The Ely miner., 1943-09-02

" " ~
At night we sleep, or simulate
sleep, in pup tents made by our
own hands with loving care.
Fort Bragg for taste of the food
we eat. A vexed soldier here doesn't
crate his teeth. He crunches them.
We made the trip here in lorries,
which are the mechanical ages
nearest approach in appearance to
covered wagons. You've probably
seen them rolling noisily but
smoothly through town-large cam
vas-topped trucks with a fold
ing bench down each side inside.
You'd expect to be hauled out Of
one Of them, beaten to death, at
the end of a 130-mile trip. They
give tolerably bumpy ride, just
tolerably.
When we started pitching camp,
about quarter of mile back from
the beach, we found the place al
ready. inhabited - by cannibals.
These creatures, which masquerade
as harmless flies and even camou-
faged by the harmless sounding
| name of sand flies, must have vam-
pire blood back In the line some
| where.
I don't bear any grudge against
the easygoing, good-natured house
| fy-in fact, I feel rather cruel when
I squash one for tickling me-but it
arouses my pioneer fighting spirit
to see stunted horsef1y light on my
bare leg, make himself sassily COM
Portable and start draining off my
life's blood. But what can you do?
Slapping one only serves to make
him mad at you.
At night we sleep, or at least we
simulate sleep, in pup tents made
by our own hands with loving care,
blood, sweat, tears, two pieces of
waterproof cloth, two lengths of
rope, and a handful of turned lum-
Der.
I share my little duplex with Pri-
| vate Warren, the new student cook
who told me the story about the
man at the boarding house. When I
stumbled home last night, primed
to the gills with a blend of sand
and salt water, I discovered that
we had an overnight guest! The
chief cook on our shift, in the task of
packing the field kitchen, had neg
lected to put his own field pack (tent
half, blankets, etc. on the truck,
so he decided to drop over and have
US put him up for the night.
A pup tent, as you probably don't
need to be told, will accommodate
two men, provided neither of them
walks in his sleep. If three men are
to sleep in one tent, at least two of
them must be midgets or babes in
arms. Cooks should never sleep two
to tent, because of their tendency
toward plumpness.
We arranged ourselves in the tent
by wrapping knees around the tent
poles, putting all feet outside for
the night and raising one side Of
the tent high enough to make rus
tic sleeping porch of the whole af-
fair.
The guest proved to be one of
those loathsome creatures who pull
all the covers to their side of the
bed. We had quite a lot of trouble
with him, since he slept in the
middle and rolled up in both our
blankets. We remedied this by wait
ing until he started snoring, then
recovered our blankets, rolling our
selves in them and throwing rain
coat over him.
The three-man arrangement was
very uncomfortable for a while.
When I finished opening my eyes by
scooping the sand from them, I
found that I had rolled through the
opened side of the tent and spent
the night under myrtle bush ten
yards down the slope.
During my first off hour, ! sue
ceeded in getting tan which must
have darkened the very marrow of
my bones. My chest, back, and
legs looked the color of a faded dam
ger flag and smelled like the roast
pork that the cook forgot to watch.
After that, the surf and the sun
went their ways and I went mine.
TO BE CONTINUED