Marston School - Howler Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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COMPANY FRONT SQUAD COLUMN

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It seems now many, many years ago when we iirst started to have military training at school. But in reality it was only in 1915. Yes, we started in 1915, and, we are sorry to say, ended in the same year. During that term the idea met with small response on the part of the fellows. There was no interest at all. A small irregular attendance at drills made progress very slow imleed. The idea must have been overcome by the summeris heat, for when we returned to school in the fall ot 1916 there was no trace ol' militarism. But how time changes things! Suddenly, out of the great era ol' patriotism in the tall of 1917, came a ttash which struck our school much as a streak of lightning strikes a tree, and with very visible results. lt was beyond doubt a better time to propose drills than ever before. The necessity of military training was clearly brought home to us by our relatives and friends already in the service ot the country g aml so when the tlash matured into a live concrete thing and thrust itsell' bodily upon us things surely did start to happen. There was a regular dra1't. To be exempt you must have a written excuse from parents aml Mr. Marston. So out of about one hundred and ten pupils, something like eight-live are taking up the drill. After considering the matter it was decided that drills would be held every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon directly after classes. These things were all very easy to arrange: but then came the real important part of securing a drill master for us raw recruits. lVe do not know how it happened, but on the lirst afternoon ol? our as- sembly ill theyard, Captain Carroll, ol' the Fifth S. M. N. ti. Veteran Corps, appeared upon the scene aml took command. Then came a surprise to us, or at least most ot us. It was discovered that Louis Ilodell, of the 191.7 class, had been to Culver. Everbody knows how Culver ranks as a military school, so there was no questioning as to whether Hodell knew his business or 11011 .Isle was appointed top S01'QC2l1li. Many, many very tiresome a1'ternoons were spent whipping the company i11to shape in the yard. and, in the course of time, results were secured. Then came the very cold weather and we adjourned to the Fifth Regiment Armory for drills. lln going to the armory we are assembled in the yard at 2230 and march from there to the armory, where we have about one aml a half to two hours drilling every drill day. lVe are dismissed I'rom the armory to do as we like after drill.

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Then came the uniforms. No regular body of? soldiers can put up a real appearance without uniforms. At least so the general staff seemed to think, for a man came up l'rom the New York Clothing House and took our measurements for uniforms. Then he disap- peared for a while, but upon his return it was announced that each man could go down to the New York Vlothing House and get his u11i- form, for it was iinished. Wie got an olive drab woolen suit otf regu- lar army cut, with canvas puttees and visored cap. Wie surely were military looking when we had the first drill in uniform. Things ra11 very smoothly now for quite a while. As you may know the I'oly cadets drill at the armory the same afternoons we do. 'When we first arrived there upon the scene it seemed that we would never be able to attain the perfection of these seeming veterans. 'Phe first couple of' afternoons when we drilled we used little wooden guns. As we executed the manual. of arms in sight ot' any Poly cadets we could 110t help seeing the corners of more than one mouth round out into a grin illlll many eyes twinkle. Really, l believe there were just as many of us who smiled at our pieces. l have since obtained this formula for making one of our rifles: 'l'ake a 0119-l1ll'il board, rough, and saw out a shape of' a gun. lVhen this is finished you should have a thing like this: A one-inch square wooden barrel about two teet long at one end of' which is a stock about one and a half feet long widening from the one-inch to about three at the end. At the junc- ture of the barrel and stock is a luunp on the top and bottom repre- senting trigger guard illltl bolt mechanism, we guess. Many grimaces were made as a splinter would seek a hiding place in one's hand: but otherwise we learned the manual of' arms. Soon we abandoned these pieces and devoted the whole time to foot movements. On every XVednesday afternoon Hodell gave us oral lectures on the movements. NVe copied down and made notes ol' it illlll finally 11ad the exact way- to execute the movements. lt was upon these notes that the examinations for officers were given. 'l'hey turned out with the results aforementioned. Of' course it took these otlicers a, little time to get worked into their new positions, but now they have caught on very well and we believe we have a fine company. lVe demonstrated our ability a.t the exhibi- tion and won great applause. We are learning new movements all The time, we now use regular rifies and will soon be l'ershing's body- guard or something like that.