Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1917 — GUARDS CHEER NEWS OF CALL [ARTICLE]

GUARDS CHEER NEWS OF CALL

TO FRANCE—INDIANA TROOPS TO Bp AMONG FIRST TO GO TO BATTLEFIELDS. Inaction—that’s what all redblooded soldiers grow impatient over. The daily monotony of going through rigorous training with no prospect of any real live action in sight or no enemy to combat is what all of Uncle Sam’s soldiers detest above, all other things. The Comp&ny M members are no exception to this rule either. It’s nice for them to be among their own friends and with their own people, but they look upon soldiering in Rensselaer as nothing other . than boys’ play and they are too big for that. A taste of danger in the Mexican border zone last summer has whetted their appetites for adventure and they afe not going to be satisfied until they get it. Not that they are protesting about being held in camp here, for orders are orders and they must be obeyed and they realize that they must be resigned to their fate and take things just as they come in army life. Camp Kurrie is made up of men who are not given to fretting or bewailing their misfortunes and everything is running along smoothly and rapid progress is being made in the matter of putting themselves into condition to meet future hardships. Another thing that is grilling to many of them is the lack of guns and of clothing. Who ever heard tell of being a real soldier without a uniform and a gun? Many of the men are without a single piece of military clothing by which they may be identified, but this cannot be helped, as the government is making all possible haste to overcome these conditions. .Despite the lack of military equipment, these men are proving to be just as good soldiers as their more fortunate brothers and assert that they will even do better work when provided with the proper articles of warfare. But all things come to those who wait and the soldiers are eagerly looking forward to the day when they will all be properly equipped and ordered to move. So when the word came from Washington that the Indiana troops were to be among the first overseas expedition it was Roundly cheered. According to announcement, Brig. Gen. Edwin F. Glenn, commander of the officers’ training school at Fort Benjamin Harrison, is among the new major generals, and the artillery unit of the Indiana National Guard is included in the guard division that is to be sent to France.

Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia will make up the first national guard troqps to land on foreign battlefields. No discussion is permitted by the censorship regulations, however, of the time of their mobilization or departure for the front. The states from which the National Guard troops are to be assembled are: Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, Georgia, Alabama, lowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Maryland, South Carolina, California, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Kansas, Texas, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, Oregon. The others come from the District of Columbia.