Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 189, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1917 — MARINE’S LIFE IS, A VARIED ONE. [ARTICLE]

MARINE’S LIFE IS, A VARIED ONE.

Ralph Sparks, Who Recently Eniiated la That Sarrica, Write* of Day’s Duties. .Ralph Sparks, of Monticello, the former Jasper county school teacher, who is stationed with the U. S. marines at Quantico V*., awaiting orders to leave foi France, ha* written friends the following very interesting letter of life in the marine service: “Quantico, Virginia, Aug. 18. “Away down east in Virginia on the banks of the Potomac nver and adjacent to historic civil war battlefields, there is an interesting and somewhat exceptional cantonment. It is at Quantico and is the home of the U. S. marines who are to participate soon "in the European war. Here are to be found marines from Mare Island, the Pacific training camp, a* well as marines from Port Royal, the Atlantic camp. Upon their arrival here from these camps the marines are formed into regular infantry, light artillery and machine gun companies. It was my good fortune to be assigned to the regimental machine gun company of the 6th Regi-

ment of Marines. 1 say good fortune because this duty is considered to be just a little more important, technical, varied and interesting than ordinary infantry duty. However, we are required to be more Or les* efficient in. infantry drill and work and have a part of our daily routine set aside for infantry drill and bombing and bayonet exercise. “Our day begins with reveille at 5:30 and ends with taps at 9:3u. The work of the day is divided into periods for drill, bomb throwing, bayo-, net exercises, trench digging, gun school, lectures and machine gun maneuvers, so that we, instead of getting tired of it, really enjoy our work very well. Indeed, this great variety of duty and action is what makes the marine corps such an efficient and attractive service. “We are armed with the Lewis automatic machine gun, latest model, and which gun is the very best light type machine gun in the world. Each gun is manned by a crew of eight men and we have sixteen guns in our company. This gun is capable of firing 600 rounds a mjnute and

you see is quite a'formidable weapon, [t is interesting to learn the gun, its mechanical construction and potentiality. We all must know our gun, every part by name and its function and be able to take it apart and put it together again in a very few minutes, and dq it blindfolded. In our drill with it, it is mounted on t twowhcel carriage pulled by two marines. An ammunition carriage, also drawn >y two marines, always accompanies it. To drill with these seem* rather grewsome, for we must preserve absolute silence and do much of th* drill at double time. With each crew there is a signalman and a rangefinder. The latter is my especial duty and it is quite fascinating. Focu*ing the finder on various object* and finding their distances and then mapping them is not ordinary work. “All of us, or rather, 1 suppose, most of us, are quite enthusiastic about our work and anxious to ba, transferred to scenes of action. Knowing our country’s need, we are prouu to be in this service and are trying to live up to the reputation of the marine corps and to be semper fideli*. Semper fidelis is the marine motto “RALPH SPARKS.”