TRANSCRIBED FROM THE POCAHONTAS STAR HERALD MARCH 3, 1918 P. 7
Paris Island, S. C., March 1 18
Dear Editor and Friends:
If you will allow me space I will endeavor to write a few lines to my many Randolph friends. I am well and having a good time. Am at present located on the Atlantic. I enjoy the life of a “soldier of the sea” to the fullest extent. Have been in training for two months on land and have completed seven days training on sea. This is a lovely place in the sunny south. We produce everything from an orange tree to an ape.
I sympathize with home people when I read of you having had such severe winter there. It is exceedingly warm here and has been for quite a while. There has not been a week since I landed here Dec. 4th last, but what we marines and sailors take our weekly plunge in the ocean. We have a splendid bunch of both marines and sailors here and we admire each other very much. We have many sports such as billiards, tennis and medicine ball. But the greatest of all is our grand parade every Saturday when we march to the music of the U.S. Marine Band, it’s great. My company has already had some signal drills aboard ship. The captain says that we are doing excellent. Don’t know how long I’ll stay here, though not very long. I have been assigned to Battleship Ida, can’t say where she is located, probably on the east coast.
We thank the Red Cross workers for the many nice parcels sent us on Paris Island. There is nothing we appreciate more than to receive a box of cakes of fudge. We think of you good people at home and realize that you are doing all you can to help us whip Germany. The sooner we kill the Kaiser the sooner we’ll be free again. Then why not let every true able bodied man from eighteen to twenty-five join in and help carry Old Glory through to victory.
What are we doing now boys,
Who are we doing it for?
We’re going to make a h--- of a noise
When we rap on the Kaiser’s door.
While we’re knocking with rifles
And the airmen drop them bombs,
The folks back home are kind
With money and Liberty Bonds.
Don’t say they’re not behind us,
They will back us to the switch
Where we’ll turn the Kaiser’s engine
Off the track into the ditch.
Till we cross the Rhine in glory
With our good Marine Corps band,
Till our Stripes will tell the story
With the Stars in No Man’s Land.
But our glory will be greater
When we march into Berlin,
And the 81st Co U S, Marine Corps
Is going there to win!
Yours sincerely,
Prvt. John H. Moore,
81st Co. U. S. Marine Corps.
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY LANDON TEER
Paris Island, S. C., March 1 18
Dear Editor and Friends:
If you will allow me space I will endeavor to write a few lines to my many Randolph friends. I am well and having a good time. Am at present located on the Atlantic. I enjoy the life of a “soldier of the sea” to the fullest extent. Have been in training for two months on land and have completed seven days training on sea. This is a lovely place in the sunny south. We produce everything from an orange tree to an ape.
I sympathize with home people when I read of you having had such severe winter there. It is exceedingly warm here and has been for quite a while. There has not been a week since I landed here Dec. 4th last, but what we marines and sailors take our weekly plunge in the ocean. We have a splendid bunch of both marines and sailors here and we admire each other very much. We have many sports such as billiards, tennis and medicine ball. But the greatest of all is our grand parade every Saturday when we march to the music of the U.S. Marine Band, it’s great. My company has already had some signal drills aboard ship. The captain says that we are doing excellent. Don’t know how long I’ll stay here, though not very long. I have been assigned to Battleship Ida, can’t say where she is located, probably on the east coast.
We thank the Red Cross workers for the many nice parcels sent us on Paris Island. There is nothing we appreciate more than to receive a box of cakes of fudge. We think of you good people at home and realize that you are doing all you can to help us whip Germany. The sooner we kill the Kaiser the sooner we’ll be free again. Then why not let every true able bodied man from eighteen to twenty-five join in and help carry Old Glory through to victory.
What are we doing now boys,
Who are we doing it for?
We’re going to make a h--- of a noise
When we rap on the Kaiser’s door.
While we’re knocking with rifles
And the airmen drop them bombs,
The folks back home are kind
With money and Liberty Bonds.
Don’t say they’re not behind us,
They will back us to the switch
Where we’ll turn the Kaiser’s engine
Off the track into the ditch.
Till we cross the Rhine in glory
With our good Marine Corps band,
Till our Stripes will tell the story
With the Stars in No Man’s Land.
But our glory will be greater
When we march into Berlin,
And the 81st Co U S, Marine Corps
Is going there to win!
Yours sincerely,
Prvt. John H. Moore,
81st Co. U. S. Marine Corps.
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY LANDON TEER