When A merica entered the war he
enlisted in the 102nd Ambulance com
pany, which was organized in this
uty and sailed for England in Sep
tember, 1917, and after staying four
clays in a camp nar (London was
transported to Havre where he hiked
eight miles up a hill to Rest Camp
iNo. 1. After a four hours stop here
he was given a three days' trip by
train and arrived in a heavy rain
storm at a place called Laffola Grand
at 3 o'clock in the morning and there
slept on the floor of the "barracks.
Here he went on wood detail with
seven other men from his company.
They were obliged to pull a wagon,
there being no horses, for 14 kilome
ters, about 1 0 miles from the Ameri
can camp, then leaving the wagons
on the roadside, they would chop
wood, load the wagon and pull it
back to camp.
"It was tough work," he says,
"chopping wood all day, practically
in bare feet, for oar barrack's bags
had been lost, and we did not get
them again for two months. It
rained so hard all the while that we
could not build a fire and the corned
Willie (corned beef) and coffee was
always cold and tasteless. Our feet
were in awful shape. The captain
could get only twelve pair of shoes
for the whole company and when one
of us wanted to go . out wTe used to
borrow the top-sergeant's boots. Only
one could go at a time. Guard duty on
wet and muddy nights with nearly
bare feet is tough.
