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about a month, and then was promoted to the rear.  Thus we lost Anderson, and Littauer took over, before we got into any real fighting.  And in July, when the 1st squadron relieved us on a hot sector, Royce was no longer its commander.  He had been succeeded by a reserve first lieutenant, an ex-musician named Schauffler.  And, come to think of it, I never heard of any regular army officer flying in a chasse outfit in WW1.  Of the five West Pointers I have mentioned, Reynolds was the oldest and the most respected by the younger men.  I don't know what became of him.  Anderson was killed in a flying accident after the war, in Germany.  The other three all won glory in WW2.  Royce was McArthur's air commander in the Philippines.  Brereton as a three-star general commanded the Tenth Air Force under Stilwell in India and Burma.  I gather from Barbara Tuchman that Stilwell didn't like him.  McNarney rose highest of all, becoming Chief of the Air Service and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the 1950's.

The regular army officer I knew best was then First Lieutenant George Kenny.  I played poker with him.  In an earlier letter I told of how John Ransom came to visit me one Sunday at Amanty.  I am sure it was Kenny who took Ransom up for a ride at my request.  Kenny left Amanty before I did, to serve as a pilot in the 91st.  I did not hear of him again until WW2, when he became overall commander of the air forces in the Pacific area.

Life was rather dull at Amanty.  Neither the village nor Gondrecourt had anything to offer in the way of amusement.  If you followed the highway three miles further east you descended into the valley of the Meuse and came to Domremy-la-Pucelle, the birthplace of Joan of Arc.  I went there twice on Sunday walks.  According to the Michelin guide book Domremy now has a museum and a hotel.  In 1918 it had neither.  There was not even a guard at Joan's house.  Someone however kept the premises in order.

At Amanty I fell into bad habits.  We played poker almost every evening.  It was no longer the penny ante that I had played with the other Tennesseeans on shipboard.  The stakes were higher.  Over my two years of army service I came out a net winner from gambling, but there was one dismal session at Amanty when I played until midnight without winning a single hand.  I lost $80 that evening, and sold a pair of boots to settle my score.