A CONVOY TREK;
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IOUSAND MILES.
A Story, as Told by an American, of a Li Harrison to Quantico, W.V., for time Convoy Piloted from Fort Benjamin )epartment of the U.S. Marines.
LURE TO IT? Well, stop and ask just any one of the one hundred and forty marines who were detailed to the work of taking the trucks on their long journey from Fort Benjamin Harrison, well beyond Indianapolis, in Indianarto Quantico, in West Virginia, if there was any, real lure to it, and you'll find their eyes sparkling and big smiles wreathe their lips, as they tell you that, given the choice of very nearly any and every kind of work apt to fall to a "devil-dog " and they'd choose this kind of thing every time !
Riding cross-country at a really leisurely pace, seeing the country as one went, given half-hour's recess in mid-morning and as much leisure time in the afternoons, and then, saving only when one took his especial turn at standing guard to the convoy, given one's evening's leave to see whatsoever the par2 ticular stopping-place might afford, three meals from Uncle Samuel, plus what enthusiastic communities along the right-of-way might offer along, good camping-out bedding at nights, and what more could a man desire?
Work to it ? Well, yes; there was work to it ; but, there, what sort of form of livelihood, in these strenuous times; that is really worth the considering at 'all, hasn't its degree of work attached? And many and many a task, without half of the charm, has far and away more work presenting throughout than what's on the day's routine here 1
Trucks must be kept in condition, of course. Trucks must be kept in repair. Trucks must move ; the convoy must move ; and, to this end, each man of the "drivers " is assigned one truck at tripopening ; he is responsible for that truck to the end. Should he take ill, should some other mischance occur, then one of the 'supernumeraries," the extra men along to this end, is assigned to take his place with this machine !
So, taking trucks cross-country for the Quartermaster's Department of the • United States Marine Corps is not a bad task at all.
Unlike most sorts of work which men do come up with, too, the more there is of this "-job," as the devil-dogs say, the better they like it—the better times, then, for all! The more trucks to the convoy the more men to man the trucks, the better times, to repeat, at the stops and the overnighting points for all.
Little wonder, therefore, that, for a long, long time to come now, the United States marines in charge will tell of the memorable trip made with the hundred and fourteen trucks from Fort Ben., where the army had transferred the automobiles to the Marine Corps, to Quantico—this not such a long, long time past. Plans for this movement were placed in the hands of First-Lieut. Howard Peters, of Marine Corps Headquarters ; this because of his exceptional interest in the subject of mechanical road trans portation f o r q uar terrnaster work in time of war.
Actual convoy, when the journey C ross country began, was under command of Capt. R. Winans, but with Lieut. Peters along as expert-in-point to render all possible Lieut. Peters, to begin at the beginning of the story, made a complete trip over the route the trucks should take just before the departure of the
train and whilst the men to man it were being marshalled. For such purposes he employed a five-seated touring car of familiar make. This car was interesting in itself as a genuine war relic, for it was one of the first of the type to be taken to France, and was used by General Le Jeune, commander of the Second Division, throughout the length of the war. As a matter of fact, it has been struck several times by
shells and bears these marks still, to endear it the more, wherever it goes, to all per sons connected at all with the service.
Lieut. Peters required exactly 10 days to go over the route, making notation's for the guidance of the men and preparing all the many. tedious stopping arrangements.
Meanwhile, his force of 140 marines, was being chosen from some 6,000 men at the Quantico Station; most of these were men who had seen service abroad and whose homes lay in Indiana and Ohio. The trip, therefore, would mean to many of these getting back to old,
familiar scenes and holding reunions, in free hours,with friends and kin and neighbours, come to meet
them at appointed stops. .
Lieut. Peters left on his trip of preparation on the second of a recent month.. lie had completed his itinerary by the twelfth. Plans all duly formulated, and reported on and approved, he was back at Fort Benjamin Harrison and ready to move with his great train—the largest single convoy of the sort in Ameri, can marine history—urompily on the nineteenth. Final inventory showed the cavalcade to consist of fourteen ambulances and seventy-five of the Class B trucks. Along with these were twenty-five of the familiar F.W.D. trucks—the " Flirt with Deaths," the marines call them—and there were two officials' cars of familiar make.
Leaving Fort Benjamin at time appointed, the convoy made its way to-Jeffersonville, camping there for a full week. One never knows the needs ip-f a motor trip, Lieut. Peters reminds us. Let one start out, howsoever well prepared, until he is squarely launched on the same, -one can never tell how trucks— left the four years since the war at an interior post, as these were—will act on long trips till they are well on their way. So at JeflEersoriville the halt was made to adapt all things to what needs might present. From Jefferson_ville, then, all shipshape anew., the convoy headed toward Cincinnati. Speed limit for the convoy was set at 14 miles an hour ; trucks were required to keep the distance of 'phone-poles apart. Two thousand gallons of
gasoline were used every day of the way ; this purchased -in the States then toured. in Indiana one
great corporation supplied this fuel in Ohio, another concern made the sales. Just making sure that this gasoline should he on hand where required repre sented no little planning on Lieut. Peters's part ; 1,600 gallons of spirit, fcir example, must await the train on its reaching Cincinnati alone.
Where it went, as it went, folk of the countrysides and folk often from well-removed towns came to the roadto watch, to chat with the men, and to listen to such tales as these cared to spin. Interesting folk they found in the convoy, too, did they stop to seek such out! Next in .command to Lieut. Peters was Lieut. P. S. RobilIard, 12 years
with the Air Service and one of these an especially strenuous one in Europe, at war. Another notable in the troop was R. Ensco, who drove for General Le jeune, now Major-General Commandant in France, and who also has many thrilling war-time tales to tell.
At some of the stops, too, towns " did their bits," and often they were-really very big bits for places of their size, forgthe marines come thus upon them. At Madison, in Indiana, lemonade and cakes awaited all corners. At Veva.y men slept in the courthouse for the night and the village band serenaded all the evening.
Reaching Cincinnati, the first stop of size, the big auto-parking site of the Cineinnat.i. Automobile Club was placed at the convoy's disposal. The big comfort-stations, the shower's, the washrooms, the laundry, above all, all the water men or motors required, were at the newcomers' disposal. Mr. F. Switalski, executive secretary of the club, had a huge welcoming party on hand as well, and by-and-bymarines and civilians were seated at." chow," as the former said, good, old-fashioned Ohio Hamburger steaks, .lima beans, coffee, with steamed apricots and fresh-obaked bread besides.
After supper there w-as leave; that night such of the men as wished slept in the trucks ; others pitched tent on the Auto camp-ground for their beds.
Next day they were on, the usual, ever-interesting routine of the caravan. Reveille by Jangle-call, halfpast four of the morning. Breakfast, medical inspectiOn, then off and away on the trip. Travelling always in company formation, each company with its officer and riding under full transport regulations. Mid-morning—the half-hour's rest; then on, anew, to noon.
Nooning, driving, then camping for the night again, mounting guard, and liberty for the rest. Solid tyres
throughout reduced at stops to a minimum. in fact, the only really hard work at all would come when, now and then, through some inadvertence, some truck must be helped back from the side of the road, and that, too, was no effort at all.
From Cincinnati the trucks went to Dayton, camping there at McCook Flying Fields. From Dayton to Columbus and to Zanesville the route lay. At Zanesville they stopped for the national holiday and so that the marines might join the townsfolk in their varied celebrations of the Fourth.
On again, then. Bridgeport, Uniontown, Cumberland, Ridgeville, Baltimore and Philadelphia were the high points of the itinerary. Taking the national highway throughout the better part of the thousandmile journey, even road conditions provided few incidents for note.
From the City of Brotherly Love the lap to Quantico was a comparatively short one. With it the long ride was over. Plans and preparations made by Lieut. Peters on his lo-clayl trip in advance of actual departure of the endless caravan had brought the long cavalcade (seventy-five Class B trucks, twenty-five Flirt with Deaths ' and fourteen G.M.C. ambulances there were in all when it reached its destination) safely from Fort Benjamin to Quantico, virtually a thousand miles or more, without untoward incident of any sort, the long journey over, end to end.