Again, according to my favorite reference source, Wikipedia, Robert W. Service was a Canadian poet who:
"worked as a stretcher bearer and ambulance driver with the Ambulance Corps of the American Red Cross, until his health broke." Convalescing in Paris, he wrote a new book of mainly war poetry, Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, in 1916.
Can you imagine being a soldier and sitting around singing? Just doesn't compute in this day and age - especially as I write this an Iraq is falling apart again with ISIS marching against Al-Malikis corrupt government. Makes you want to cry for all those people just trying to live their lives.
I can find only a High School in Georgia when I research Booker Washington's College. I guess I am having trouble reconciling an African American High School quartet singing and reciting for the Ambulance Corps, so I am assuming I have misunderstood something here.
The ambulance corps had to assemble their vehicles when they got to France. Though I can't find it now, I have seen photographs of the vehicles in their crates. From the US Army Medical Department web page they indicate:
Ford, Fiat, Peugeot, and General Motors Company ambulances were severely tested under combat conditions that demonstrated their advantages in speed and patient comfort. The Ford Model "T" could climb narrow mountain roads where patient movement previously was possible only on mules or in horse-drawn carts. The Ford put new meaning in "fording." It sat high and could get through flooded roads not accessible by lower vehicles. Indeed, French soldiers accused the Americans of painting water lines on their vehicles as depth gauges, and some calls for evacuation would request the ambulance "boats." If a road was blocked, the "T" could go cross-country. It was light enough that three or four soldiers could pick it up and move it if it stuck in a ditch or shell hole.17
Nevertheless, the motorized ambulances were primitive vehicles. The Ford's idiosyncrasies made mountain driving dicey. Its gravity gasoline feed did not work on steep grades, compelling drivers to back their vehicles up the hills. Another problem was that prolonged driving in low gear caused excessive and uneven wear on the transmission bands. To equalize the wear, drivers in mountainous terrain used the low-speed band during climbs, the reverse band to assist in controlling descents, and the foot brake on corners and the steepest parts of hills. Transmission bands would last ten to fourteen days with this technique. Mountain driving was further complicated by brakes that could not handle the steep grades. Drivers kept an eye peeled for strategically placed trees that could stop them if necessary. Sometimes patients had unforgettable rides.
I found a web page about Section 80 and they had a photograph of the group - rough necks and all. I am not certain, but I am guessing that Herb is either the guy sitting aloof on the top left - his jaw looks like my father's jaw - or he is the second on the left sitting on the bench. In both cases, the man seems camera shy.
Sunday (must be July 1917)
Dear Family,
I had a letter from you yesterday but that was the first in some time. I don’t know what could have become of the other. The parcel post package hasn’t put in an appearance and I am curious as a kid at Christmas to know what it is in it. I know it will be something I’ll like and I thank you a thousand times for remembering me. To think that I am twenty-one. Grown up at last. Honestly, Mother, I can’t believe it. You’ll have to dye your hair gray, too, or no one will believe it.
I had a letter from Steve Lee at Plattsburgh the other day asking me if I was coming up to the second camp. I am writing to tell him what I really have done. I imagine it will surprise him.
I have written to Mr. Case and told him about how I am fixed and asked him to mail my check to you but have had no reply so far. I am writing to Charlie to-day.
It’s nice of you to offer to send me papers but I’m afraid I shouldn’t have much use for them. I buy the New York Times here two or three times a week to keep in touch with things in general.
To-day we are having the first gloomy weather since I have been here. It isn’t raining but it’s cloudy and dull.
Lately I am beginning to really enjoy myself here. I didn’t like it at first – it was too different from the sort of living to which I was accustomed. But lately I’ve sort of gotten into the spirit of it and find that I like it pretty well. Last night the Army Y.M.C.A. had a nice little free entertainment for the boys. A.M. Wooley, who has been at the front recited some of the “Rhymes of a Red Cross Man” by Robert Service, a Canadian poet. It was very fine. After that a quartette from Booker Washington’s College sang and recited. Most every night there are moving pictures on the grounds and the gang unites in songs. We are learning marching songs now to use on our hikes which will start soon. One of the favorites is “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and Smile! Smile! Smile!” which is a favorite at all the training camps throughout the country.
The Phi Delt dinner Thursday night was a great success. About forty of us were present from eighteen or twenty different chapters. We had a room to ourselves and could make all noise and sing all the Phi Delt songs we liked. Afterwards we went in a body to the only vaudeville theater in town. The dinner was fine, everything from soup on and the whole assessment was only a dollar and thirty cents. There are now more than fifty Phis in camp and we plan to have regular get-to-gether meetings every Monday night + to have our pictures taken when we all get uniforms. I haven’t mine yet, by the way, but there are only about fifteen sections not outfitted out of about a hundred + ten so we expect them to-morrow or Tuesday.
There has been another hitch in transfers on account of the pay roll so you had best address me care of section 80 until I tell you differently.
About 50 of the motor ambulances are now here and the rest are expected soon. Over a hundred two-ton Packard trucks have also arrived this week.
I went to church at the Y.M.C.A. tent to-day. Some preacher from Philadelphia spoke about the war. He was very good.
Love to all,
Herbert
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