"I was on guard for the first time and believe me it
was lonesome. I was second relief, and so went on at 7:00 to
9:00
P.M. and from 1:00 to 3:00 A.M., and say, if you think time
goes fast, why just try to start out from home some night and
walk to the parks, always keeping on the alert for somebody or
some strange noise. Between seven and nine, I did not have to
halt anybody, but between one and three I halted three persons.
First, I halted a 332nd Field Artillery man, who had no pass
and he was trying to get in the back way. I was just closing
the door from my round in the Vet. Barn and I heard this fellow
walking just outside my post and so I called out: 'Halt, who
goes there?' He said, 'Friend with a pass,' and then I said,
'Advance, friend to be recognized.' Then I halted him again within
six paces of me and flashed on my flashlight. I asked to see
the pass and he said he lost it, and then I asked him what he
was doing clear down by the stables, and he said it was the nearest
way home. Well, I called out as loud as I could, 'Corporal of
the Guard, Hedges and Stables,' and the corporal came down and
took his name and held him over in the Guard House until this
a.m. Well, the second times was when the Officer of the Day came
around. He sneaked around a barn and got in a corner to see if
I would look there. Well I had just heard some other guard halt
him farther up the post, and so I was on the lookout for him,
and as luck would have it, I flashed the light on in the corner
and saw him. Believe me, I had to stand at attention and salute
him just right or I would have been out of luck. He asked me
how things were coming and the General Orders and what I would
do in case of fire and I guess he thought I was doing all right,
because he said to keep it up and then went away. I believe I
had just as soon do guard duty as to work in the kitchen.
"Next week we begin getting up at 5:15 A.M., and have
supper at 5:30 P.M. Tomorrow I go out riding with the
company to draw maps of the country for artillery range.
I believe that will be very interesting work."
Camp Robinson, July 8, 1918.
"The person that never gets a chance to go out on the
range with the guns, misses something. You can ride for miles
around the camp and always be in the hills and woods, and
to think that people go to the old country to see scenery. We
have some very expert gunners now and we all wish for a chance
to come, so we can test our nerves under shell-fire. We received
twelve new British guns two weeks ago, and they certainly look,
as if they could be able to make Fritz say 'Kamerad.'
"All the men are getting very anxious to go across and
go into action for good. We expect that this will be our last