Show DEATH TH NEAR BUT B U T HEIS E IS N yank lieutenant feels huns will get him but will take few along PROUDEST MAN IN UNIFORM wins win promotion from corporal to platoon leader for daring piece of work on night patrol duty parts paris it was on the boulevard tho the opera the opera was but a scant bennt half block away and it was dark both the opera and the boulevard the only light came caino from the kiosks advertis advertising ipg paris newspapers patent bouillon and talcum powder there I 1 heard the typical story p of the american see second and lieutenant the platoon leader chos doing a wonderful nt bit in winning the war call him prettyman which his name iffe be was a deputy superintendent of basiks balks before the war As lie he said himself hed never been out lit far his life after one in the morning except in a taxicab ile he used to earn a year have his bath every morning and a cocktail couk tall before dinner he Is a typical successful young new yorker gosh he said im the proudest man in this army ive got two twe kinds of itches at the same time we came over on the jus ticia 1 the one that was torpedoed the other day 11 he said eald and they spewed skewed ra la out at an english port at eleven one night and at eleven the next night gewere we were back of the lines I 1 in flanders I 1 was only a corporal then apen then we were moved to alsace and there we got our first taste of war incidentally there I 1 got to be a platoon leader on night patrol heres what it was up in the first line the hennies were just about fifty yards away one night the order came for a patrol now its hard to tell you yon about a patrol standing here in the boulevard out there its as an black as the inside of your shoe its into that that a patrol Is supposed to go and we went sure I 1 was seared scared green I 1 know where I 1 was and I 1 had the lives of GO CO men in the hollow ot of ray my hand but we went we ve laid for 14 hours right up tip against the german wire and we located every machine gun they had and every man jack 0 of us got back to our own lines safely my god it was different from new york it was a lot different from paris it was hell but when the He heiffer infer came over the next darwe day we knew where they were coming coining from and we sloshed them that country is full of spies and our wires from the front line back were cut so I 1 went back myself raid laid down the best hos bos barrage I 1 have ever seen oh I 1 got through lt it because I 1 was lucky I 1 suppose I 1 got gat through it three times that night lu in fact and me never out after one in my life before except in a taxicab say it was fierce right out oot in the open country all I 1 haki had to tell rae me where I 1 was were the telephone wires and they were cut I 1 was almost sick to my stomach when I 1 hit the break in that thai friendly little black wire id kept running th through my hand but we did get word through and all the germans got by way of 0 prisoners wore were 17 cripples that had been sent up to tho the front line by mistake and say I 1 feel going to get me ive got nay my second lieutenancy and im going back up to the front in a few days as soon as this celebration ip I 1 over and I 1 have a bunch that I 1 wont come back ive got a littre sister and a dear rather that id like to go back to but theres something bigger than that im wending the uniform 1 nin ain it dont malte ma aie A bit of difference if 1 I 1 tile die because there ore are four five as many millions million ns you want more only when I 1 do die im going to take at least five heintel with me and im going to handle the sixty or seventy or the hundred and twenty men under me so do the same allies are fine soldiers sure I 1 get awful impatient with the french sometimes because they dont understand our language and the british sometimes rul rub me the wrong way ive had list fights with em both before I 1 got to be an officer but all in the same game game and you can tell the folks back home that damned good soldiers those british and french every one of them only were going to go them one better particularly the platoon of the company of the th hear from us only it if youre dropping a line to the folks I 1 know just tell them that you saw me in parla celebrating and on the way to the front where I 1 dont expect ever to come back from goodby good by old man good luck 11 and he be strode across the street and disappeared tile ills job ahead ot of hira to do full knowledge of the cost of that job and proud to pay the price demanded even to the ultimate hes hea the platoon leader the V U S A platoon leader going to win this war |