History of the 305th Field Artillery | Page 4

that these dusky doughboys were a very
small oasis of soldiers in a thirsty desert of officers. In salutes and
courtesies they received a maximum of practice.
Lieutenant Colonel Stimson came to us during one of these classes.
That was on September 6, and by evening of the next day the last of the
officers sent down from the First Plattsburg Training Camp had
reported and been assigned or attached to the 305th. Since the majority
of them led the regiment into its first battles a record should be made of
their names in this chapter of beginnings. We commenced then with the
following officers, most of whom had abandoned civil life only three
months earlier:
Colonel Fred Charles Doyle, commanding the regiment;
Lieutenant Colonel Stimson, temporarily assigned to the command of
the First Battalion; Major Harry F. Wanvig, commanding the Second
Battalion; Captain Arthur A. Gammell, regimental adjutant; 2nd Lt.
Allen A. Klots, acting adjutant, First Battalion; Captain Douglas
Delanoy, adjutant Second Battalion; Captain M. G. B. Whelpley,
commanding the Headquarters Company; 1st Lt. Edward Payne,
temporarily in command of the Supply Company; Captain Alvin
Devereux, commanding Battery A; Captain Gaillard F. Ravenel,
commanding Battery B; Captain Noel B. Fox, commanding Battery C;
Captain Frederick L. Starbuck, commanding Battery D; Captain Robert
T. P. Storer, commanding Battery E; Captain Cornelius Von E.
Mitchell, commanding Battery F; First Lieutenants Sigourney B. Olney,
George P. Montgomery, William M. Kane, Harvey Pike, Jr., Watson
Washburn, James L. Derby, Edgar W. Savage, Frank Walters, and
Drew McKenna; Second Lieutenants Sheldon E. Road-ley, Thornton C.
Thayer, Norman Thirkield, George B. Brooks, Lydig Hoyt, Thomas M.

Brassel, Lee D. Brown, Chester Burden, Charles W. Camp, Paul Jones,
Oliver A. Church, Roby P. Littlefield, William H. M. Fenn, John R.
Mitchell, Warren W. Nissley, Harold S. Willis, Frede-rick L. Beek,
Danforth Montague, Melvin E. Sawin, George P. Schutt, Lloyd Stryker,
Lawrence Washington, John A. Thayer, Karrick M. Castle, Harry G.
Hotchkiss, George E. Ogilvie, William L. Wilcox, Lewis E. Bomeisler,
Jr., Darley Randall, and Edward W. Sage.
Almost at once changes were made in this list of our charter members,
as one might call them. Officers were assigned away from us, while
strangers were brought into our midst. Thirty-five of the charter
members accompanied the regiment to France. After the armistice there
remained only nineteen.
The eternal changes of the army system were largely responsible for
these losses, as they accounted also later for the passing of many
enlisted men, but whenever we meet the old friends we think of them as
belonging peculiarly to the 305th. Some we can't see again, because the
Vesle, the Aisne, or the Argonne holds them forever away.
But it is a dreary business to anticipate. They were very much with us
and very much loved at Upton.
So the first week ended, and we were, speaking sketchily, on our feet, if
still unsteady.
II
IT HAS GROWING PAINS
GOING into the second week the colonel talked daily with his
organization commanders. Such conferences revolved largely about the
almost scented forms from the Adjutant General's Office. These, it
developed, would, when the men arrived, have to be decorated with
countless, neat statistics. Soldiers, as far as we knew, might go hungry
or without equipment, but, as far as figures went, they would
unquestionably be cared for tenderly. No one would have the slightest
doubt as to their most intimate family history, the number of years it

had taken them to dribble through public or private institutions of
learning, or their degree of proficiency on mandolin, harmonica, or
Jew's harp.
The officers at that period filled forms about themselves in odd
moments. The most persistent and suggestive demanded the name of
the relative one wished notified in case one should become a casualty.
Whenever in America or France things got a little slack a request for
that information would come around. It kept one, as it were, on one's
toes. But we wondered why that bureau never got fed up with paper
work.
Into these daily conferences, almost at once, crept a sense of
imminence. Huge bulletins descended from Division Hill dealing now
in dates. They described with an admirable detail how the first of the
draft men would be received. To aid us in this task non-commissioned
officers, it was promised, would be sent us from the Regular Army.
They appeared one day-a score or so for our regiment.
We looked at them. We looked at their service records. Then we looked
at each other. We swallowed our first lesson in how to send, on order,
one's best men to some other organization. Certainly, in this case, few
commanding officers had parted with their jewels. Some of these rough
diamonds, we suspected from a comparison of dates, indeed, had been
set in