. When Hank Howdy was sworn in h, Il was ordered to report to an officer il II charge of the unit to which he was as
 signed for quarters and mess. There h.
 was given bed sack-a white bag, shape, like pillowslip and large enough t fit bunk-and told to fill it with straw
 In addition he drew two blankets ant
 a mess kit. In the army that is consid
 cred all that a man needs to eat an,
 sleep. Sometimes the bed sack is place, on an iron cot and sometimes on tn II ground or the bare floor. Sometimes ther
 is no bed sack at all. Over in France tn Il men often improviscd hunks by stretching II poultry wire over two pieces of timbe
 in the floor of a wrecked house, or II couple of logs. The sag in the middl formed the bed on which the bed sacI | was placed-f there were any bed sacks More often the soldiers-and officers, too : slept with nothing between their shirt