OCR Text |
Show UTAH TROOPS IN IMPORTANT BORDER DUTY S g vil t? ARRANGE COMFORTABLE WINTER QUARTERS SCENES AT UTAH CAMP ON BORDER. ; !s r--..ATt,.r 1 TUE LONE SENTINEL -- - " h A E S-tfiiKli't&h'.'t Xrt : THT BORDEfi. o SENTRY BOX --iiy-St J5v ;4i. - ; 77 "i eVV i i S r --- rl e 5 470? VWiCf WHEN THE OUTPOST SICVAL.S JTHE SUPPORT TO 'LOOKOUT" CAPTAIN JORCENSEN - LIEUTENANT RASKUSSEN AND LIEUTENANT , , . MOfTENSEN atchow boldiers From This State Are Held in High Esteem by Others. By E. L. O'NEILL, Owner and Editor Nogales Daily Herald. JUST recently I made a trip from Nogales, out along the U. 8. -Mexican boundary line, when I had an opportunity to conre in close contact con-tact with three of your Utah troops stationed at different, points. I know you will be glad tp get a local view of your troops doing service here, and I am glad to take a few minutes off to give it to you. Border patrolling is not the most pleasant kind of soldiering in tho world as the people of Utah have probably learned from the squadron of troop's which recently returned from this district; dis-trict; but it has an interesting side, and I believe that Utalins will be as glad to know what the Second squadron of their cavalry is doing now as, they were to see the men of the first squadron, and learn from them at first hand what they had done here on the border. Utah holds a select place in the minds of the people of this district for a number of reasons. In the first place, she. contributed early in the game a large number of men considering the population of the state. Second, those men had all the appearance of soldiers when they arrived here and their conduct con-duct and service has since marked them as good soldiers in every respect. The third thing we like about Utah is the fact that "Out of sight, out of mind" is evidently not a very popular sayin'g there. Utah Is Foresighted. Many of the organizations in this district dis-trict coming from more populous regions re-gions did not bring with them anything any-thing other than the equiqment supplied sup-plied by the government. Perhaps if the people at home had realized just how much comfort a motor truck would have meant to the enlisted men they would have "chipped in" and bought one; but they didn't, and a lot of men here missed many things that the Utah men were able to have simply because the Utah people had the foresight and the generosity to dig up a couple of tracks and a few motorcycles to send with the troops. So, as 1 said before, Utah and its troops "get over" pretty big with us, and if some information about the work the Second squadron is now doing will prove interesting certainly cer-tainly I am very glad to furnish it. It has been " a pleasure for me to know Major Wallace and the officers of his- staff. They strike me as the right kind of men for this kind of work. They are attentive to duty and the welfare wel-fare of the men under, them, and this; attitude is clearly reflected in the char-1 acter of service rendered by their troops. The Utah camp is well situated on the Patagonia highway and the water line, and the men were very , comfortable there this summer. Or-; dors are out now for the preparation of winter quarters for nil troops now stationed here, and while these quarters quar-ters will not be as comfortable as the homes in Utah, they will be livable if the men have to stay here. ! Men Are Comfortable. : These quarters will consist of pyram-; idal service tents well boarded up, each one furnished with a stove that will keep it. warm. Hot water is being supplied for the baths and the mess halls 'will be enclosed and heated. After Af-ter meal hours, these halls are used as lounging places for the men. "81utf'? is the big evening game, with checkers a close second. At this time but a very i few men of the second squadron are stationed here. Troop H, a email detachment de-tachment of headquarters troop and another small detachment are all that, remain. The other three troops are, scattered over about 100 miles of the United States-Mexico boundary line, , doing the real patrol duty that is necessary nec-essary to prevent raiding and cattle , Tustliug. Captain Jorgenson with G troop, is at Lochicl; Captain Neilsen, j with E troop, is at Aravaca, and Cap-i tain Bassett, with F troop, is at La Osa. These stations are all about thirty miles apart on a border line. Captain Jorgenson keeps in touch with headquarters head-quarters over the telephone, as he is only about thirty miles from Nogales. His troop gets its mail every few days, and the men are fairly well camped. The other two troops are, however, entirely en-tirely out of touch with headquarters and the only means of communication is by horse," motorcycle or automobile. Mail' reaches these ' latter troops only about once a week and, in a sense, they are enduring the real hardships of warfare. war-fare. In another way they are getting the maximum benefit to.be gained from this experience, as they are serving with troops from the "First United States cavalry and were thought gnod enough cavalr men to be made part of a unit of regular soldiers. Is Good Training. This association under real conditions cannot do otherwise than poiith off the training that thev got here under their own of i leers- and Colonel Jenkins. It is mv guess that most of these men will he mighty glad for this experience in a year or so. It seems tough now to lie here doing apparently nothing but these night rides. Long night guards on cold, dreary outposts in the mountains moun-tains either make or break a man. and I didn "t si11 any signs of breaking on my trip. Personally, I would just as leave take on a medium hard fight as to stand on some of the posts I saw. Yet these men are doing it night after night with as 'good spirit as could be expected. The experience is bound to give them an ability to think quickly I and an unlimited amount of confidence i in themselves. I had almost forgotten to speak of the I physical condition of the niPii, because, where there is no sickness in evidence, one is apt to forget the seriousness of disease in a camp. Sick Rate Is Low. Without question this comp has had a lower sick rate than any of the other mobilization camps. The climate has much to do with this, of course, and the fact that Utah troops had tho lowest sick rate in the camps, may be accounted account-ed for by the similarity of our climate with that of Utah. Then too, the Utah men stationed here had the best of medical care and many cases of sickness sick-ness that might have proven serious were checked at the start by scientific treatment. The men that I saw in the patrol stations were about as husky a looking lot as could be gotten together. They all looked lean and hard and their war cry, "Keurin' to go,'-' seems to somehow match their looks. They are well camped, considering the class of service they are on. "They slept in "pupJ' tents up until a week ago, when the large pyramidal tents were shipped out from Xogales. Cots were sent with the tents and these, with a sack full I of straw and a couple of blankets, make fairly good beds. I The "chow" is good. Uncle Sam al-I al-I lows the cook thirty cents a day for each man he feeds and a good mess ser-I ser-I geant and a good cook can make this go a long way. Eack man washes his i own dishes and gets a "crack"' at helping help-ing in the kitchen every so often. This might interest some of vour women folk. Is Getting Colder. H is getting cold here now and it is going to get colder. This condition does not. add anv to the comfort of soldiers in the field, but it is worthy of note that the government does everything every-thing possible tn offset it. The olive drab woolen clot lies for win tijr wear are of yood quality and good fit. The underwear looks warm I have never had any on, but it is certainly thick enough to lie something. Then there is t he big service overcoat, t he sweater, the woolen gloves and socks and tho big shoes. After looking over the outfit, out-fit, J would say that the worst that could happen to the wearer of every-i every-i hing at onc would be a slight chill and tho Iwkache. I wish I could make some estimate of the date that the men of the Second squadron "-ill be ordered home. I realize that after ail this is the subject sub-ject of paramount interest both to the men an. I to the folks at home; but no one knows and no one can sa y w i 1 1 1 anv ilegrpe of accuracy when the order will conic. Tt may come within a wpek and there is a possibility that these men will be here all wintnr. Whatever the length of their stay. I can promise you now a look at some re:d soldiers wlifli tliv do get home. They ride : well, drill well, shoot well and this training with regular troops will put them so f;ir ahead of other militia cavalry cav-alry that there will bo no comparison. |