_Corresponding Secretary_ JULIUS KLAUSNER, JR. _Executive Committee_ DONALD M. WALLACH FRED A. GLEIFORST RALPH U. BRETT [Illustration: Watching the Home Fires] They were watched, and high they burned, by those who more than all else represented to us the concrete reason for which we served. None of us but _felt_ that we were fighting for our Country; but all of us _knew_ that we were fighting for our Home. Our Home Folks,--our Mothers and our Fathers, our Sisters and our Wives and our Sweethearts and our Friends--all banded together so that we, while never losing the _thought_ of Home, were also not to lose its _touch_. Those tenders of the fireside whom we knew as the "Family Unit" were organized as the Company B Family Unit and were affiliated with the 307th Regimental Family Unit. They formed on our embarkation for overseas, and by virtue of a succession of meetings under the active and enthusiastic leadership of Mrs. William Vanamee and Miss Virginia Fuller they became welded into a body that accomplished immeasurable benefit not only for our physical but also for our spiritual welfare. The socks, the cigarettes, the wristlets and the soap were needs of vast import, but our knowledge that those behind us were marshaled just as we were was more warming than wristlets, more comforting than cigarettes. The officers during the early period were Miss Virginia Fuller, President; Miss Helen Pritchard, Secretary; Mrs. W. B. Wise, Treasurer. The meetings were held in a barren loft at 6 East 30th Street, New York City. Here the ideas were conceived, the plans formulated, and the policies acted upon, that were so far-reaching and effective. Tho first drawn together for the good of Company B, their own sufferings served to consolidate their interests and to strengthen their purpose. As notice after notice issued from Washington advising as to losses in battle by death and by wounds, the need for common consolation became most urgent and a noble response came from those who were in a position to give comfort. These were trying days, days of mental agony, days of longing and hoping and praying. In September one of our own men, Sergeant George A. Klein, Jr., who had been returned to the United States as an instructor, appeared at a meeting and gave word, mostly welcome, some sad, to the news-hungry relatives. These various activities were recorded in a small four-page bulletin published for and distributed to us overseas. And then the Armistice. Relief from the tension of the meetings was given by the final let-up of the war and soon the time came when much thought was given to filling those "9x4x3" boxes of Christmas cheer. [Illustration: _The Ring_] The date of our return was flashed across the waters during the early part of April and immediately wheels were set in motion to prepare for it.