Military Training Camp for Business and Professional Men (Plattsburgh, N.Y.); Military education -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Fiction
It promises today, Wednesday, to be showery once more, so we are making
up our packs with the ponchos out, ready for use. Post-mortems of
yesterday's scores are still going on. The boys are all well and lively,
except that I have just passed Randall standing gloomy at the door of his
tent, feeling very much insulted because someone at breakfast called him
a grabber. Apart from him the street is humming with talk, as the boys
make up their packs upon the hard-trodden sand.
It is a very amusing thing, this confusion and talk of the street, as men
on errands make their way among the kneeling figures, the police squad
tries to do its work, the sergeants pass, and jokes or criticism are
bandied about. We are becoming very well acquainted, except for those who
have not the habit of noticing their neighbors. There are a couple of men
who have for ten days sat opposite me at table, and yet do not know me
when we meet outside. But most of the men are very companionable.
Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the opportunity has not been very
great. Unless a man is Number One or Number Four in his squad, he is
likely to be swallowed up by it. I have felt very fortunate to be Number
One, for in all formations in line I stand beside a man of another squad,
and whenever we fall in or stand at rest I chat with them. Since
Bannister has neglected the advice, given by the captain, to shift the
men about, I am glad that I have had this advantage, and am more lucky in
getting a wider acquaintance than is possible to some of the others. For
as you have seen, we eat together, march together, dress and sleep
together, the squad being the unit on which everything is based. Captain
Kirby has said that when we rest on the hike squads must sit down
together, so as to waste no time in falling in.
But the shooting has done a great deal to break down this isolation. It
was impossible, on the range or the gallery, to keep the squads together,
whether in shooting or in waiting. The men compared their scores,
explained their mistakes, gave advice, and fished for sympathy, with
everyone they met. Men in squads widely separated in the line got quite
chummy over their misfortunes, and grew friendly in encouraging each
other. The scorers and especially the coaches met many new men. So at the
table and the camp-fire the talk is now much more personal, and I think
that from this time on the company will be more of a unit in feeling, if
not more in unison in drill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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