Soldier to Salesgirl

a trang etia

Bertha

Penn.

TRUE STORY

When war was declared on April 7, 1917 I was only sixteen years old but, like every red-blooded American boy, I was frantically eager to get into it and to do my share to make the world safe for demo- cracy and to fight the war that was to end all wars forever. My older brother enlisted quickly, but I was not quite old enough to be acceptable and I had to wait until I was seventeen.

We all had enthusiasm, plenty of it. We marched around the streets of our city singing:

When Uncle Sam, he gets the infantry,

He gets the calvary,

He gets artillery,

Then BY GOD we'll all go to Germany.

God help Kaiser Bill..

to the tune of the Old Gray Mare, and believe me there was enthusiasm in our singing.

The day after my seventeenth birthday I was accepted as a recruit by the United States Marine Corp. In a few days' time I was in Parris Island, South Carolina for basic training. That was in February, 1918. The armies of the United States were being built up very rapidly then and I did not stay in basic training any longer than was absolutely necessary. By July I was in France. At the end of that month our unit was stationed near a place that was named Chateau Thierry. But I did not stay there very long, because on the very first day of that famous offensive a German high explosive shell landed right beside me (almost) and when I woke up I was back in Base Hospital and within a week was moved