. Before the outfit sailed
for overseas all three had gained application to officers' training
schools, and were, in the course of time, commissioned as lieutenants.
Battery Clerk Koenig continued to serve the outfit in an efficient
manner throughout its sojourn in France. Instrument-Sergeant Brown
early in 1918 answered a call for volunteers to go to France with a
tank corps. While serving abroad he succumbed to an attack of
pneumonia and his body occupies a hero's resting place in foreign
soil.

A wonderful spirit was manifested in the affairs of Battery D despite
the fact that the constant transfer of men greatly hampered the work
of assembling and training a complete battery for active service in
France. Men who spent weeks in mastering the fundamentals of the
soldier regulations were taken from the organization, to be replaced
by civilians, whereby the training had to start from the
beginning. This caused many changes in plans, systems, and policies.
Rejections were also made for physical disabilities.

For the greater part of the Camp Meade history of the battery, the
organization lacked sufficient men to perform all the detail work.
Thus days and days passed without any military instruction being
imparted.

Instruction in army signalling by wigwag and semaphore was started
whenever a squad or two could be spared from the routine of detail.
Then followed instruction on folding horse blankets, of care of horses
and harness, and lessons in equitation, carried out on barrels and
logs.

Stables and corrals were in the course of construction. By the time
snow made its appearance in November horses were received, also more
detail.

First lessons in the duties of gun-crews and driving squads were also
attempted. Materiel was a minus quantity for a long time, wooden
imitations sufficing for guns until several 3.2's were procured for
the regiment. Later on the regiment was furnished with five 3-inch
U. S. field pieces. Training then assumed more definite form. For
weeks and weeks the gun crews trained without any prospects of ever
getting ammunition and firing actual salvos.

Learning to be a soldier also developed into a process of going to
school. Men were assigned to attend specialty classes. Schools were
established for gunners, schools for snipers, schools for
non-commissioned officers. Here it might be stated that the first
non-coms envied the buck-privates when it came to attending
non-commissioned officer