Commission, Spa, Belgium, from November 20th,
1918, to February 1st, 1919. Was awarded the French Legion of Honor
medal April 4th, 1919. Discharged February 26th, 1919. Got commission
as Lieutenant-Colonel in the Field Artillery Reserve, August 6th,
1919.]

CHAPTER IV.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

Iron-bound was the rule. You couldn't escape it. Every selected man
who entered Camp Meade had to submit. Of course, the new recruits were
given a dinner shortly after their arrival--but not without first
taking a bath.

019, like all the other barracks of the cantonment, was a wooden
structure, 150 x 50 feet, two stories in height. Half of the first
floor housed the kitchen and dining hall while the remainder of the
building was given over to sleeping quarters, with the exception of a
corner set apart as the battery office and supply room--a most
business-like place, from which the soldier usually steered shy,
unless he wanted something, or had a kick to register about serving as
K. P., or on some other official detail when he remembered having done
a turn at the said detail just a few days previous.

The rows of army cots and army blankets presented a different picture
to the new soldier at first appearance, in comparison to the snug bed
room, with its sheets and comfortables, that remained idle back home.
The first night's sleep, however, was none-the-less just, the same
Camp Meade cot furnishing the superlative to latter comparisons when a
plank in a barn of France felt good to weary bones.

Before rolling-in the first night every one was made acquainted with
reveille, but no one expected to be awakened in the middle of the
night by the bugle calling, "I Can't Get 'Em Up, etc., etc." Could it
be a mistake? No, indeed, it was 5:15 a. m., and the soldier was
summoned to roll-out and prepare for his first real day as a soldier.

"Get dressed in ten minutes and line up outside in battery-front for
roll call," was the first order of the day. Then followed a few
precious moments for washing up in the Latrine, which was a large bath
house connected with the barrack.

Before the call, "Come and Get It" was sounded the more ambitious of
the recruits folded their blankets and tidied up their cots. When mess
call was sounded but few had to be called the second time.

The hour of 7:30 was set for the day's work to begin, the first
command of which was "Outside, and Police-Up." In the immediate
vicinity of the battery area