TRANSCRIBED FROM THE NEWARK JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 13, 1917, P. 1, 6
Dr. V. L. Pascoe:
I arrived here on the morning of the 26th of August and was immediately assigned to the eleventh company of infantry, which was then composed of Arkansas men entirely. Clothes were issued after dinner and we stood at parade rest at retreat just as if we had been soldiers forever. Bunks and bedding were assigned to us and we spent the early evening arranging our cots and learning the places and uses of our various equipment parts. Monday at 5:45 a. m., we began as regular members of the second camp and since then there has been nothing but work from 5:45 a. m. till 9:45 at night. At 5:45 a. m. we get up, dress and assembly at 5:44 for ten minutes of calistherics, after which we prepare for breakfast. Breakfast is at 6:20 and we then arrange our barracks for morning inspection, which last from 7:00 to 7:15 and woe to the fellow whose blankets are not folded and arranged properly or whose shelf is not properly dusted and arranged! As we term it, he is “skinned” which means he is deprived of the privilege of leaving the barracks or reservation on Saturday or Sunday and is given demerits besides.
At 7:15 we begin the work proper for the morning. Usually we march and drill or have aiming and sighting exercises for the first two hours and then assemble on a nearby hill or in a nearby grove for an hours lecture from the senior officers. At these conferences, as they are called instructions along the lines of work we have just studied or finished is given and the entire student body of some three thousand attends. After the conference no time is lost in assembling the various companies for a continuation of the work. We run into line at such times and are taught to assemble at the first blast of the company commander’s whistle. In fact, it is just one shrill whistle from morning till night, you might say, with the few reeesses taken up by some kind of work that you an given your attention to at no other time and yet must be done according to schedule. You can get some idea of the vast amount of work we are doing if I tell you we have accomplished more in one week than did the first camp men in three weeks. It is rumored here that we shall finish the work in a month or a month and a half and then spend the remainder of the time in practical trench fighting.
From the looks of the battle ground on the reservation with all their ziz-zag trenches, barbed wire entanglement and parapets I should say that it seems the intention to give the student a thorough working knowledge of modern warfare is well backed by the proper kind of models and arrangements up-to-date.
Of course most of the course here is instruction and we are supposed to be intelligent enough to need but one explanation. We must learn quickly and not forget. We are shown but once how to perform a task and may be called upon at any moment to explain to the assembly something that has been barely mentioned the day before. Precision and promptitude and absolute obedience to all commands is impressed upon us and one must keep his ears and eyes open and his mouth closed in order to grasp everything that is said for his benefit.
On Saturday we marched for four hours with full pack and equipment. The full pack weighs some forty-five pounds or over and the gun eight and sixty-nine one hundredth pounds so you can imagine the endurance required to stand such tests. Not a man from our company fell out, while from some companies they fell out in large numbers. Since then our Company, the Eighth Company, formed round the old Eleventh Company has been called the “Iron Man’s Company,” for the great endurance it showed. I might explain that that was the first time we were required to carry the full pack and there was no gradual working up to the lirited number of pounds to be carried as was the case in the first camp. We must show that we are men or they remind us our transportation home is waiting at the paymaster’s office. Thus far the endurance test has been no worry to me, and I have felt extremely well from the start. The cold nights and dry atmosphere seem to have a cheering effect on us Arkansans and we are thriving in health and waxing fat as it were under the system of regular hours and exercise. You don’t have to tell a fellow to go to bed and to sleep after a day’s work here.
I was impressed from the beginning by the splendid type of manhood assembled here. They are a lively, well-appearing, working bunch of men and represent the pick of the entire South. I can’t describe what a mighty fighting force they would make if they remained in their respective companies as private soldiers such an assembly of physically perfect and well educated men cannot be pictured in ones imagination. One must see in order to comprehend the possibilities that lie in easy reach of our great country. The greater part of them will be commissioned to train the drafted army to be mabilized at Camp Travis. There are twenty-five thousand soldiers on this reservation—Camp Funston—and a woman is a rare curiosity; I have seen two since I came here.
Doctor, I do wish you people at Newark could see this reservation just for a day’s work. You would be astonished at the broad plane of preparation now being used by our Uncle Sam. To see the maneuvers of fifteen regiments of infantry, several troops of cavalry and batteries of field and coast artillery is worth going many miles.
My best regards to the Newark fellows, especially remember me to Drs. Poe and Roe, Mr. Ketchem, Mr. Craig, Cliff, Mr. Allen and “Hawk” Vaughan. Let them read this letter if convenient; for it is impossible to write to them all, though I wish I had time for at least a short message to each.
Let me hear from you soon and I wish to again thank you for the courtesy you showed me when seeking to be admitted to the camp here. I shall try hard to show my appreciation in the best manner possible and see no reason why I should not gain a commission at the close of the camp if plenty of hard work and study will attain a commission.
Sincerely,
Herman O. Lane
Co. 8, Officers’ TrainaIng Camp, Leon Springs, Texas
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON
Dr. V. L. Pascoe:
I arrived here on the morning of the 26th of August and was immediately assigned to the eleventh company of infantry, which was then composed of Arkansas men entirely. Clothes were issued after dinner and we stood at parade rest at retreat just as if we had been soldiers forever. Bunks and bedding were assigned to us and we spent the early evening arranging our cots and learning the places and uses of our various equipment parts. Monday at 5:45 a. m., we began as regular members of the second camp and since then there has been nothing but work from 5:45 a. m. till 9:45 at night. At 5:45 a. m. we get up, dress and assembly at 5:44 for ten minutes of calistherics, after which we prepare for breakfast. Breakfast is at 6:20 and we then arrange our barracks for morning inspection, which last from 7:00 to 7:15 and woe to the fellow whose blankets are not folded and arranged properly or whose shelf is not properly dusted and arranged! As we term it, he is “skinned” which means he is deprived of the privilege of leaving the barracks or reservation on Saturday or Sunday and is given demerits besides.
At 7:15 we begin the work proper for the morning. Usually we march and drill or have aiming and sighting exercises for the first two hours and then assemble on a nearby hill or in a nearby grove for an hours lecture from the senior officers. At these conferences, as they are called instructions along the lines of work we have just studied or finished is given and the entire student body of some three thousand attends. After the conference no time is lost in assembling the various companies for a continuation of the work. We run into line at such times and are taught to assemble at the first blast of the company commander’s whistle. In fact, it is just one shrill whistle from morning till night, you might say, with the few reeesses taken up by some kind of work that you an given your attention to at no other time and yet must be done according to schedule. You can get some idea of the vast amount of work we are doing if I tell you we have accomplished more in one week than did the first camp men in three weeks. It is rumored here that we shall finish the work in a month or a month and a half and then spend the remainder of the time in practical trench fighting.
From the looks of the battle ground on the reservation with all their ziz-zag trenches, barbed wire entanglement and parapets I should say that it seems the intention to give the student a thorough working knowledge of modern warfare is well backed by the proper kind of models and arrangements up-to-date.
Of course most of the course here is instruction and we are supposed to be intelligent enough to need but one explanation. We must learn quickly and not forget. We are shown but once how to perform a task and may be called upon at any moment to explain to the assembly something that has been barely mentioned the day before. Precision and promptitude and absolute obedience to all commands is impressed upon us and one must keep his ears and eyes open and his mouth closed in order to grasp everything that is said for his benefit.
On Saturday we marched for four hours with full pack and equipment. The full pack weighs some forty-five pounds or over and the gun eight and sixty-nine one hundredth pounds so you can imagine the endurance required to stand such tests. Not a man from our company fell out, while from some companies they fell out in large numbers. Since then our Company, the Eighth Company, formed round the old Eleventh Company has been called the “Iron Man’s Company,” for the great endurance it showed. I might explain that that was the first time we were required to carry the full pack and there was no gradual working up to the lirited number of pounds to be carried as was the case in the first camp. We must show that we are men or they remind us our transportation home is waiting at the paymaster’s office. Thus far the endurance test has been no worry to me, and I have felt extremely well from the start. The cold nights and dry atmosphere seem to have a cheering effect on us Arkansans and we are thriving in health and waxing fat as it were under the system of regular hours and exercise. You don’t have to tell a fellow to go to bed and to sleep after a day’s work here.
I was impressed from the beginning by the splendid type of manhood assembled here. They are a lively, well-appearing, working bunch of men and represent the pick of the entire South. I can’t describe what a mighty fighting force they would make if they remained in their respective companies as private soldiers such an assembly of physically perfect and well educated men cannot be pictured in ones imagination. One must see in order to comprehend the possibilities that lie in easy reach of our great country. The greater part of them will be commissioned to train the drafted army to be mabilized at Camp Travis. There are twenty-five thousand soldiers on this reservation—Camp Funston—and a woman is a rare curiosity; I have seen two since I came here.
Doctor, I do wish you people at Newark could see this reservation just for a day’s work. You would be astonished at the broad plane of preparation now being used by our Uncle Sam. To see the maneuvers of fifteen regiments of infantry, several troops of cavalry and batteries of field and coast artillery is worth going many miles.
My best regards to the Newark fellows, especially remember me to Drs. Poe and Roe, Mr. Ketchem, Mr. Craig, Cliff, Mr. Allen and “Hawk” Vaughan. Let them read this letter if convenient; for it is impossible to write to them all, though I wish I had time for at least a short message to each.
Let me hear from you soon and I wish to again thank you for the courtesy you showed me when seeking to be admitted to the camp here. I shall try hard to show my appreciation in the best manner possible and see no reason why I should not gain a commission at the close of the camp if plenty of hard work and study will attain a commission.
Sincerely,
Herman O. Lane
Co. 8, Officers’ TrainaIng Camp, Leon Springs, Texas
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON