US Naval Training School at Harvard University - All Hands Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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Amongst other incidental information obtained during our lndoctrination there were the following items which need not be dwelt upon but which should be briefly mentioned here: the pointers gained from the moving picture entitled facetiously ul-low to 'falce Care of Yourself After l-laving Reached the Age of puberty . . . a filml, facts gleaned from positive memorization of The Watch Qfficers' Guide, including all punctuation and the index, how to eat with no time or room to eat in, how to yell :Now 'ei hear this in order to be heard on the fifth Udeclci' of Matthews,-how to rearrange furniture and personal belongings in your ucabinu in order to please the most fastidious Inspecting Qfficersi and how to conduct yourself with military bearing although on watch. All this and much more too was involved in our naval education here. There were times when exhaustion from so many hours filled with real duties was more than we thought we could talce. Yet we took it, didn't report too many blisters or fevers to sick bayi' and were both pleased and proud not to, since we soon found our- selves feeling better than ever we had in civilian life. Nliraculously we were ready for more. We got more, and reminded ourselves that on ship-board we would get more than that, and lilce itl Then by sections we were off to the Dispensary for shots . . . The third typhoid is worstn . . . iiWait 28

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nate us regarding the elusive message contained in two vertical pulsating red lights or to sell us on the dubious truth that a prolonged blast is shorter than a long blast, in spite of logic. That we have not bilged at l'larvard Naval Training School is proof of their persistence. bias A And, since we spealc of things being drilled into us, there is the affair of drill itself which, by the very virtue of the time it toolc from our daily lives, became a featured part of the transformation experience. All drummers and buglers report to the Middle Entrance of lhayern was an announcement which filled us vvith transport, for vve were off and away across the Charles River bridge and over the cinders into Soldiers, Field in no time, with never a student officer uslcylarlcingn in ranks and never a glance toward the Cam- bridge coquettes. Certainly Ensign Moorefs fantastic accomplishment of getting thirty men to goose-step on alternate counts vvhile entangling them- selves in a spiral line-labyrinth, Ccarrying guns at left shoulder arms the whileb was, considered by most of us the penultimate in military performance. And when the spiral was untangled in proper order it was felt that perfect drill Nirvana had been reached. Finally, when vve ourselves took over a platoon for drill We KNEW this to be true. 27

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till you get tlte yellow Fever needleln . . . VVl1icl1 arm did tlwey stab tltis time? . . . Both etc. Yet all of us came tlwrouglw, from small-pox to tetanus, and learned to take vvliat we lcnew was really a minor unpleasantness compared to sltrapnel in tlwe belly. We tool4 some pleasure, too. At Training Sclwool tlwere Was a little time For tlte Hliglwter side. llwrouglw our Executive Qtlicers, Statl Qflicers and tlwe student body itself tlwere was organized extra-curricular activity, extending from Glee Club, company baseball and rifle teams, to musical comedy relwearsalsi Tlwere were tlwe mass trips to Wellesley dances, vvitlw student otlicers in Uslwore leave dressi' . . . eaclw one a member of a ltand- Y 5 4 some band of brothers , iourneys to tlwe Navy Yard, tlwe nooks and crannys ot tlwe Qtticersi Clubs tlwere and in Boston tovvn,tlwe glittering Regimental Ball, and open-ltouse vvitlw punclt and pulclwritude at Plwillips Brooks l-louse. And mellovving Friendships tl'trougl'm the progressing days. S29