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

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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

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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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tired, we plod wearily home eaeh evening, hul never diseouraged or with daini)ened si)irits, for we all know that it is all work towards the one end, that of defeating the areh enemy of eivilization in his mad and monstrous ambition. My stay in eamp here has been very agreeable. Many aecjiiaintanees of years’ standing were renewed. There is Hoyle and Keelan and many of the others of Loyola, whom I have met sinee eoming here, and it eertainly was good to meet them and talk over bygone days and of Loyola. No doubt you at home wonder how we utilize our idle hours; that is to say, our former idle hours. I will endeavor to relate a few of our many methods of enjoying ourselves. Before eoming to the Training Camj) for Officers, which opened January 5, I was attached to Company “C,” of the 313th. I luul been j)romoted to sergeant and acted as 1st sergeant on numerous occasions and, therefore, was kept quite busy; hut despite the manifold duties of these positions I had plenty of opportunities for relaxation and pleasure. Our chief sport in the first months here was, of course, baseball ; then came football, and later came the gathering around our big fires here, singing and relating experiences of our young lives. Then later on the “Y ' s” and K. of C. Buildings were opened. Music, motion pictures, box- ing contests, hasketbalt and entertainments of all dcscrijitions vere suiijilied in these buildings, and the efforts of these organizations, to disjiel gloom and break the monotony of canij) life, arc indeed successful. Their work is wonderful. In the early months, Wednesday and Sat- urday afternoons and all day Sunday, the camp was open to visitors, who thronged here in great numbers, and it is a sight worth seeing to view mothers, wives, sweethearts, brothers and sisters strolling about the camp. Many times I had visitors and many times I did not; on (he latter occasions I busied myself with reading until I would fall asleej), which usually was not long after I had begun to read. You know sleej)- ing, or “hunk fatigue,” is one of our chief occupations when not engaged otherwise, and soldiers surely can sleep despite the fact that snores are as loud as big guns. We have a great variety of snoring. During the cold winter months, things were not c[uitc as comfortable as they would have been at home, and there were ([uite a few hardships to he borne, which were new to us; hut we soon became accustomed to them and grumbling and discontent vanished as we did. One of the distinct happenings that will ever remain with me is the dci)arture of many of my friends from our Com])any. Shortly, or rather a jnonth or so after we arrived, all the boys whom I had known in childhood and my early youth were sent away, and it was a ])arting that I will never forget. On our trip down to caini) we had renewed ac([uaintanceshi])s, and were all together in barracks as one ha])py family, each sharing 28