"I arrived here a few days ago and this is the first
chance I have had to write. We had a very enjoyable trip, but
uneventful. Did not have the luck to encounter a submarine.
The weather was fine and hardly anyone was seasick, but a person
does not realize how large the ocean is until he really crosses
it. It began to seem, toward the last, as if land would never
come.
"We are now, in what is called, a rest camp. Do not
know how long we will be here but expect to move any time. We
now sleep in tents instead of barracks and are getting used
to the real army life.
"The people here look strange and dress peculiarly,
to our eyes. On our way to this camp there were some people
along the way yelling something in French at us, which of
course, we could not understand, but by their actions, think
it must have been a welcome.
"I have lots of things I would like to tell you, but
we are not allowed to."
July 18, 1918.
"We have been traveling around so much that I have not
had a chance to write. We have seen a great deal of France in
the short time we have been over here. This is the fifth
rest camp we have been to so far. We joined the Headquarters
of the 19th and then we were transferred to the 58th Engineers.
"We got our first mail yesterday. We sure are getting
fine feed over here now; for a while when we first came over
we
did not fare very well, but now we are getting as good as
we were in the United States. As long as I have enough to eat
I shall be satisfied. I have an awful appetite now, it seems
as if I can't get enough to eat, and you know how particular
I used to be."
Nov. 28, 1918.
" One does not really realize it is Thanksgiving Day
over here. Some of the Organizations had turkey and goose, etc.,
but we only had roast beef and potatoes.
"I am at Is-sur-Tille. It is not much of a town, but
the U.S. has a large Railroad Yard here. Have been working down
in
the 'Disposition Bureau' most of the time. At first we worked
in twelve hour shifts, but lately we only worked eight hours.
I work from 11 P.M. to 7 A.M. It certainly has been a pretty
steady grind every day."
January 7, 1919.
"Got back from my leave on the second of January. I
certainly had a wonderful time and would not take a great deal
for
it. We left Is-sur-Tille on the 22nd of Dec. and arrived
in Mentone on the 23rd. They took us to the Royal Westminster
Hotel and told us to enjoy ourselves for seven days, and we sure
did. They treated us fine at the hotel and it seemed great to
eat in a regular manner and sleep in a real bed.
"Christmas day was rather warm and it seemed funny to
have a Christmas without any snow or cold weather. We had a
great dinner and the Y.M.C.A. had a dance. It was certainly
a real pleasure to dance with an American girl again.
"The next day we went to Nice and Monte Carlo and saw
the famous gambling dens. Monte Carlo is about the prettiest
and cleanest city I ever saw. The boys called it the city
with the manicured streets.
"On the 28th, we visited the Italian Border, but were
only allowed to go about three blocks into Italy.
"We landed in camp this morning and found my Christmas
box. It certainly will come in handy."
May 16, 1919.
"We had rather a rude awakening this morning. The Powder
Shed blew up at four o'clock. They say there were about
600,000 pounds of powder in it and there was a pile of damage
done by the explosion. The first thing I knew everything in the
barracks was falling all over. About all the Dynamite warehouses
were destroyed and all the windows were broken for miles around.
It left a crater in the earth about 300 ft. long, 200 ft. wide
and about 50 ft. deep. They haven't found out exactly how it
happened as yet, but it looks as if someone may have done it
on purpose."
May 30, 1919.
"You cannot imagine how happy I feel today. We are really
coming home. It surely is a wonderful feeling to know that it
won't be many days before we shall be on our way back to
the good old U.S.A. We are all relieved from duty tomorrow."
Camp Merritt, N.J., July 9.
"Wired you of my arrival on the George Washington yesterday.
We got quite a reception and it sure feels good to be
back. You can't imagine how one feels.
"We had four Destroyers and the Cruiser Oklahoma with
us all the way, and yesterday morning, 36 Destroyers, Admiral
Wilson's Flag Ship and three battleships convoyed us in.
It was a great sight to see them all maneuvering into formation.
The President gave us a speech on the Fourth of July. He is a
very plain spoken man and we all enjoyed his talk."
PRIVATE JOHN REGAN, 64th Co. Transportation
Corps.