Men of all trades and professions were in the reserve. Millionaires from New York and graduates of Princeton served alongside young fellows who a year before had been plowing behind Missouri mules. An heir of one of the country's largest fortunes was a seaman gunner, and his mate in the same crew was a strapping youngster who had been working in a factory.
An officer who went out for a run on a sub-chaser from Brest thought there was something familiar about the grimy seaman who was testing the forward gun. As the man turned the officer recognized him.
"Well, of all things!" exclaimed the officer. "You're the last man in the world I'd ever expect to find here. The last time I saw you, you were the ladies' favorite, engaged in photographing every debutante and stage celebrity in New York. How did you get into the Navy?"
"Well, it is funny, even to myself," he laughed, and told his story.
He had made a picture of a well-known actress and her baby, and was on his way back to the studio when he struck a recruiting party holding a meeting in the street. Aroused by the enthusiasm, he felt he ought to do his part. He enlisted on the spot, turned over his studio to others, and in a month was shooting a gun on a sub-chaser instead of a camera. He stayed on that boat until the last horn blew, and the boys were ordered home. One of his mates at the gun was a former actor, another a clerk in a store.
© Great Lakes Recruit
THE LIVING FLAG
Ten thousand blue-jackets, at Great Lakes, the largest naval training station in the world. Inset: Captain William A. Moffett, Commandant.
