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-2-

The he weng back to sleep.

In an earlier letter I wrote that Gondrecourt was about 50 miles from the front.  Since writing that I have found an old road map that forces me to revise that estimate.  Gondrecourt and Amanty are in the northeastern corner of France.  Toward the east the front was about 50 miles away.  But to the north it was only about 30 miles.  In that direction lay the south face of the St. Mihiel salient.  That was the sector on which the 88th first went into action, so when we mpved out from Amanty we did not go very far.  We occupied a field  near a village called Ourches, on the Meuse about 15 miles north from Amanty. 

Our planes were British-made Sopwith two-seaters of a model that was obsolescent.  We were however going to a quiet sector, where the Germans also used their oldest planes.  It was perhaps just as well that our pilots got broken in on Sopwiths rather than the better and more expensive Salmsons.  The planes had to be outfitted with guns and radio sets.  That was deferred until we were established at Ourches.  Our pilots were encouraged to take a few trial flighd without crossing the lines, just to get the feel of the Sops.

The first damage suffered by the 88th was not a result of enemy action.  It came from a collision between one of our planes and Major Anderson's Cadillac.  Command of the squadron carried with it a fringe benefit that nowadays we associate with members of the president's cabinet, or with exxalted exxecutives of Exxon.  Major Anderson had a Cadillac and chauffeur.  I should explain that the Cadillac of 1918 was not quite the same vehicle that General Motors offers you today under that name.  The only glass that entered into the construction of the major's cadillac was in its windshield and its lighting fixtures.  Like all the other military passenger autos that I can recall from WW1, it was a "touring car".  (Remember that expression?  My grandchildren probably have never heard it, and would not know what it once meant).  The 1918 Cadillac had no heater, no air conditioning and of course no radio.  In those days even Cadillacs burned fuel mainly for locomotion.  Nowadays they burn it mostly to make the passenger comfortable and to enhance his dignity.  But I digress.

One of our pilots, Joe Carr, was bringing his plane in for a landing.  His approach to the field was rather low, but it would have worked out well except that (1) he had to cross a road that bordered