In World War I, I was inducted into service in May of 1918. I was taken by train from Martinsville, Indiana to Camp Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
We were organized, given a uniform and a serial number. Mine was 2898778, stamped on my “dog tags,” which were aluminum and worn at all times for identification.
After about two weeks in Camp Taylor, we were sent to Camp Johnson in Jacksonville, Florida to take truck driver training as that was what I put in for because I had driven a truck for a few years prior to entering the service. We were told how to drive, which I already knew. One of our instructors tried to qualify for driver, but couldn’t pass the test.
In July we went to Newport News, Virginia to take ship transport to France. We landed at Breast, France after about 20 days on the Atlantic Ocean. We sailed a zigzag course to dodge the U-boats.
We went to the front lines in about six days in freight cars, a size to hold 40 men or eight horses. We had benches to sit on in the freight car, but there was not enough room. We threw the benches out and sat on the floor.
We got to the front, and I was given a very large truck, as were all of our drivers. We were assigned to the French third Army to haul shells and powder to the 3-inch and 6-inch guns. Our trucks had solid rubber tires — cushion tires they were called. They were hard to ride, but there was no chance of a flat tire.
We were in the Saint-Mihiel offensive, and we drove day and night for 72 hours with no sleep and one meal consisting of “canned Willie,” which was corned beef. We also had canned tomatoes to go with the beef.
— Submitted by Pauline Hoover and written by Ferd Miller for “Brown County Remembers,” a Historical Society publication that can be purchased along with other historical society publications in the gift shop at the History Center.
