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Brodhead's Tribute to her Men of the Service

1914-1918

Compiled by The Civics Club

©1921 Brodhead, Wisconsin (Cantwell Printing Co., Madison, Wis.)


Extracts from Letters of the Boys With the Colors

(Copied from Newspapers)
From Private Lee Gehr (pp. 103-104)

Camp Merritt, February 8, 1918.

"We sure had some fine trip from Waco here. It took us from Sunday noon until Friday morning to get here, and it was a
grand trip, nice and warm. It is not very cold here now. Have about a foot of snow, but it is going fast.
"There was beautiful scenery in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There was one place, where we traveled eighteen miles to
cover four miles. We were twisting and winding around the mountain side and on looking out of the windows of the car we could see that we were no farther ahead, but just a few feet lower.
"We traveled through some of the largest cities in the nation - through Memphis and Chattanooga, Tenn., Pine Bluff,
Ark., Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore, and you can see we took in a few of the largest.
"I think I will go to New York on Sunday, if I get paid."

Somewhere in France.

"We are now at a place where we do not get any sleep at night but do our sleeping at daytime, and then our sleep is
disturbed by the roar of a big gun. So you can imagine where we are at, but do not worry about me. It is not as bad as lots of people picture it to be.
"No, I never see any of the boys from home.
"We see a number of air battles every day between the French and German air-men, and as luck will have it, the French
generally come out victorious.
"I wish you could see the quaint little old towns around this part of the country - they are all old towns and many of the
buildings are two to five hundred years old. One little town had a church dated 1603. From all appearances the church in the country seems to be a great factor because, no matter how small a town, there is a fine large church. Most of the churches I have seen are larger than any we have at home and they are kept fine inside.
"I am feeling fine. Guess this out of door life agrees with me. Have not slept in a good old bed since August 2nd, nearly
a year ago. Harry can be happy that he is not over here flying around amongst the Germans, for they are bad actors in the air. We have a number of American air men over here now and they are doing great work."

LEE GEHR.


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