Evening star., 1941-12-28
BeIyoiir
Continued From Page A-20.I

BeIyoir
Continued From Page A-20)
barracks. Then it was that I fell
under the baleful eye of the man
who was to become the fuehrer of
the platoon, the arbiter of all mat
tiers, the dispenser of things good
and bad, the absolute ruler of the
soldiers private and public life-the
platoon sergeant.
Whats your name" he asked.
'Toombs, sir I said.
Crude Humor From Sergeant.
"You don't need to say sir to
me. Just to officers" he said
'Toombs. What a bunch of names
Stajckowski, Artnobovich, Heather
down and Toombs. If I sneeze
around here I guess you'll all an
sWer"
There were about IS beds in the
barracks, on top of which were
stacked mattresses and bed clothing
We each picked out one and put
OSI tOWIl 81 SCclll clld q
corporal stood at one end of the
barracks, looking US over. Nobody
said anything.
Suddenly the sergeant yelled
'ten-SHUN." and the rafters shook.
I didn't jump as fast as the rest
and he looked bayonets at me. Our
second lieutenant came into the
room and gave us "at rest
The lieutenant passed out some
cards on which We put our names
and then he called us in individu-
ally to find out what our back
ground was IN civilian life. And
the corporal and the sergeant start
ed to show us how to make bed
in the Army.
A Highly Technical Feat.
Making a bed, Army style, is a
very complicated operation and the
difficulties can be compared to those
a general encounters in maneuver-
ing a division in combat. The other
boys had been practicing at For
Meade and they did pretty we'll.
I got tied up in sheets and blan-
kets so tight that it took the sergeant
Is minutes to burrow to the bottom
of the pile and extricate me. He
had some remarks to make, which
! am omitting from this family
newspaper.
When got the job finished, th'
corporal inspected it.
He found wrinkle on the toy
blanket, so small that it would have
passed unnoticed on movie star
face, and began to give me littl
talk. Well skip that, too. HI
smoothed it out for me.
IT don't want to see you do tina
any more" he said.
BY this time, was completely in
Inundated. The noncoms had me
and every other man in the barrack
as completely under control as
platoon of puppets.
Every few minutes, an Office
would stroll into the barracks an
the sergeant would yell Ten
SHUN." I jumped up every tim
like sky rocket.
Savory Mess Hall Interlude.
We were marched to the mess ha
for noon chow a short time late,
There was plenty to eat-corpe
beef hash, mashed potatoes, othe
vegetables, coffee and an apple fo
desert. The boys said the food wa
pretty good.
Maybe it's a first-day meal
some one pessimistically suggested
The man who sat next to me wa
eating like wolf All of a suddel
apropos of nothing, he spoke up.
I'VE gotta get an army and "
gotta hurry up he announced in
North Carolina accent. 1--WE COR
waited too long already. That 81
ec-oes the crick amt vaitin' =
ro.hin'. We gotta stop him. NJ
bctv else is going to-
His ;ally was greeted with a
awkward silence. 1t became appa
ent that he was the only man at tt
table who was personally mad
Hitler.
After we had carried our plat
back to the kitchen we returned
the barracks. We lit cigarettes.
dropped a match on the floor al
busted few ashes on top of it. IT
sergeant saw me.
Pick up those matches"
roared. God help any of you gu
if catch you doing that again.
Pvt. Toombs Creeps Away.
I cringed and crept away. V
set around for a while. Nobc
said anything. Then few be-;
II tarz to tho sergeant, a-'.ing hi
rcr lcr~ it would be bccore -
could 50 homo on leave. Ec raid
would be a month, and o.c~y c
groaned. Then he told US to u
pack our barracks bags.
This posed a pretty problem +
me. For I didn't have one. stall
around for a while. I was as ne
vous as a mouse at cat show.
nally I decided I'd better tell t
sergeant some kind of story.
I've lost my barracks bag"
said. IT told the lieutenant abe
It,"
The sergeant's jaw dropped. \
barracks bag was supposed to co
tain all my soldierly possession