Evening star., 1938-03-20

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modern peace-tinte military CAM
pdiening by a famous regiment OF
United States infantry.
BY WILLIAM LA vARRE.
LA CHORRERA. Panama, March
10 (N.ANA).-The famous 14th
Regiment, which has been on guard at
the Atlantic end of the Panama Canal,
has added another historical accom-
plishment to its colorful regimental
history. For the first time in the
history of the United States Army,
this week full regiment of infantry
has crossed from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, through the deep jungles and
mountains of Panama
Eighteen hundred soldiers, carrying
full fighting equipment, and $50
heavily loaded mules made up the
biggest cross-jungle expedition Latin
America has ever seen.
If Balboa could fight his way across
the Isthmus, and Morgan with prim-
itively outfltted pirates could hack
through the jungles and capture the
Spanish colonial city of Panama" +"
Col. John L. Jenkins of West Virginia
explained when, at his invitation,
this traveller arrived at Fort Davis
to join the expedition, Il do not see
why a well-equipped and organized
regiment Of modern infantrymen can't
do it. My staff officers and I have
studied the requirements carefully,
prepared the expedition cautiously
and-well, think We'll accomplish it
without single casualty"
At Jungle's dge.
The expeditionary force started from
Fort Davis Barracks at o'clock
March 10, marching the first day
under a glaring equatorial sun east
ward from the Atlantic entrance to
the Canal. BY sunset the regiment
was encamped at Sanbonitas, on the
edge of the towering jungle.
The night was disturbed by only one
dramatic moment; young recruit,
who couldn't wait until dawn to see
what the jungle was like, wandered off
into the fringe Of towering forest and,
after walking for an hour trying to
retrace his steps, thought he was lost.
He began yelling and awoke the whole
regiment. He was barely 20 PAGES
from has own tent, but the forest was
SO dense that he couldn't see the
moonlit pampas where the regiment
was camped!
Bugles an hour before dawn brought
every one to his feet, striking tents,
consuming gallons of coffee, loading
heavy packs on big Arkansas and
Illinois mules. A detail of 100 men
cut the trail which the regiment was
to follow. They had no maps to guide
them, but dead-reckoned and picked
out ground over which both men and
mules could walk or climb
Jungle Floor Treacherous.
The forest began ascending the sides
Of hills, then mountains. Although it
had not rained heavily for a week,
the jungle floor, after only tenth Of
the regiment had passed, was very
treachNous. The expendition finally
gained the summit of Mount San Orita
and slid, slipped and scrambled down
the opposite side until it reached the
banks of the headwaters of the Rio
Gatun. Here 1900 men bathed, shaved
and washed clothes in the Jungle
stream
Saturday morning, the 18th dawned
as the regiment started climbing a
mountain that proved to be 600 feet
high from the bed of the Gatun River
to its summit. During the night. avia-
tors OF France Field had wirelessed
their desire to attempt to pick up
messages from balloons sent aloft
through the jungle. and the headquar-
ters company, which contained the
communication platoon, was left be-
hind. From hydrogen tank brought
on muleback, two red rubber balloons
we're inflated and carefully allowed
to rise through the mist-oozing forest.
AT 9 o'clock the hum of airplane
motors was heard-and soon a pilot
zoomed over the captive balloon and
"hooked" the bag from a cord
stretched between them, which con-
tanned message to the commanding
general, Atlantic sector Panama Ca
nal Zone. A new stunt had been tried
out and found workable.
Trouble of Trail.
l nave never seen a more difficult
day of foot travel than the long hours
OF climbing the jungle slopes of the
series of mountains that lie between
the Gatun and Chagres Rivers. Men
and mules wheezed under their packs.
The qulnine Q5 grains) which each
soldier had been rationed the preced-
ing night made ears ring; fire ants
burned; aciduous thorns and palm
splnes painfully punctured hands and
bodies; mules Slipped down muddy
banks and became mired in sucking
clay.
The first company over the trail
pitched camp at A:3O, mud-caked and
leg-Weary, In fiat stretch of Jungle
where there was very little under
growth; tremendous trees formed such
a matted roof overhead that sunlight
sufnclent to sustain subforest growth
could not enter. Behind the advance
company came others, each having ex-
perienced its own trail problems. From
the camp at the Gatun River required
six hours fight for the first COM
pany. but it was II hours before the
last unit arrived in the new camp,
both men and mules being under
packs from Z am. until pm.
Jungle Pitch Black.
At 6 am. the march was resumed,
The jungle was pitch black. There
were only strange bird noises, giant
frog croakings, bat whistles to make
one sure that he was not buried in a
tomb. The only real catastrophe ex-
perienced by the expedition occurred
when it reached the Chaeres River.