Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1917 — LETTERS FROM OUR READERS [ARTICLE]

LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

U. S. A. Ambulance Corps, Sec. 88, Allentown, Penn,. August 7, 1917. (Indiana University Section) Editor Democrat, Rensselaer, Ind. Dear Sir: I would not venture to impose upon your time were it not that I thought an account o! the ambulance camp here might be Of some slight interest to your* readers, and that I can reach friends whom I could find by -no other means. All the motor ambulance companies in the service are concentrated at this place. A large number of them are from various universities, nearly every state in the Union being represented, Washington and California, Maine and Florida have men here; and to name all the others would be practically naming all the forty-eight states. This branch of the service is very popular—as is evident from the fact that there are some 5,000 on our waiting list. Recruiting has ceased for the present and no more men will be accepted for a month at least. The camp is overcrowded even now’. The corps Is divided into sections of thirty-six men; each section being organized as follows: One first sergeant, one sergeant, one corporal, two orderlies, two clerks, one chief mechanic, two mechanics, two cooks, and twentyfour drivers. The schedule runs from S3O for the private to $56 for the first sergeant—the usual allowances/ clothing, rations, transportation and quarters are in addition to the above. Each section of men will be commanded by a first lieutenant, five sections will be placed under a captain, and twenty sections will be commanded by a major. The camp here is new, but is running smoothly. All equipment is issued to the men as fast as the arrive, with the single exception of

moto’ib. There are ample machined for obstruction purposes, however. The- j new Ford ambulances are turiF n j out with astonishing swift-n-ess‘*el The body designed for them is slhjilar to that used at present by the American ambulance men abroad; but with certain valuable improvements. The Ford factory experts built the first of these new ambulances complete in fifteen hours; the second in twelve hours. They are now being turned out, fully equipped and ready for use, at a speed that will furnish a full complement of 2,4 00 ambulances in twenty-one days. Moreover, ♦ here are several thousand chassis now in France and England available for use by the new corps. Bodies will be sftnt over*for these. Each section will be supplied with twenty ambulances, one large truck, two small trucks, a staff car, a motorcycle with side-car attachment and a kitchen trailer. People of Allentown, largely Pennsylvania German and proud ot it, are the most hospitable people I ever had the good luck to meet. There isn’t one of the 5,00(1 men camped here in the fair grounds who had not been taken home to dinner by some patriotic Allentownian. And the meals they set before a recruit, desperately tired of army fare, can not be adequately described. Only one who has tried it can be properly appreciative. I, for one, ain thoroughly satisfied with the life here until we leave for France, which will be within a month. With best wishes to Jasper county friends, I am, yours truly, ELMER HUNSICKER. A new device In efficiency is a clock which, stationed at a central point in a factory, records the time each machine in the plant is running. Z'