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

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Loyola, won ' t you please? Must end this, for am writing at the K. of C. Building, whieh is a good walk from our camp street, and as you know taps must see me in my bunk with lights out. Several of us are going to become Knights of Columbus on Sunday. Feel a hit sorry to take up your time with so long a letter, hut found it dilticult to pick news which might he interesting. May I hear from you again sometime. Father? Neil Cokcoran. Washington, D. G. I wish to express my sincere thanks for your kind recommendation. I hope I shall be successful and prove myself worthy of every statement you made and so include old Loyola in the honor for which I am striving, l)y becoming a partieijiant in this battle for the suiiprcssion of oppression. Don’t forget that the “Blue and Gold” will he hoisted higher than ever, once the Kaiser is put on board an express headed for Uncle Sam. Here it is just work, work, work and keep quiet. I am glad that I am busy every minute; further, it is a great bracer to know that I am daily remembered in the Mass at Loj ola. J. T. McKeown. Camp McClellan. Received your letter and surely was glad to hear about the doings of my Alma Mater from my “Sapiens Pater” (please spare the theme blue pencil.) Of course I will he only too glad to contribute anything I can to the Annual. Maybe I could hammer out a “poem.” I suppose you’ll want one or two? Things certainly arc humming among my erstwhile class-mates in the matrimonial line. Of course “Bud” Loden’s courtship has become classic in our class history. Then I am reliably informed that “Abe” Codd slipped the lady of his heart a diamond at Christmas. Then, too, I hear that Buchness is in some danger. Corcoran’s “Heart-Breakers’ Club” seems to have been more or less of a failure! Not to mention tbe case of Neil, himself! Ah me, and Tin next to the oldest in the class! However, I hear very favorable reports of the maids of Normandy. I surely wish you could see your boys down here. Murray Sweeney and Inago Jamieson are both transferred to a comjiany of this battalion and made sergeants. Sweeney is an exact replica of Napoleon Bona- 26

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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

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parte. Our boys are the backbone of the battalion. I can’t think of one who isn’t a non-commissioned officer. I believe Keating will he hack from the Otticers’ Training Camp with a commission in a short time. Even Jimmy Arthur is a recently made corporal. Jesse James had nothing on me in my present role. I am in the guardhouse with a big .45 automatic strapped to my thigh guarding a few prisoners. None of our fel- lows has ever been in the “brig.” For some reason they don’t seem to he in a hurry about sending us o v e r, although we are considered veiy efficient. Ralph J. Sybert. FRANK PURVIS U. S. S. Arizona Camp Meade, Md. In the six months which I have spent here in preparation for my trip “Over There,” I have received many letters from those at home, hut I do not know of any which gave me so much i)leasure and joy as did yours of recent date. I probably have delayed considerably in replying, hut I know you will pardon this when I tell you that in the Officers’ Training School here, we are kept busy from early morn until “Taps,” and oft times later. What few moments we do have (and ihey are indeed few) are mostly taken up in shining shoes, washing leggings, and what not. One is continually kept on the go. This week, especially, is a strenuous one. I wish you could witness us ploughing around in mud and water-fdled trenches in an effort to repair them after the havoc wrought by the recent rains. Many of us never realized the great amount of dirt a pick and shovel could make tly until this week, and I assure you we now have first hand knowledge of the utility of these meager implements, both in making dirt fly and in making blisters. Wet and hungry, dirty and 27