TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ROGERS DEMOCRAT DECEMBER 13, 1917 P. 2
The Y.M.C.A. is the greatest thing for good connected with the army, and enough cannot be said in its favor. It is a sort of home for all the boys to go to when they get lonesome at night, or any other time when they are not busy. It is lined with handmade writing desks with benches, ink, paper, envelopes and everything needed, all free but stamps, which can be bought in the building, and then there is a mail box where the mail is carried out to meet every outgoing mail from Kelly Field. They have a big platform for speakers, preachers, shows, and any kind of entertainment that interests any one. Also have a picture show of the very highest class three nights each week and other kinds of amusement on other nights. A piano for amateurs to hammer on, and they sometimes are fine musicians; the boys can play and sing to their heart's content; also there is a good phonograph with all the latest music. They also conduct free classes in French, or any other subject in which enough to form a class are interested in.
A class in algebra is now going on. It is just such a place as the army lacks and the boys all feel at home there. Many a mother gets a long letter that she would not get if it was not in all the camps. for everything is so handy that a boy would think to write when he goes in if nothing else suggested it to him.
One of the Y.M.C.A. men here told me that they gave away 200,000 shets of paper each day in all the camps around San Antonio. There are also instructors in all kinds of athletics and games
Their teachers teach the non-commissioned officers, who in turn teach the men and it is officially recognized by the army. The officers do not have much to do with the Y.M.C.A. but the enlisted men sure make use of it. The leaders are all well educated men, many from our greatest universities, and are a very high moral type of men. The Y.M.C.A. is officially recognized as is also the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic affair of the same kind. The Y.M.C.A. is far the best so far as I have seen, but everybody is welcome in any and no matter what religion or politics. The Y.M.C.A. conducts Sunday school on Sunday and have prayer meeting once a week in each squadron, to which all are also welcome.
You should not let any of your old magazines go to waste, but see that the army or navy gets them for they will make many a lonesome hour happy and make the boys better soldiers because they do not worry about self. Now I didn't mean to write so much about that but got started and couldn't stop.
NOTES: Lieut. Carl Puckett wrote this partial letter to his mother Mrs. J. W. Puckett of Rogers, Arkansas. Puckett, a doctor, was stationed at the aviation camp Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. Puckett was born in Rogers on October 31, 1892 and died in Oklahoma on September 27, 1957. He is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
The Y.M.C.A. is the greatest thing for good connected with the army, and enough cannot be said in its favor. It is a sort of home for all the boys to go to when they get lonesome at night, or any other time when they are not busy. It is lined with handmade writing desks with benches, ink, paper, envelopes and everything needed, all free but stamps, which can be bought in the building, and then there is a mail box where the mail is carried out to meet every outgoing mail from Kelly Field. They have a big platform for speakers, preachers, shows, and any kind of entertainment that interests any one. Also have a picture show of the very highest class three nights each week and other kinds of amusement on other nights. A piano for amateurs to hammer on, and they sometimes are fine musicians; the boys can play and sing to their heart's content; also there is a good phonograph with all the latest music. They also conduct free classes in French, or any other subject in which enough to form a class are interested in.
A class in algebra is now going on. It is just such a place as the army lacks and the boys all feel at home there. Many a mother gets a long letter that she would not get if it was not in all the camps. for everything is so handy that a boy would think to write when he goes in if nothing else suggested it to him.
One of the Y.M.C.A. men here told me that they gave away 200,000 shets of paper each day in all the camps around San Antonio. There are also instructors in all kinds of athletics and games
Their teachers teach the non-commissioned officers, who in turn teach the men and it is officially recognized by the army. The officers do not have much to do with the Y.M.C.A. but the enlisted men sure make use of it. The leaders are all well educated men, many from our greatest universities, and are a very high moral type of men. The Y.M.C.A. is officially recognized as is also the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic affair of the same kind. The Y.M.C.A. is far the best so far as I have seen, but everybody is welcome in any and no matter what religion or politics. The Y.M.C.A. conducts Sunday school on Sunday and have prayer meeting once a week in each squadron, to which all are also welcome.
You should not let any of your old magazines go to waste, but see that the army or navy gets them for they will make many a lonesome hour happy and make the boys better soldiers because they do not worry about self. Now I didn't mean to write so much about that but got started and couldn't stop.
NOTES: Lieut. Carl Puckett wrote this partial letter to his mother Mrs. J. W. Puckett of Rogers, Arkansas. Puckett, a doctor, was stationed at the aviation camp Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. Puckett was born in Rogers on October 31, 1892 and died in Oklahoma on September 27, 1957. He is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD