Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 151, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1910 — OFFICERS ON THE JUMP AT FORT BENJAMIN HARRISON. [ARTICLE]

OFFICERS ON THE JUMP AT FORT BENJAMIN HARRISON.

Captain and Lieutenants-of Company M are Kept Busy from Morning Till Night. Fort Benjamin Harrison, June 22. Speaking of high privates in the rear rank, Captain Healey and Woodworth and Tuteuf, of the Rensselaer militia company, are acting in that capacity this week in a school for officers being conducted by the regular army instructors at Fort Benjamin Harrison. The instructors are largely detailed here from the war and staff college at Fort Leavenworth, although several of the 10th Infantry officers, stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison, are also among the instructors. The school was planned by the war department and includes all the infantry officers of all ranks in this state and a detail of about 75 from each Ohio and Michigan. The officers are -organized into provisional companies without regard to rank and it fell -to the writer to become a member of company A, while both Woodworth and Tuteur are in company C. Among others in A company are Colonels Harry B. Smith and Bowman, Lieutenant Colonel Theo. F. Louden, Majors Harrison, Branch, Freyermouth, and others Major Mranch was the former speaker of the house of representatives and to see the willingness With which he works is to have a very high regard for him.

Wednesday we were out on a problem of advance guard and Major Branch, in the capacity of a private, was with the advance party under Lieutenant Kruger, of the regular army. He was instructed to double time back to the support, a distance of 300 yards and deliver a message that the advance party had been fired upon from the right front. I was with the support and was certainly amused when I beheld the tall, gaunt form of Major Branch racing down the road toward us. He was quite out of breath .and great beads of prespiration stood out on his face when he delivered his message. In less time than it takes to tell it, Captain Aultman, the regular army officer in command of the support, had rushed us through a defile and deployed us on a rise in the ground from which we were able to open fire on and drive back an imaginary foe. Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels, Majors and Captains, comprising our company, had crowded through grass and weeds and had some tough sledding in reaching a place from which they could fire. A few moments later a tired lot of near-officers were gathered in the shade of a friendly cluster of trees and the movement discussed along with the possible happenings in advance guard, Then a retrograde movement was taken up, imagining that the main force had been forced to retire and that we, as a battalion, were covering the retreat. Then came deployment as skirmishers, the establishment of outposts, the employment of patrols, etc. These are daily work-outs, that coupled with paper work, lectures, etc , keep us going from revielle to retreat, and after evening mess until 10 o’clock, and it is a tired lot of soldiers that seek their tents-only to be awakened at 5:30 o’clock by the morning guns. The regular army officers are a fine lot, selected for their special fitness as instructors and the half-practical work greatly aids the theoretical study in the text books. As a fat-reducer it is great stuff and there are a lot of heavy-weights under training. Good cheer prevails and dis cipline is the watchword. Any insurrection or disrespect would meet summary dealing and it is probable that a better behaved lot of soldiers were never assembled together. The school closes Saturday night. * The regular instruction maneuver camp for all members of the guard will take place in September, the dates being from the 6th to the 15th inclusive. GEORGE H. HEALEY