TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ROGERS DEMOCRAT OCTOBER 10, 1918 P. 1
Dear Sister and Brother:
We have to carry our bunks out every day when it is clean and as I went to the "Y" to write and found it too crowded I am now sitting on my cot out doors and using my suit case for a table.
We go to the drill fields every day and drill from 7 until 11 and again from 2 until 5 and we are off Saturday and Sunday.
You know what makes a man feel good and contented--that is a lot of good food which we sure get here and is cooked the best in the world. I haven't seen any cornbread since the day I left home but we have the best of snow-white light bread. This is what we had for dinner today: beef, beef gravy, light bread, green beans, blackeyed peas, California peaches. The food is varied and we get in the pound of a week such things as oats, rice, prunes, fish, cornflakes and evaporated milk, and the coffee is good.
We got our gun last week and drilled with it all week. They told us that we would go on the rife range the last of the week but for some reason we failed to do so. When i first got my clothes I got two pairs of pants, one blouse, or jacket, two pairs of underwear, two pairs of sox, one hat and hat cord, two good woolen blankets; I turned in my two cotton shirts and got in places two $5 wool shirts which are something fine and warm.
You ought to see us line up in a single line about 50 yards long for mess. As we pass, the cooks serve it on our mess kit which is something some man must have studied over a long time, then we sit down in a long room at two long tables and if we want any more we just simply go out and come around again which I hardly ever fail to do and sometimes three times to get fish or something that just especially happens to tickle my palate. If you want a man to smile just let him be well fed. Sweets and sugar are sure shy here: I haven't seen a grain of sugar since I left home. All the things that we get that require sugar the cooks put it in for us which is just enough and no more. Our coffee is sweetened.
There is some talk among the older men who train us that we will not stay here more than two or three weeks and that we will get our winter suits and over-sea clothes the first of next month. This is the only replacement camp; they used to send men to Alexandria, La., but now they go to France. There is a French teacher, or an American who teaches French, at our "Y" and I have taken one lesson and think I will join the class. It is free.
It rained this week, the second time since I have been here and the next day we went out to drill and you just ought to have seen us out there and the sand blowing like a driving rain. I don't think I ever saw a bigger rain fall. Does that sound funny? The rain settled the fine silt and the sand was on top and loose. The soil is peculiar here. Before the break with Germany the whole of Camp Pike was covered with scrub timber, mixed with some pines and the whole creation covered with big slabs and boulders of sandstone which have all been picked up and set in low ornamental stone fences and after they were picked up it looked like they had come from somewhere else because the soil is almost as free from stones as if there had not been any here and now the whole is covered with barracks and mess halls and soldiers who all look alike. The soil is half sand and the other half silt or clay but not vey sticky when wet. When it is dry the fine silt and sand almost fills the air at times as the wind blows pretty hard all the time. The wind and nights have been pretty cool but not cool enough for frost.
You know I told you about expecting to be transferred to the Personnell building. I was moved here before the set day and haven't heard anything from it since so don't expect to now. The older soldiers advise me to get into the non-commissioned officer's school or the officer's school, saying I could, but don't think that I could stand so much hard drilling for they get a lot more than the ordinary soldier and have more to look after in the line of battle. I like our officers here: they seem to be very reasonable but they expect you to move when it comes time to move, and you know that is the only way we can have an army. We all carry this kind of a pack on our backs to the drill fields every day, U.S. rifle, model 1917 mess kit, brush and thong for cleaning, oiler and thong case, gun sling, bayonet scabbard, canteen and cover cartridge belt, pouch for first aid, haversack, pack, carrier, bacon can, spoon, pair of sox, suit of underwear, bar of soap, comb, towel, blanket, toothbrush and paste, which just fits nicely in a pack and swings from the shoulder. The gun weight is about 12 pounds and I guess the pack would weigh about 15, but as it all hangs from the shoulder we don't notice it much unless we march a long ways.
The 'Y' is a fine thing for the soldiers. We buy candies and fruits and the like at the government stores called the canteens.
Believe I could write all day and not tell all but must quit.
ORA PACE.
NOTES: Ora Andrew Pace was writing from Camp Pike, Arkansas to his sister Mrs. Josie Conley of near Rogers, Arkansas. He was born on October 21, 1890 in Rogers, Arkansas and died in Bentonville, Arkansas on October 13, 1973. He is buried in the Fayetteville National Cemetery in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Pvt. US Army during World War 1. He enlisted on September 6, 1918 and was discharged on February 1, 1919.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
Dear Sister and Brother:
We have to carry our bunks out every day when it is clean and as I went to the "Y" to write and found it too crowded I am now sitting on my cot out doors and using my suit case for a table.
We go to the drill fields every day and drill from 7 until 11 and again from 2 until 5 and we are off Saturday and Sunday.
You know what makes a man feel good and contented--that is a lot of good food which we sure get here and is cooked the best in the world. I haven't seen any cornbread since the day I left home but we have the best of snow-white light bread. This is what we had for dinner today: beef, beef gravy, light bread, green beans, blackeyed peas, California peaches. The food is varied and we get in the pound of a week such things as oats, rice, prunes, fish, cornflakes and evaporated milk, and the coffee is good.
We got our gun last week and drilled with it all week. They told us that we would go on the rife range the last of the week but for some reason we failed to do so. When i first got my clothes I got two pairs of pants, one blouse, or jacket, two pairs of underwear, two pairs of sox, one hat and hat cord, two good woolen blankets; I turned in my two cotton shirts and got in places two $5 wool shirts which are something fine and warm.
You ought to see us line up in a single line about 50 yards long for mess. As we pass, the cooks serve it on our mess kit which is something some man must have studied over a long time, then we sit down in a long room at two long tables and if we want any more we just simply go out and come around again which I hardly ever fail to do and sometimes three times to get fish or something that just especially happens to tickle my palate. If you want a man to smile just let him be well fed. Sweets and sugar are sure shy here: I haven't seen a grain of sugar since I left home. All the things that we get that require sugar the cooks put it in for us which is just enough and no more. Our coffee is sweetened.
There is some talk among the older men who train us that we will not stay here more than two or three weeks and that we will get our winter suits and over-sea clothes the first of next month. This is the only replacement camp; they used to send men to Alexandria, La., but now they go to France. There is a French teacher, or an American who teaches French, at our "Y" and I have taken one lesson and think I will join the class. It is free.
It rained this week, the second time since I have been here and the next day we went out to drill and you just ought to have seen us out there and the sand blowing like a driving rain. I don't think I ever saw a bigger rain fall. Does that sound funny? The rain settled the fine silt and the sand was on top and loose. The soil is peculiar here. Before the break with Germany the whole of Camp Pike was covered with scrub timber, mixed with some pines and the whole creation covered with big slabs and boulders of sandstone which have all been picked up and set in low ornamental stone fences and after they were picked up it looked like they had come from somewhere else because the soil is almost as free from stones as if there had not been any here and now the whole is covered with barracks and mess halls and soldiers who all look alike. The soil is half sand and the other half silt or clay but not vey sticky when wet. When it is dry the fine silt and sand almost fills the air at times as the wind blows pretty hard all the time. The wind and nights have been pretty cool but not cool enough for frost.
You know I told you about expecting to be transferred to the Personnell building. I was moved here before the set day and haven't heard anything from it since so don't expect to now. The older soldiers advise me to get into the non-commissioned officer's school or the officer's school, saying I could, but don't think that I could stand so much hard drilling for they get a lot more than the ordinary soldier and have more to look after in the line of battle. I like our officers here: they seem to be very reasonable but they expect you to move when it comes time to move, and you know that is the only way we can have an army. We all carry this kind of a pack on our backs to the drill fields every day, U.S. rifle, model 1917 mess kit, brush and thong for cleaning, oiler and thong case, gun sling, bayonet scabbard, canteen and cover cartridge belt, pouch for first aid, haversack, pack, carrier, bacon can, spoon, pair of sox, suit of underwear, bar of soap, comb, towel, blanket, toothbrush and paste, which just fits nicely in a pack and swings from the shoulder. The gun weight is about 12 pounds and I guess the pack would weigh about 15, but as it all hangs from the shoulder we don't notice it much unless we march a long ways.
The 'Y' is a fine thing for the soldiers. We buy candies and fruits and the like at the government stores called the canteens.
Believe I could write all day and not tell all but must quit.
ORA PACE.
NOTES: Ora Andrew Pace was writing from Camp Pike, Arkansas to his sister Mrs. Josie Conley of near Rogers, Arkansas. He was born on October 21, 1890 in Rogers, Arkansas and died in Bentonville, Arkansas on October 13, 1973. He is buried in the Fayetteville National Cemetery in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Pvt. US Army during World War 1. He enlisted on September 6, 1918 and was discharged on February 1, 1919.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD