Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-04-20
CHAPTER xxx

THE OLD GANG, which has
lived and worked and played to-
eether for over three months and
has grown into a close and SYM
\ pathetic brotherhood. is dissoNlng
now. The training cycle is being
finished and already the old ties
are loosing.
The student cooks whom l grew
TO know and feel a fondnesS Tor
during those months are not SO
fortunate as some of the other
soldiers. The Charlotte boys who
were indicted with me and who
went through their antltapk
training together will go to-
gether TO Fort Knox and Will con-
tinue TO be with each other for at
least a little while. On the other
hand, these student cooks OF Bat
terry A will not go out together.
No fort is going 10 be sent a
whole battery of cooks. One cook
will be needed here, another
there. and the old third platoon
will be scattered from hell TO
breakfast.
FIRST ALWAYS BEST
An old 30-year man, with five
or six hash marks on his sleeve,
will tell you that no matter how
long YOU stay in the army, you II
never find a battery that quite
stacks up to the first battery IN
which you served. no group OF
buddies quite like the old gang
you knew first.
There's a reason for IL. In your
first organization, you learn for
the first time all the regulations
and the customs and the tradi-
lions of the army. When you first
face them, they're tough oil
they're undressing, and wher
you finally get to understand anc
agree with them, they're ldenti'
fed in your memory with the
battery where you learned them.
With the men who serve WITT
you there, you grow closer
through hardship and privatior
than you can possibly grow TO any
other group. After you get on
~jnto a line Organizations rea
tactical unit, such as these boy
ARE entering-any hardship OF
misery is just part oil the rou
tine. The sufferers are men rathel
than boys.
But in this first training cycle
this rookie stage, you haven
been hardened. You and the new
soldiers about YOU are sensitive
delicate boys, newly yanked iron
home or school, accustomed 10 al
easygoing and usually painless
life. You share each others illness
fatigue, despair. When Happ.
Menza grows homesick for Buf
falo and McGlaufiin starts a visit
full reminiscing about the lake
and forest OF Minnesota, you ar
homesick for them rather THAI
for yourself You are companion
tested in misery.
LAST TIME TOGETHER
Friday night was probably tn
last evening the boys OF my oil
crowd would be- together. AT least
Il was the last evening they Wer
sure OF being together. The foI
lowing day they were 10 go HON
for a weeks furlough. On thei
return. next Monday, they viii b
assigned 10 their permanent sta
tons 10 enter the field as so
diers. So they arranged 10 mol
a party Friday night on the rive
beyond Fayetteville.
When we rode 10 the river ]
our chartered bus, we rang IN
welkin with the old songs-th
family fragrant songs you pic
I'D through the years and N
"Caisson Song" and odd Kin
Cole" that you learn in the arm.
They were boisterous, those song
but a melancholy strain ran VI
der all Of them.
At the party we ate baroect
and we drank beer and We II
called the best anecdotes OF II
Akraining cycle. We sang and "
Aouted. Two or three Of the DO.
0Ipped a little too deep into II
keg and became slightly sent
mental. And although the food ar
~ the beer were the best, the sonI
r were the songs we loved and u
: anecdotes we're the cream OF u
: season, II was empty JOY. 1t ht
q dull undercurrent Of sorrow.
II was the sort Of feeling tn
YOU know in the last hour beto
the New Years bells. the feeliT
that reaches it's fullest wh'
"Auld Lang Syne" is heard.
Since we left our homes la
July we've leanred a lot. Dril
and rifles, pup tents and &
masks, all Of that.
This, though-the scattering
our first fraternity-is anoth
thing we have learned, nov al
for the first time. 1t is our fir
lesson in a new kind Of homesic
ness, bred only in the army.
CHAPTER XL