TRANSCRIBED FROM THE MONTICELLONIAN OCTOBER 5, 1917 P. 4
Santo Domingo City,
34th Co. 3rd Reg.
Sept., 16, 1917
Dear Auntie:
Arrived in the city yesterday and our Company is standing by to go to the states for duty in France.
Now don’t get alarmed; for we may not go at all; I say that is the report from our Company Commander.
There is one machine gun company in each Reg.; the 34th is the machine gun company of the 3rd Reg.
If we do leave for the states will write you the day we leave and the day we arrive, so you will know the exact place I am.
If God wills that I go to France, it is for me to do my best, and make a good account of myself.
A machine gun always holds the most dangerous position, one that men with the regular rifles would be unable to hold; one must know the parts, how to load, to operate, and if it should jam be able to remedy it correctly and quickly.
I am rated as a gun pointer, so I feel I can do my bit.
Now let me say again, don’t take this as a fact-for in this service you never really know until you are under way. I feel I would be doing myself as well as you, an injustice not to tell you just what reports are in circulation.
With love to you,
Your nephiew,
Bert M. Dumas
NOTES: Dumas was born on December 24, 1898 and died on February 19, 1959. He is buried in the Myrtle Hill Memorial Parks in Tampa, Florida. He enlisted when he was nineteen. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas veteran of both WWI and WWII. He served with the 34th Company, 3rd Regiment U. S. Marines. He was writing to his aunt, Miss Berta Matthews of Monticello, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY CHLOE SMITH
Santo Domingo City,
34th Co. 3rd Reg.
Sept., 16, 1917
Dear Auntie:
Arrived in the city yesterday and our Company is standing by to go to the states for duty in France.
Now don’t get alarmed; for we may not go at all; I say that is the report from our Company Commander.
There is one machine gun company in each Reg.; the 34th is the machine gun company of the 3rd Reg.
If we do leave for the states will write you the day we leave and the day we arrive, so you will know the exact place I am.
If God wills that I go to France, it is for me to do my best, and make a good account of myself.
A machine gun always holds the most dangerous position, one that men with the regular rifles would be unable to hold; one must know the parts, how to load, to operate, and if it should jam be able to remedy it correctly and quickly.
I am rated as a gun pointer, so I feel I can do my bit.
Now let me say again, don’t take this as a fact-for in this service you never really know until you are under way. I feel I would be doing myself as well as you, an injustice not to tell you just what reports are in circulation.
With love to you,
Your nephiew,
Bert M. Dumas
NOTES: Dumas was born on December 24, 1898 and died on February 19, 1959. He is buried in the Myrtle Hill Memorial Parks in Tampa, Florida. He enlisted when he was nineteen. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas veteran of both WWI and WWII. He served with the 34th Company, 3rd Regiment U. S. Marines. He was writing to his aunt, Miss Berta Matthews of Monticello, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY CHLOE SMITH