Heroic, real American work, all of it and done in real American style as part of the day’s work without thought of glory and without hope of reward. =The First Gas Regiment.= In the first study of army organization made by the General Staff it was decided to recommend raising under the Chief of Engineers one regiment of six companies of gas troops. Shortly after the cable of August 17, 1917, was sent stating that Lieut. Colonel Fries would be made Chief of the Gas Service, the War Department promoted him to be Colonel of the 30th Engineers which later became the First Gas Regiment. At almost the same time, Captain Atkisson, Corps of Engineers, was appointed Lieut. Col. of the Regiment. Although Colonel Fries remained the nominal Commander of the regiment, he never acted in that capacity, for his duties as Chief of the Gas Service left him neither time nor opportunity. All the credit for raising, training, and equipping the First Gas Regiment belongs to Colonel E. J. Atkisson and the officers picked by him. Immediately upon the formation of the Gas Service, the Chief urged that many more than six companies of gas troops should be provided. These recommendations were repeated and urged for the next two months or until about the first of November, when it became apparent that an increase could not be obtained at that time and that any further urging would only cause irritation. The matter was therefore dropped until a more auspicious time should arrive. This arrived the next spring when the first German projector attack against United States troops produced severe casualties, exactly as had been forecasted by the Gas Service. About the middle of March, 1918, an increase from two battalions to six battalions (eighteen companies) was authorized. A further increase to three regiments of six battalions each (a total of fifty-four companies) was authorized early in September, 1918, after the very great value of gas troops had been demonstrated in the fight from the Marne to the Vesle in July. [Illustration: FIG. 14.—Receiving and Transmitting Data for Firing Gas Shell while Wearing Gas Masks. Battlefield of the Argonne, October, 1918.]