TRANSCRIBED FROM THE NEWARK JOURNAL JULY 18, 1918 P. 2
Dear Father:
I have been waiting, thinking that I was going to get a furlough and come to see you, and would have in a day or two, but the order has come in to get ready to leave any time and we are only waiting now for our transportation to come. We may be away from here by tomorrow. We are going from here to Camp Merrit, N. J. which is about 15 miles from New York city. I dont think we will stay there more than about two weeks before taking the big jump.
So it may be that they might shut off the mail to us for awhile or it might be that we could not get a chance to mail anything. So you can go by what always has been said, that “no news is good news.”
I am very busy here now. I have been going to school for about two weeks to what is called Orientation School. It has to do with map sketching and a lot of scientific stuff that is a little too deep for me. In order to do any good in it you should be able to figure Algerbra, Geometry and Trigonometry and be a civil engineer and a soldier too. It is the same stuff that the officers get when going to an officers training school.
I have had two stripes on my arm since July 1st, after being one year and one day a private. I am now a corporal in the Battery Detail. I have charge of instruments to measure angles and ranges and a lot of other things and it is said to be the suicide bunch of this battery, as the detail is made up of men to scout and sketch and establish telephone lines and find the ranges of targets and observe the shots of the guns and you are always snooping around the enemy positions trying to find out something and the enemy are always looking for detail men as they know that the Battery cant do anything without the dope furnished by the detail. I have heard said that the average life of detail men is 24 hours of actual fighting. But they can’t make me afraid if they say it is only one second. I have forgotten how to be afraid.
I am hoping that when we get to New Jersey they will give us a chance to go outside of Camp. I want to see Briarcliff again and all my friends.
So perhaps you may yet have a chance to hear of the old 8th U. S. Artillery.
Corporal R. W. Alexander
NOTES: Written to his father, A. R. Alexander.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON
Dear Father:
I have been waiting, thinking that I was going to get a furlough and come to see you, and would have in a day or two, but the order has come in to get ready to leave any time and we are only waiting now for our transportation to come. We may be away from here by tomorrow. We are going from here to Camp Merrit, N. J. which is about 15 miles from New York city. I dont think we will stay there more than about two weeks before taking the big jump.
So it may be that they might shut off the mail to us for awhile or it might be that we could not get a chance to mail anything. So you can go by what always has been said, that “no news is good news.”
I am very busy here now. I have been going to school for about two weeks to what is called Orientation School. It has to do with map sketching and a lot of scientific stuff that is a little too deep for me. In order to do any good in it you should be able to figure Algerbra, Geometry and Trigonometry and be a civil engineer and a soldier too. It is the same stuff that the officers get when going to an officers training school.
I have had two stripes on my arm since July 1st, after being one year and one day a private. I am now a corporal in the Battery Detail. I have charge of instruments to measure angles and ranges and a lot of other things and it is said to be the suicide bunch of this battery, as the detail is made up of men to scout and sketch and establish telephone lines and find the ranges of targets and observe the shots of the guns and you are always snooping around the enemy positions trying to find out something and the enemy are always looking for detail men as they know that the Battery cant do anything without the dope furnished by the detail. I have heard said that the average life of detail men is 24 hours of actual fighting. But they can’t make me afraid if they say it is only one second. I have forgotten how to be afraid.
I am hoping that when we get to New Jersey they will give us a chance to go outside of Camp. I want to see Briarcliff again and all my friends.
So perhaps you may yet have a chance to hear of the old 8th U. S. Artillery.
Corporal R. W. Alexander
NOTES: Written to his father, A. R. Alexander.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON