TRANSCRIBED FROM THE NEWPORT DAILY INDEPENDENT MARCH 9, 1918 P. 4
Fort Meyer, Va., March 5, ’18.
I thought I would drop you a few lines to let you know I had not forgotten you. The reason I did not write sooner was I did not know how long I would be at Jefferson Barracks, because I expected to leave there at any day and would not have gotten your letter. The army life is the only life in the world. You always feel good. I have gained ten pounds since I have been here and have not been sick a minute except when I was in the hospital for nine days with a cold and sore throat.
They could not pick out a better place for a camp than here. It is an ideal place; the climate is fine and just three miles from Washington, D. C., and we can get a pass twice a week and believe me, we have some time. There are lots of historic points around here. The mast and anchor of the old Maine and all the men that went down with it are buried by the side of it, also the mansion of Robert E. Lee as it was during the civil war.
The company I enlisted with was filled up and they transferred me to to the all-weather car, which forms part of the over-seas motor transportation. We expect to get about a month more of drilling and then we are gone. We drill with a rifle just the same as if we were going in the trenches. We have been drilling in our shirt sleeves and believe me it was cold, but they soon warm you up by taking you on a ten mile hike, but you feel good over it. They feed you well, better than you think they would, anyway better than I expected. They are making so much noise you can hardly write.
I guess you have been reading in the papers about the testing of the Liberty motor. I saw all of it. It went up every day here for a week, and believe me, it does some stunts. There are three big winless towers in about a block of our barracks, which control all the out-going ships.
Tell all the clerks I said hello for me.
With best wishes,
Seymour Hays,
460 Company Eng., Fort Meyer. Va.
NOTES: Seymore Thomas Hays (the newspaper misspelled his name) was born in St. Marys, Ohio on November 17, 1898 and died on June 23, 1951. HIs is buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas. His military headstone identifies him as a Cpl. US Army. He departed Philadelphia, Pa. on March 19, 1918 onboard the Von Steuben. He was serving as as Pvt. in 460th Engineers Motor Transport Service. This letter is written to John Purdy.
TRANSCRIBED BY STEPHANE LECOINTE
Fort Meyer, Va., March 5, ’18.
I thought I would drop you a few lines to let you know I had not forgotten you. The reason I did not write sooner was I did not know how long I would be at Jefferson Barracks, because I expected to leave there at any day and would not have gotten your letter. The army life is the only life in the world. You always feel good. I have gained ten pounds since I have been here and have not been sick a minute except when I was in the hospital for nine days with a cold and sore throat.
They could not pick out a better place for a camp than here. It is an ideal place; the climate is fine and just three miles from Washington, D. C., and we can get a pass twice a week and believe me, we have some time. There are lots of historic points around here. The mast and anchor of the old Maine and all the men that went down with it are buried by the side of it, also the mansion of Robert E. Lee as it was during the civil war.
The company I enlisted with was filled up and they transferred me to to the all-weather car, which forms part of the over-seas motor transportation. We expect to get about a month more of drilling and then we are gone. We drill with a rifle just the same as if we were going in the trenches. We have been drilling in our shirt sleeves and believe me it was cold, but they soon warm you up by taking you on a ten mile hike, but you feel good over it. They feed you well, better than you think they would, anyway better than I expected. They are making so much noise you can hardly write.
I guess you have been reading in the papers about the testing of the Liberty motor. I saw all of it. It went up every day here for a week, and believe me, it does some stunts. There are three big winless towers in about a block of our barracks, which control all the out-going ships.
Tell all the clerks I said hello for me.
With best wishes,
Seymour Hays,
460 Company Eng., Fort Meyer. Va.
NOTES: Seymore Thomas Hays (the newspaper misspelled his name) was born in St. Marys, Ohio on November 17, 1898 and died on June 23, 1951. HIs is buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas. His military headstone identifies him as a Cpl. US Army. He departed Philadelphia, Pa. on March 19, 1918 onboard the Von Steuben. He was serving as as Pvt. in 460th Engineers Motor Transport Service. This letter is written to John Purdy.
TRANSCRIBED BY STEPHANE LECOINTE