OCR Text |
Show From a Soldier Hoy Thel Baker, Milford trainee who joined Uncle Sam's army forces several months ngo and if now affiliated with Company L, 7th Division, at Fort Ord, California, Califor-nia, has written an interesting letter to his parents, Mr. nnd Mrs Willinm J. Baker, telling hnmor-ously hnmor-ously of his participation in thr recent army maneuvers nt Huntri Liggett Military reservation, from I which the following excerpts aro , taken : Dear Mother: j Manuvers are over for a wceV I and what a glad bunch of fellow? there is at the barracks. Of all the darned thingx we did on those fighting" days! I wus the company com-pany commander'a personal mes senger and ever since he nickl-named nickl-named me "Cannon-Balir for wrecking his No. 1 truck, he gets a big thud out of kidding me. He told me that for the duration of j our "fight" he wanted me where! he could keep his eye on mebe-j cause before he knew it I'd be in a truck, driving pell-mell down j the road. j I don't know what he will say j when he sees me next. As a mes-j senger between Company L and i the battalion headquarters, I got' lost when the Blues captured the j command post. Seeing the Blues i about to do this, I took cover and' waited until, the enemy went by. In the meantime, our company; was routed out of their positions, and every way I turned, Blues ; were in sight. Through the trees! I crept until I found an opening I but by that time it was dark. Ij unrolled my full field pack, Mother, Mo-ther, and for the first time in four days, I slept undisturbed. i Next morning the Blues were ' still all around me and I'll bet a: hundred trucks passed within 50 yards of me. Around noon I was so darned hungry and thirsty Ij figured I'd run the risk of being' ''captured." Along came a little i "jeep" with three guys in it. The little quarter-Son was about 20 i feet from my hiding place, going ' slowly over the dusty road, when I jumped the works and "captur-1 ed" a sergeant, a P.F.C. and a private. As soon as I took their j ammunition, I started to drink their water and told the driver to head for our lines. He didn't know where his front lines were and neither did I, so the one thing left to do was to hunt up an umpire for some kind of a decision or a way back to the lines of the Reds. For an hour we drove along, looking for an umpire and, by the time we found one. I had drained three canteens of water. The umpire um-pire ruled me in too much danger of not getting my captives to the home base, so back I went to the Blues' prison camp myself a prisoner! Boy! I really ate and slept for the remainder of the "war." In the camp I met two more Company Com-pany L boys and we three had a good time talking about our "war" experience. A day as a "prisoner", and then the "war" was over. The food here isn't so bad. Mother, Mo-ther, but it isn't so good, either. Love. , THEL ! |