Throwback Thursdays - The Notebooks

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

We had a Captain that we loved. He was in his 40s and in good shape. And very considerate of the men. He would not ask anyone to do what he wouldn't do. If it was hanging on the bars and going from bar to bar he would be first. He would lead marches and anything. If he called the entire company out and when it was line up if he ever said I have a tough order and a dangerous one, before he could state the number of men he needed, the whole 150 men moved step out as one.

He also liked to call the men together and bring us up to date on what was happening around the world. Our other officers did not like that or that he did the exercises with us, marched with us, etc.

It evidently go to the Colonel and either orders came through that he be assigned to another area or the Colonel didn't give him a good mark and moved him out.

On the times that he had sessions with us on current events he would ask questions. I was always a reader and usually would give the answer. He would after a while ask me to do this. While he listened. My feeling then was that with him in charge I could move up the line fast. But that was not to be.

Shortly or should as we were coming close to the first step in the military. We were ordered to get ready to move off to the next step. Everything was packed and ready to go. And one morning that we called out the days exercises. Our Captain told that he had orders to go to another area. And that we had a new captain. Our First Lieutenant Sharles.

Our next move was to the state of Georgia. We were not to far from its capital.

This time we began training on artillery 155's. This was a long range piece. The shell weighed 90 pounds and it was propelled by a 20 pound silk bag and do do a lot of damage. It could travel a number of miles. And it needed about 14 men to operated it. Not to mention those in a good distance from the piece, that signaled the elevation and azimuth that was sent to the two men sitting face to face and sending the elevation figure and which way the target was traveling. Four of these pieces as they were called made up a battery. They would be spread a distance from each other.

The problem with these pieces was that they were World War I class. And there was only one caller it an igniter on the cars??? This was an item that the firer would would put. The gadget that held the fuse. When everything was in shape, the man holding the lanyard would pull it and the stricker would it the fuse it would then light and ignite the powder bag which pushed or propelled the shell.

A few days after we were in the camp ???? came and took the artillery out to update it. When it came back it was super. The carriage were changed. Where it could travel at 6 miles per hour it could now travel on the road at 40 miles per hour. A big change

From this camp we were moved again this time to Eustis, Florida. We were not farm from Orlando and Winter Gardens, etc.

This was a small town. It had two policemen. The Chief and one patrolman. The residents were wonderful. The Police Chief visited the Colonel and stated that he did not want any drunk GIs strolling around town. He wanted help for one GI to be his night man. Any drunks would be taken to the post and he did not want them punished. Just that when a drunk was returned that he was not allowed to get out again.