US Army Infantry School - Doughboy Yearbook (Fort Benning, GA)

Page 109 text:

.1 A G -gf I 63 ,Q S I Jim. il: 4? '3 ,X ' ' , F' 5 1924- nous!-mov QA january 30-They sprang a new course at us today-Training and Management. Who is to be trained, and what is to be managed is not yet clear, but we live in hopes. I hate these four hour periods of lecturesg I never could sleep in a folding chair. The sergeant at the library told me yesterday that the Commandant had ordered him to report any officer who asked for a book after the monograph season. i The annual physical examination is over, which is a pity, as they helped to fill in our Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. February 6-The annual Benning officers' beauty show is over. Today we donned our festive raiment and paraded before the general, who told the rating officer in whispers what he thought of us. A patch of rust on my saber scabbard seemed to fascinate him, and he said a word that sounded like Inferior, but it couldn't have been. He told one captain to draw saber, and the hilt came off. February 16-Physical Torture has started-who's afraid of the Red Ace? Had my finger prints taken last Wednesday afternoon, after stand- ing in line for an hour and a half. Students who know say that the service is much quicker at Joliet and Sing Sing. Saw the field officers' class riding yesterday. Evidently the forward saddle slant and the double post are coming in again. QEditor's Note: From this point the diary becomes confused, many dates have no entries, and others are dismissed with a few illegible sentences. It is possible that by this time, over-study had affected the writer's health.j March 4-Gym today. Lost my faith in evolution, because judging how I perform on a rope, no ancestor of mine ever climbed a tree. Tried the fourteen-year-old tests todayg I couldn't place in a kindergarten meet. March 5-Lectures today. My chair broke in the middle of the second one, and I cou1dn't get to sleep again. We're starting tactics. March 14-Care of animals, tactics, stable management, physical torture, field orders, map problems. Will it ever be spring? April 5-Spring fever. A terrible disease. There used to be only one crap game on the two trains of the narrow gauge, and now there is one OIT every car. Terrain exercise today. A mean one. What's the matter with the school office, have they run out of A's and B's? 1 W J ', 'f 'Q T 1' I I ' 'L QS' :WW -Q 'bf IF fl hwy

Page 108 text:

In 1 4-1 g ll 'rgrf I ' g i , difw , X 9 ,-,,, N ,p ., ' . ' Aiialw vouerwlak Rather think that two or three of the section were asleep, but maybe they think better with their eyes shut. Morale going up again. December 3-Work piling up again. The Drill and Be Damned course is taking an hour every morning, and we haven't got beyond the school of the soldier. We work in pairs-the coach and dumbbell method-and the tests start in a few days. The sketching course has also begun, and it's going to be hard sledding. Among other little things to keep us working, there has been a musketry exam. Speaking of musketry, one day on the range, the in- structor called out: Any officer with experience in trap shooting, report over here. A snappy looker from the end of the company, with spurs and pink breeches, strutted out to the instructor. Our Captain was back in a minute, his face as red as his shoulder insignia. Hell, he muttered, I thought he said crap shooting! December 17--One week to go, and then ten days of vacation. We caught six hours straight in platoon tactics todayg the Reds from Alabama and the Georgia Blues fought four different battles over the same ground. Our class is getting playful. An officer next to me at noon pulled a snake instead of a ham sandwich out of his lunch box. I hope there isn't any loose TNT around the reservation. I was studying on the narrow gauge this morning, and somebody set a match to my paper just as I came to the Gumps. Dirty dog! December 22-School out for twelve days. Back in October I planned to spend the whole vacation at Palm Beach: a month ago I changed it to three days in Atlantag and now I'm going to stay the whole time in Columbus. Well, a vacation is a vacation. january 8-Exam in sketching today. I was the last one to turn in my sketch, and the only thing right about it was the code number in the corner. A fat hound vvaddled after me While I was trying to draw my map, and everybody asked me if I was using a contour dog. January 17-The Drill and Be Damnedv course finished today. There are no mourners. The monographs are over, too, but we have machine guns now. Some of them have been issued to studentsg one took his home to Columbus, and the landlady fainted. Captain Egbert jones reports that his son Aloysius got licked in school at Columbus last Week for saying that Sherman was a greater general than Lee. C Z - 1 I, Y J curl' 5 A l ff E -ve fri V 5 ' .QS 'JJ tx, ,qw gg-A 14 x ln!

Page 110 text:

J:- K 1 x A I f ul! Ax i , if C1924 nous:-mov EX April 7-Equitation starts for my outfit today: was introduced to my horse, and it was mutual dislike at first sight. Would have joined polo squad, but for unkind remark of the head instructor. He said: You'd make a fine polo player if you didn't have to play the game on horse-back. That's mean and sarcastic. I guess he thinks I'm not athletic, but I used to play left tid on the college tiddly winks team. May 22-Maneuvers. Heat, dirt, and sweat, with a few rain showers thrown in for good measure. Only a week of it left, anyhow, but where in blazes are my orders? May 29-My orders came this morning. I'm going to Cname of destina- tion not legible.j Good Lord, what luck! 2: fi? MP yy ? vi M ,fi L i ff r f , Q, -6 5 'W ,i ja a 1'- :W x 2 42 X, . C