Ogden Daily Standard | 1918-03-30 | Page 19 | Floyd Hillan Now a Gun Pointer on Warship

IFLOYD HILLAN HOW II : ' GUI POINTER 01 1 MP I Floyd Hillan, son of Mr. and Mrs. It. Hillan 177 Twenty-eighth street, a gun-pointer on one of Uncle Sams men o'war, writes home from Norfolk. Nor-folk. Va., to tell his mother of a cruise to the other side from which he has Just returned. Two men died on the trip, he says, on from disease and the other suicide. A 5-Inch .shell Ued to the bottom of the dead mans hammock ham-mock In which his body was wrapped "with thrice ten turns .of a hawser's bight" carried him to his grave a patriot pa-triot to the gTeat cause. Floyd s letter fDear Mother and Father: I just got off the ship a HtUe while ago an a 48-hour leave. We went to the other Bide and had quite a number of . bhips on the cruise. It was high seas all the time. There were 25.000 troops on the ships and ,all but two landed on J the other side. One of them died from some disease, I do not know what It was. They put him in a hammock and put .1 5-Inch shell onto it and over the side ho went. It was just after we got in the war zone. The other one jump ed over the side. They went back for him, but he would not come back to the ship so they let him go for they wore taking a big chance going back after him. "I was out to sea for thirty-four days without seeing land. We never landed over there. We left the ships with some from tho other side. "We had target practice on our way In. I am pointer on a 3-inch gun and I made 'First-class Pointer,' and got three or four dollars a month more. I almost made tho navy 'E,' that is the highest you can get. I just missed it three seconds. That was the best that I could do, for it was a bad day."