The Cordova daily times., 1920-05-11
DISTINGUISHED
 SERVICE
 FOR CORDOVAN

The following article from the Balti- more American, recently republished in the Engineers Journal of Cleve- land, Ohio, under the caption, Their Stunts Amazed Natives," will be of interest to our readers, as one of the principal actors is a well-known Alas kan:
 Every state in the Union, and Alaska and the Philippines as we'll, was represented in the Fifty-third company, transportation corps, the first American railway men to operate French railroads during the war, and who became a part of the army of occupation after the armistice had been signed The Fifty-third was un der the command of Captain Vinton D. Cockey of Baltimore.
 "'Cockey's Travelling Circus the outfit was called in France, for the reason that it was of itinerant nature, and also because of it's stunts of rail- road engineering that made the popu- lation of the. places which it visited turn out in wonder at what these Americans did on roads that had been accustomed to the antiquated French and Belgian locomotives.
 Besides Captain Cockey, there are four other officers of the Fifty-third company of the transportation corps and in the command that landed with them at Hoboken there were 235 en- lis}ed men.
 These were the railroad engineers moreover who ceased being engl- neers, switchmen, brakemen, conduc- tors, section men, etc, for while In that memorable pinch and under the leadership of the Baltimore railroad engineer. too up their arms and showed that they could fight as we'll ss construct, repair and operate rall- roads.
 One of Captain Cockey's men, Sergeant J. J. Courtney, locomotive engineer from Alaska, who volunteered to go out into No-man's land and cut 4be barbed wire while the heaviest kind of shell fire was going on all around him. came back with the Dis tinguished Service cross. TWenty-t"o x2f Captain Cockey's men were gassed, twenty wounded, and number killed in action.
 ~ Captain Cockey is very proud or tbis peculiarly all-American organlza- tion, which worked in all sections or rbe western front. It was organized in France at General Pershing's dlrec- 4ion and to Captain Cockey was as signed the task of selecting from number of combat units the men best q7uaIifed by previous experience to un- dertake railroad operations.
 The Baltimore engineer took over 4he Bordeaux terminal and reOrgan- 1zed the traffic from that point to American methods. Just before the company embarked for the United States from St. Nazaire, General Per shing paid the company a v1slt' com plimented Captain Cockey and his men on what they had achieved in bring ing the military railroad up to the standards of America, and then shook hands with every man of them"
 Sergeant J. J. Courtney, mentioned in the foregoing article, is we'll known in Alaska. In 1906 he was mining in the Yentna river country. For some time he was a locomotive engineer on the Copper River railway, but when the United States got into the world war Sergeant Courtney was ln the Interior, and hit the trail for Cor dOva. where he volunteered his serV- ices. After several months in the trenches. where he was wounded three times. he was selected by Captain Cockey for engineer in the trans portation corps.
 Sergeant Courtney arrived back in Alaska last fall and is now an engl- neer on the big rotary operating be-