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^[[17]]

^[[October 2, 1973]]

Dear Alice:

As we finished at the observers' school each of us was sent to the front for a few weeks of duty with the French.  That began in March of 1918, and early in May the first ones to be sent out were recalled.  Then American observation squadrons began to be formed and put into action.  I was one of 30 observers sent out from Amanty under an order dated April 6th.  The prospect of becoming a target scared me rather more than I had expected, but I tried not to let it show.  I had asked for and trained for that kind of job.  I took comfort in the thought that my first excursiona over the lines would be with experienced pilots, and on some relatively peaceful sector of the front.

At that point in time (notice how I pick up all the newest expressions) the whole stretch of front held by the French was quiet.  With Russia out of the war the Germans and Austrians had been able to move all their forces to the west during the winter.  They had virtually knocked out the Italians (vide Ernest Hemingway)  and had mauled the British badly in an early spring offensive.  The French knew their turn was coming, but they did not know when nor where.  As it turned out the sector to which I was sent remained quiet while I was there.  Hell broke loose a week or so after I had left.

Nine of us were assigned to the Fourth French Army, and reported at its air service headquarters at Chalons-sur-Marne.  There we were loaded into three autos that took different roads toward the front.  With me were John Roulhac, a Sewanee man from Memphis, and Sam Bowman, a Princeton man from somewhere in Ohio.   We took the road that leads northwestward, toward Reims.It passes through rich Champagne farming country. After about 35 miles we stopped at a big estate called the Ferme d'Alger, Algiers Farm.  It had an airfield occupied by the 40th Salmson squadron.

The manor house was used as the officers' billet.  It also housed the squadron office.  Roulhac and I shared a big bedroom, where we set up our army cots.  Each morning about 7:30 there was a knock on the door.  It was a middleaged orderly in a baggy blue uniform, bringing our breakfasts.  We had the choice of cafe au lait or chocolat,