Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1931-12-11

from his story, knowing him as l do,
conditions were pretty terrible. Among
other things he spoke of the kitchens,
which were crude to say the least,
where long lines of men, several
thousand in number were "fed". In
these lines were casuals from the hos
pital, plain homeless waits, A. W. O..
L. and requirements, tired, cold and
hungry. The cooks perhaps were not
as good as they might have been, and
possibly they did the best they knew,
but its a safe bet they were cordially
hated, and called everything a dough
boy could twist his lounge to, and
that was plenty. Now heres the tale OF
another kind of cook.
Cook Ollie r. Link was making
coffee in his kitchen behind the lines
at St. Souplet on October 9th. The
firing up in front was heavy. From
his sheltered position he could see the
stretcher bearers come by. He glanced
at a white face and recognized it, then
another. He heard the call for more
stretcher bearers. Suddenly he knew
the truth. His company-M of the
10TH, was getting shot up. Link
pulled his tin hat on a bit tighter and
lower, grabbed his rifle and started to
the front, "the boys need more help
than chow right now," he said and
was off.
"What the devil are you doing
here?" a sergeant demanded. "I'm
here to help" Link replied. Machine
gun bullets sang and spat owe their
heads, the company Rugged the trench.
One lad not quick enough, slumped
over with a hole in his chest. Rifle
fire answered the German machine
guns, but those typewriters we'll hid
den laid down a neat field of fire, and
the doughs were pinned down. "Pm
going to make a try for them," Link
said and slid over the top. On his
stomach he crawled out looking for
the nest. After quit a crawl he heard
a German voice, it was what he was
looking and listening for. He crawled
up, slid his rifle over the edge of the
nest and handed the Heines a few
hunks of hot lead. The machine gun
quit suddenly and called it a day,
Link jumped in feet first ready for
a bit of bayonet practice, but it wasn't
needed, his fire had cleaned up. While
he rested and probably recovered his
twittering nerves, he heard another
nest playing tag with M company. He
crawled out and came at it on the
flank, his rifle spoke its piece and one
more gang of Heinies went west.
Link crawled back t his company,
under fire from Americans and Ger
mans alike, although there was less
from the Germans than there had
been before Link went calling. Bat
tered, scratched and bruised but un-
wounded by bullets or shrapnel he
reached his own lines.
Result: One D. S. C. for a cook.
The Cook: Ollie R. Link, Company
M 10TH, Infantry, 33rd., Division.
Home address Buies Creek, North
Carolina. Yeah these cooks came
through sometimes, even if they did
eat all the steaks, and keep the milk
for their W private cup of coffee.
Don't forget, just two more weeks
from today and old Kris .Kringle will
have made his annual trip from the
North Pole. 1t is the desire of this
Post that he not pass by one single
child of a veteran. Between now and
then we ask that you do your bit to
assure that each child shall be visited.
1t won't cost much in money or eff
fort to assure that visit, come on,
come in, do your bit for those kids,
your tur may be next.
THE LANCE CORPORAL.