Enlisted in the service of the United States Army, May 11th, 1917, and received commission as Major at the First Officers' Training Camp, Fort Niagara. N. Y. Was ordered to Camp Meade. Md., August 29th, 1917, and placed in command of the Second Battalion, 311th Field Artillery. Accompanied the outfit to France. On detached service with the Interallied Armistice Commission, Spa, Belgium, from November 20th, 1918, to February 1st, 1919. Was awarded the French Legion of Honor medal April 4th, 1919. Discharged February 26th, 1919. Got commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in the Field Artillery Reserve, August 6th, 1919.
CHAPTER IV.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS.
Iron-bound was the rule. You couldn't escape it. Every selected man who entered Camp Meade had to submit. Of course, the new recruits were given a dinner shortly after their arrival--but not without first taking a bath.
019, like all the other barracks of the cantonment, was a wooden structure, 150 x 50 feet, two stories in height. Half of the first floor housed the kitchen and dining hall while the remainder of the building was given over to sleeping quarters, with the exception of a corner set apart as the battery office and supply room--a most business-like place, from which the soldier usually steered shy, unless he wanted something, or had a kick to register about serving as K. P., or on some other official detail when he remembered having done a turn at the said detail just a few days previous.
The rows of army cots and army blankets presented a different picture to the new soldier at first appearance, in comparison to the snug bed room, with its sheets and comfortables, that remained idle back home. The first night's sleep, however, was none-the-less just, the same Camp Meade cot furnishing the superlative to latter comparisons when a plank in a barn of France felt good to weary bones.
Before rolling-in the first night every one was made acquainted with reveille, but no one expected to be awakened in the middle of the night by the bugle calling, "I Can't Get 'Em Up, etc., etc." Could it be a mistake? No, indeed, it was 5:15 a. m., and the soldier was summoned to roll-out and prepare for his first real day as a soldier.
"Get dressed in ten minutes and line up outside in battery-front for roll call," was the first order of the day. Then followed a few precious moments for washing up in the Latrine, which was a large bath house connected with the barrack.
Before the call, "Come and Get It" was sounded the more ambitious of the recruits folded their blankets and tidied up their cots. When mess call was sounded but few had to be called the second time.