The Monticellonian., 1919-03-21
UNSUNG HEROES
 IF THE BATTLEFIELD
MEN WHO DROVE AMMUNITION
 AND FOOD TRUCKS TO FRONT LINES DESERVE MEDALS.
NO THOUGHT OF OWN SAFETY
Made Their Way Along Swept Roads in lnky Darkness, Determined Only to Get Their Loads to Des- tination
By EDWARD B. CLARK

By EDWARD B. CLARK.
 Washington. = Scores of soldiers. coming for the most part as indiyidu- als, are arriving in Washington day by day Among them, as in other places in the country, are many of those un- sung heroes of the war-the men who drove the ammunition and food trucks to the front lines along sheii-ratned roads i'll the darkness of the nights.
 When a soldier returns to his home town and people ask him what he did and his modest answer is. T drove a truck. they may be inclined to turn from him as one little worthy of atten- ton as q soldier of the line. In truth many of these truck drivers were in the highest sense soldiers of the line. They ran risks as great as those of the men who went up against maehine-gun nests and unlike the doughboys, the engineers and the others, they have been given little credit outside of the army for what they did.
 German airplane observers day after i day marked out the roads leading to the American front. When night fell and the trucks started for their des- 1 tinatlons laden with the necessaries of the commissary. or of front-line action, the Hun would open with his batteries on the lines of communication. The driver felt his way along the black roads with no light of his own or of another to guide him, not knowing at what moment dropping shell would bring death to him and destruction to his charge.
 Heroism of the Truck Drivers.
 Ii is the testimony of soldiers all along the front that the truck drivers thought more of the safety of the mu- nitions and the food intrusted to them than they did of their lives. They knew that the men at the front were depending upon them to do their full duty and to get there though hell broke along the way.
 Nerves were unknown to the army truck drivers at the front. A shell dropping into or near truck load of high explosives meant that of the load and the driver nothing again would be seen. It did not mean death merely for the man on the seat, but 1t meant that of him no fragment would remain for the burial. the flag and the firing party.
 The truck drivers, especially those who were piloting loads of high explo- l sfveS, were more or less fatalists. 0c- easionally an attempt would be made to stop them because of particularly heavy smelling along one sector of the way. Some of the men refused to be stopped, for their thought was this stuff must get there" and it either did get there or the driver died.
 Some of the drivers of the indis- pensable trucks with their indispen- sable loads have been given medals for their high service. It is necessary when medal is given that the deed of the recipient shall have been attested by witnesses. It is certain that hun dreds of devoted drivers did things deserving of the highest recognition that the government can give, and yet,
 
 unattested, they must go along through life with no outward and visible evi- dences of their heroism but must con tent themselves with the inward satis- faction which always is that of man who did his duty.
 Return to Civil Life Net Easy.
 In congress every day during the winter some one or other had some thing to say about the economic and Industrial readjustments necessary be- cause of the effects of war. No one had anything to say about mental re- adjustments, but that they are neces- sary before some millions of men and women settle down to the proper equi- librium of life no one in Washington seems to deny.
 Possibly 1t Is more marked in the capital of the nation than elsewhere but the men and women here of the civilian population seem to be float ing mentally" What is so marked in the men and women in civilian attire here Is ten times more strongly mark ed in the men and women in uniform who have seen actual service. It must be remembered that many women donned nurses or canteen workers garb and served abroad.
 It probably will not take q long time to restore the warriors and workers to their normal condition. but today the men and women of Washington who have engaged in war work at home are wondering what they are going to do next and are certain that they must do something in the future that is more strenuous and more useful than anything they did prior to the outbreak of the war.
 All Wish to Keep Busy.
 Organizations of men and women here are casting about for new fields of endeavor. It was only the other day that GOO women met at a big din. her party to discuss what their sex must dc to keep all of it's members usefully employed for the years to come in the odd hours which can be spared from the duties of household or business, that is. business for those