Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 302, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1917 — Samuel Duvall Transferred to Aviation Service Today. [ARTICLE]

Samuel Duvall Transferred to Aviation Service Today.

In France, November 29, 1917. “Howdy” Vern— I am writing this in a cave abri at a poqt de secours, two kilometers behind No Man’s land. Undoubtedly you watch the newspapers very closely relative to the army movements, so I cannot tell you much. However, Sherman was right. Words cannot begin to express some of the terrible sights I have already seen at this early date and the way the Bosche have laid waste the cities, homes and the land surrounding them is beyond one’s imagination. I have had the good fortune to be transferred to three different fronts since my-arrival on the front with S. S. U. 72. We went through one big engagement and exEerienced all the sensations that ullets, bursting shells and shrapnel can give one. I was called out during a gas attack under those conditions for three and one-half hours. I sure had a glimpse of the horrors that night. On account of defective gas masks the Bosche succeeded in killing a number of our meh. Our section alone carried over 1,000 men in our cars. They were piled in like cord wood and taken back to the first line hospital. S. S. U. 9, with which I am now connected, is in an entirely different part of France. The rain, snow and cold weather here doesn’t stop these fellows from giving “Fritzie p a taste of his own medicine.

On the 27 of December I leave the ambulance service for the aviation service where I will start training. Ambulance service is all right and I have enjoyed the work very much, but I want to be one of the boys behind a gun. Aviation has a few added dangers, but since having been here on the front and seen some of the wonderful work the French aviators are doing and how necessary they are to modern warfare, I have caught the fever to be one first flying under Old Glory over No Man’s land next spring. I don’t' know your opinion, but from what I can observe and the - pep the American soldiers are displaying over here in training, I say the Kaiser wilK lave, more than he can handle when Gen. Pershing turns the boys loose next spring, for we are never coming home until we have won. Berlin is a long way off, but not too far for the Sammies and I am glad I am one of them. Today we had all the turkey we could put" under our belts and we have all the warm clothes we want and plenty of spending money when we land in Paris. Don’t you think Uncle Sam is pretty good to his boys? We do and that is. why we are with him to the finish. I have only heard from Rensselaer four or five times since I landed. Kind of lonesome sometimes. When you have a minute to spare I wish you would write me some news and if there is anything you would like to know I will always find time to tell you in the best way I can. It isn’t long until Xmas now and I expect to spend that day in Paris f nothing happens to me before that time. Then I will go to a southern city in France and start my new year on the aviation field, so goodbye and good luck. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. SAMUEL DUVALL.