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Jan 7, 1918
Jan 13, 1918
Jan 20, 1918
Jan 27, 1918
Dear Mother,
I'm a day late this week. Things seem to have crowded in on me
for the time being, and I was very busy all over the week-end.
The Officers' Training School took away my two best men, 1st
sergeant Clarence Tolsom and Sergeant Younglove; they have been
of a good deal of assistance to me all fall, men whom I could
leave the company with at any time, and of course I am sorry
to lose them, though glad to see them get the opportunity to
go. They were the two highest on my list of recommendations for
the school. They are still considered members of the company
and if they were to fail in getting commissions, would come back
to the company in their old capacity. I have acting in Sgt. Tolsom's
place as 1st sergeant of the company a Sgt. John Coughlan, and
in Sgt. Younglove's place a Corporal Jacob Bernhard, the latter
a man who was at Massachusetts Tech for two years. They are both
starting out well.
The two men I had AWOL both had a special court martial, as I
had two charges against each, & summary court couldn't have
given sufficient penalties. But one of them was acquitted because
the case for the prosecution was managed badly. He was just released
tonight. I have another AWOL at present; disappeared sometime
in the night last Friday- Saturday, & hasn't been heard from
since.
I suppose Ralph will be down here Wednesday. I had quite a long
talk with the Major about him the other night, and he is going
to take him into the Headquarters Co. just as Lieut. June was
to do. Lieut. June is still with us in a sort of unofficial capacity.
Will you please have found out for me whether I should get one
of those questionnaires to make out or not? Spaulding got one
with all sorts of dire penalties for any failure to make it out.
I'll have to send old laundry to you before the new comes back
with the present conditions. It didn't come until Saturday last
week & as I had no other shirt to wear than the one I had
on, I had to wait. I'll have to get an extra one.
I'm too sleepy for more.
Lots of Love
Sylvester
Dear Mother,
It's really the 14th so again I can't be very long. I have had
a pleasant week-end in Boston, Brookline, & Somerville. Yesterday
forenoon I went into Boston, shopped during what time I had in
the afternoon, then went out to Willis's. They live now at 181
Walnut St., Brookline, and are anxious that next time you are
up this way you should come & see them. They have a little
boy between 4 & 5, Arthur, and a little girl about 2, Sallie,
and expect a third arrival soon. I stayed with them overnight
& until ten o'clock this morning, then went out to West Somerville
to see Mrs. Heath. She has three children, Gordon, 6; Evelyn,
3; and Arnold, 7 mos. Gordon & Evelyn are spry youngsters
& have been all over my uniform trying to find what everything
was for, and little Evelyn even ventured to rub my mustache &
inquire why it was. Mrs. Heath doesn't seem much different in
appearance than when she taught at Middletown High.
Aunt Ella has sent me up a great big box of things - 3 or 4 packages
of dates, two boxes of figs, 5 or 6 tremendous cakes of sweet
chocolate, & a big box of assorted nuts. I have suddenly
become very popular.
I had a letter from Bert Phelps this week & he is down at
Camp Dix, waiting for transportation to somewhere in Texas for
he enlisted in the Aviation Corps & is only at Camp Dix for
preliminary training. Willis Blackman has the aviation bug. He
is on the local draft board in Brookline.
I don't think of any special news of interest to you from Pleasantville
lately. I don't get any more word of Sam Sewall, either.
Probably Ralph has written you all about his doings since he
came here. I hope he is going to like it. It certainly seems
good to know that he is at last down here.
How is your coal pile lasting?
If we're here long enough I hope to get down home in two or three
weeks for the week-end.
Lots of love
Sylvester.
[note - Dad told me today that Sam Sewall's name was not Sam
at all but Arthur. Apparently Sam didn't care for Arthur and
sort of explains in my mind why he gave Dad Sam's last name instead
of first. We've always known why he didn't get Miss Tolbert's
first name, Gertrude. -Susan Czaja, granddaughter]
Dear Mother,
An announcement of an inter-company competition within all the
trains & Military Police the first of last week by the Colonel
has kept me going somewhat constantly this last week. He gave
the cos. until Feb.14th to announce they were ready, but promised
to mention in general orders those three who were first ready
& proved it in the test of course. The Major wanted to announce
all cos. in the Supply Train ready by Friday evening the 25th
and I am straining every effort to report my company ready this
Tuesday evening. The test comprises a number of things we haven't
covered before, & that with the desire to attain perfection
in what we have covered has naturally required pretty close attention
to be successful. Intensive training is the watch word for this
week.
Among the subjects of the test is individual cooking. To carry
this out, Greene's & my company are going to march to his
farm in Harvard tomorrow noon & cook their dinner & to
supplement this practical experience I have prepared today a
synopsis of what they ought to know about it, according to my
assumption of what the test will be. The test will comprise also
signaling, arm & whistle signals, extended order work, position
& aiming drills with rifle, transmission of messages, physical
drill, first aid, guard duty, military formalities & courtesies,
and any squad in the company may be picked out for the test,
& presumably the squad leader will have to act on his own
- conduct the physical drill, position & aiming drill, or
whatever he's called on for. This has meant getting the sergeants
& corporals together for special get-it-quick work in how
to handle these drills, for the majority of them have only acted
out before, not directed other men in it, inasmuch as most of
the drills we have is done by the whole co. under my direction
or under one or two sergeants. And then for the test each non-commissioned
officer must be prepared on map reading, writing field messages,
& locating the points of the compass; and each sergeant has
to demonstrate his ability to instruct & train in certain
particulars; all of which has meant other special conferences
& arrangements for sergeants to practice on the necessary
particulars with the company. And then I've had to write up the
lectures I attend each day by Capt. Armand, as well as take an
hour & a half out of my day to attend them. And I've organized
the company this week on paper for it's operation in the field,
and turned in recommendations for non-coms as complete as possible
toward my permanent quota. And it seems as though the Major had
been hopping on us every other minute for some new thing he wanted
done.
At any rate, I've had enough to do to keep out of mischief.
A number of promotions were announced this week. Lieut. Moody's
came thru. Tom Beers got a 1st lieutenancy, also Ralph Gabriel,
Burton Fall of the 301st Infantry, "Tom" Woodward,
Yale 1913 of the 301st Artillery, and a number of others I know
well. Still, the number of promotions is only a very small percentage
of the officers in camp.
It was surely a shock to learn about Paul Ranney, and it must
have brought the war home pretty thoroughly to Cromwell. [note-
I think I remember from one of Uncle Ralph's letters that this
man died at a training camp in the USA of either influenza or
pneumonia as opposed to overseas]
This afternoon Ralph and I went up to see Cousin Ed, and had
a chat with him for about an hour. Henry lost out on aviation
on account of hay fever in his history, and is quite disgusted.
Ralph wanted me to tell you his arctics came all right.
The mails are very slow in delivery of packages, apparently.
For that package you wrote Ralph hadn't arrived Tuesday night
was mailed Friday morning. I mailed one Friday morning this week
which I hope will have better luck. 301st Supply Train won't
reach me any sooner. We are the only Supply Train here; there
is only one to a Division. For a long time there was an argument
as to whether our official designation should be Supply Train,
75th Division or 301st Supply Train & since it's been decided
the latter was correct I have been using it, but guess I neglected
to make special mention [of] it.
Please pardon scrawling writing. It's been done in a great deal
of a hurry.
I suppose Ralph has told you my company is quarantined for measles.
Well, it's time I was napping.
With much love to you & all
Sylvester
Lucinthia's letter being returned.
Dear Mother,
I've lost your letter of last week, so I can't tell whether there
were some things you wanted to know or not. I sent a new shirt
home in last week's laundry & one more will be coming some
later week.
I hoped to get several important things done this weekend, but
have fallen somewhat short of my hopes, though working pretty
constantly. I was sorry not to be able to run down home, as I
had half-planned, but I didn't dare leave my work this week.
I hope Ralph can get a chance to go down again soon & that
it will be a convenient time for me to come along then.
I announced my Co. ready Tuesday for the test, but the board
hasn't yet called it. All the cos. of the Train had a contest
in the points to be covered by the test, Saturday morning &
Co. C won out, by a margin of 2 points over Co. E, Achorn's company.
I am of course much pleased, but hope to impress on them they
can do much better.
With much love,
Sylvester
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