Evening star., 1933-04-16
District Forest Recruits Get First Taste of Army Life
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BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Stan Correspondent Of The Star.


r 15.-The tang Of adventure is in
/ the Spring air ut this old Army
post.
Five hundred District boys are won
dering what it Is all about The scene
is vaguely reminiscent Of a recruit camp
back in 1917. The newest arrivals are
bit shaky from their vaccinations and
typhoid inoculations. They are clumsy
in their heavy Army shoes. They are
laying about on their iron cots in the
pyramidal tents, writing letters home,
trying to roll their own" with unframed
fingers for they are youths of the tai
tornado cigarette age, playing pitch on
the olive drab blankets, and exchanging
rumors
This is the first contact most OF them
have had with military ways Of doing
things They are about as raw q bunch
Of rockies as ever faced q top sergeant.
They like to mock the milita-y-the old
recruit stuff. Attention" somebody
calls when one enters tent, and every
body laughs. They address each other
as captain" and lieutenant" and give
mock 'salutes. They grumble They don't
know whether to take the sergeants
seriously or not.
Recruit Bromides Fly About.
"That guy said If the men in this tent
didn't keep quiet after 8 o'clock he'd
make us all stand out in the company
street in B. v. DIS. Do you suppose
he could do it?" one asks.
And there are all the recruit bromides
flying about:
The first hundred years are the
hardest.
A hundred days, a hundred dollars.
It's great life II you don't weaken.
They are trying to act the way they
think soldiers are supposed to act
these boys from whose checks a few
days OF sunshine has not erased the
Winter pallor, some Of whom never
have worked in their lives, for they
came to working age in the first years
Of the great depression, and whose
muscles are flabby from lack Of exer-
else. They have led pitifully unevent-
full lives, for the most part. This Is a
real adventure-comparatively as great
an adventure as was the war to the
boys Of 1917.
They have felt military discipline.
but it has fallen lightly upon them
Some Of them were told narrowing
stories before they left home Of army
methods-of how they clubbed 1t into
you' when they once got fellow be-
hind the walls Of q military post where
he couldn't get away.
Many Have Sore Musclea
But" said one recruit, these guys
seem to be real nice to US. They talk
pleasant and everything"
of Tl0v<
Washington recognize that these men
diers. They never will be expected to
move into the face Of death as an
automatic relief to a shouted order.
They need just discipline enough to ne
nodded into smoothly functioning
work units able to stand some Of the
trif1ing Inconvenience of life in the
forest The great stress has been laid
on teaching them to keep clean and not
litter the ground about their tents with
rubbish.
More attention has been paid to
hardening them. Most of them need it
and even the mild exercise to which
they have been subjected has made sore
muscles. They have been put through
the routine setting up exercises. taught
such elementary things as how to wash
their mess kits and make their beds,
shown how to handle rakes, hoes and
axes, and taken on long hikes through
the woods. There are, Of course. all
youths between 18 and IS drawn sud-
denly out Of the great city. A few
are college graduates. down on their
luck and looking forward with a pleas
ant thrill to six months Of healthy life
among the hemlocks and chestnuts of
the haze-covered MaSSenuttenS where
the first camp will be located. They
are slated for good jobs. pounding type
writer's instead of swinging picks. Some
of them, in fact, are there just fer the
adventure, having actually assigned
their pay to INDECENT families they did
not know in order to get in. Some are
skilled mechanics and most OF these
probably will work most OF the time at
their own lines. There will be plenty
of carpentry, truck driving, etc. Some
were brought up on farms and drifted,
to their sorrow, from the comparative
plenty Of the countryside to the hungry
city.
Majority Are City Boys
But the majority are city boys to
whom a tree Is something they have
seen growing In . park and to whom
q forest will be about as weird and
strange as was the barbed-wire forest
of Northern France to the recruits OF
1917 and to whom the screech OF an
owl will be almost as thrilling as the
screech of shell. And they are as
fearful Of rattlesnakes as some OF the
boys Of 1917 were fearful Of bullets.
Relatively it Is q great adventure In
store for these soft-muscled lads.
It is velvet-trimmed Army discipline
to which they have been subjected
even If some Of them think it's pretty
rough.
They don't salute or say "Sir" to
officers. They stop a second lieutenant
right in the middle Of a company street
to complain of pair Of shoes that
don't fit. They would do the same to
the major II he showed up there.
Bring me a pack Of cigarettes from
the canteen," says . recruit to top
sergeant.
Gravely he takes . note Of the re-
be thinking. It's long, lcng call from
army recruit camp to the profanity and
ways Of 1917.
About one thing there are no kicks
the food. It is prepared by expert
Army cooks. There Is plenty Of it.
Some Of these boys apparently had
gone many a long day without q full
meal and there were gnawing sensa-
tions in their stomachs when they came
to Fort Washington. It was like COM
ing cut Of the desert into . land Of
milk and honey. so far as eats were con-
cerned. Nor Is there any complaint
about quarters. They have as many
warm blankets as they need and, per-
haps for the first time In months, some
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