Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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motor pumping; showers installed, eompany streets laid oil, and when the other eompanies began to roll in, it was not long before a pretty little eamp site had si)rung up. It was here we became aetiuainted with mud, that is, thoroughly aec[uainted; all men in the army become so before they can really be called soldiers. As the days travelled by we began to realize that soon we would be leaving our dear old Baltimore and its loved ones, to he about that grim and stern business we had enlisted to carry on, and time seemed to take wings. Then came the day for departure, Sunday, September 16, a day no old Fifth Maryland man can forget. The day before had been most disagreeable, a dreary rain falling, and our camp a sea of mud, which made the sending away of the i)roperty very dithcult. A mean night followed, hut when reveille drew us out early that Sunday morning, we saw with joy that “old Sol” had decided to he among those present when farewells were said. Our company was on the last section to leave from Timonium, so we had more time with our relatives and friends than many of oiu comrades. It was wonderful, the spirit disi)layed by the womenfolk on that Sunday. We were down here but a few days when our company became Company “C,” llOth Machine Gun Battalion which was the divisional machine gun battalion. Instead of the light Lewis guns we learned that we were to use heavy water-cooled guns, and from seventy-four men, the old war strength of a machine gun company, we were now to have one hundred and seventy-two men. These were selected from the com])anies of the Fifth. In our battalion. Company “A” was from Delaware; Com])any “B” from New Jersey; Company “C” from Mary- land and Company “D” from Virginia. The Delaware troojis left for the north after a few months, and a new Coinjiany “A” was formed from the remaining comj)anies. We had not been here very long when we began to exj)erience how Linsunny the “Sunny South” could he. We thought we were going to have a comfortable temperature the year round, but when the mercury began to travel towards zero and there linger and tarry for weeks, and real old-fashioned snow, like we used to ])low through in Baltimore, began to fall not unfrequently ; and when, to keep warm, we had to wear every stitch of knitted goods our kind friends and thoughtful Bal- timore societies had sent us, we knew that Dixie, at least where we were, was not so near the e([uator after all. Did 3 ' ou know. Father, that at Christmas the Loyola Club sent us gifts, and the i)eo])le of Baltimore, through 27?c Sun, sent each of us a j)ackage? And maybe they were not api)reciated ! 24

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ClIAIiLES LETTS Engiiiper Corps (Franco) Loyola men over there where service means so much more, and incidents are heavy with interest, our little happen- ings are as nothing; but since you r equest it. Father — here goes. As you know, our com- pany, though much smaller than it is now under the new army plan, was originally the machine gun company of the old Fifth Maryland, and when the present war was declared it was assigned to Port Covington, in Baltimore, to perform guard duty there, “Those were the happy days,” but this we realized only after we had reached our present camping grounds. And they were our “rookie” days, though at the time we thought we could lick the Kaiser and his pals with our four Lewis automatic ritles and our “thirty-eight” revolvers. I can never forget 1113 first few daj s at the Port. I still believe that during them I chopped enough wood to last six regiments for six wars. The uniform I was to be issued was resting complacentl} at the arinoiy and I was doing no drilling; so, lest I should think I had struck a life of leisure, they kept me bus with detail, and this mostl} on the wood pile. But like all good things. Port Covington did not last veiy long. Toward the end of Jul} we learned that the Marjdand Brigade was to go to a camp at Anniston, Alabama, for intensive training prior to overseas service, and that it was to be a part of the Twentj -ninth Division. Having been with the Southern Bailwaj just before enlist- ing, I had heard of Anniston, but I was one of the few enlightened ones in our companjc Daj s and da s went b} and no otlicial talk of leaving. Then one sunshiity da} ' in August, our captain drove through the camp gate, old number one post, in his olive drab Overland, and told us to pack, for in the morning we would leave for CockeA ' sville. We packed, and the next da} ' started for this Baltimore County town where we had learned our regiment was to mobilize before entraining for the southland. We were the first company on the scene and it was up to us to pre- pare the camp. For the most part we were new at the game, but there was willingness in the actions and paces of all. In short order there was a huge water tank set up, with a gasoline 23

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In the early part of the new year mules for the machine-gun limbers and ammunition wagons arrived, and you would have enjoj ed a good laugh could you have seen us up on the picket line with a curry-comb in one hand and a brush in the other trying to convince “merrels” with regular “Maud” dispositions that they needed a good currying. We often thought of Father Henry McLoughlin telling us of the things we were liable to do if we did not study our mathematics or chemistry. Every time I see a Loyola man with a pick or shovel in his hand I think of Father Henry’s threat to his classes of a job on the Fallsway. Stan Cook and I had mules for mounts, and I am enclosing a tiny snap of the two of us. My mule was dandy and I named him “Buddie”; hut Stan’s could never carry such a pet name, I think his was “Djma- mite.” We had mules for only about two months, when our battalion re- ceived orders to send one company to the 111th and one to the 112th Machine Gun Battalion, and the remaining companies to turn in their mules and later become motorized. Company “A.” Ours were the ones selected to remain, and it was good news. We hear that all the divisional machine gun battalions are being equipped with motor trucks. They have not come as yet, much to our regret, for we sure are doing some hiking. The} are hardening us for a week’s hike, on which we start next Monday. There are quite a f e w British and Freneh soldiers down here, many of them oili- cei s, and being fresh from those parts where the men are really doing things, they are ever in- teresting in all their talks and instructions. We do not know when we shall leave. We are told ours is a very good division, l)ut so far we have done all our fight- ing in peaceful Alabama. Don’t need to tell you that all of us were mighty pleased to hear of Loyola’s work in the crisis, nor mention that we often recall our class days with their numberless haj)py moments. Well, Fatlier, you will re- member me to all the priests, and to my other friends at