Dear Old Dad;

      As today is the day set aside to write Dad, I will try and do my best at telling you of my experiences over here.

      We left Camp Merrit to board the boat Dec. 12th, left the harbor Dec. 14th. Had a fine trip across.

      Sited a Sub when we were about 45 miles from Bell Isle (Belle-Ile). But the little U-Boat Destroyer took care of it.

      We hit port Dec. 27th, but didn't get off the boat until Jan. 1st at Saint Nazaire.

      From there we boarded a train or rather box cars, spent 2 nights and a day riding. It was so cold we nearly froze, but were O. K. when we got to Longreas.

      We stayed at Longreas from 4th to Jan. 24th. Didn't do much during that time, only tried to keep warm.

      Jan. 24th we left Longreas for Fort De Stains, (which is in the outskirts of Paris.) We arrived at Fort De Stains Jan. 26th.

      At Fort De Stains we started drilling on the Anti Aircraft Guns and Range Instruments. We finished our training April 15th.

      We then went to Verdun for the real training was with a French Battery there. They said we did as good a work as they while we were there.

      We left Verdun May 27th and went back to Fort De Stains to draw our own equipment, which consisted of 2 guns, 2 caissons, 5 trucks, 1 Ford and 1 Motor Cycle.

      After getting already ready we left Fort De Stains again on June 5th. Went to Marne sector. Stop for 3 days at a little village called Lizy then on to a Montreal A Lions where we went into to action right there, but didn't bring down any planes there. The Germans shelled us some there but didn't get very close.

      We left Montreal and started in with the big drive at the Marne on Chateau Thiery. We crossed the Marne River July 28th and followed along after them up to Chery which is close to the Fisme river. During that time we shot down two planes and came awfully close to lots of others. The Germans shelled us quite a lot with gas shells and high explosives. They hit the caisson once but that was all.

      We left that sector and started for the place we had our rest. Arriving there, at Provencheres sur Marne about the middle of Aug. We sure did have some time there, fishing, swimming, hunting, and playing baseball.

      We went to Toul from there. Stayed at Toul about a week, then we went in on the Great Saint Miheal drive. Stayed with them throughout the drive. One of our stops was at St. Remy and one at Port a Mousson.

      When we left that sector we went on the Argonne drive and believe me Dad there was some keen fighting on that drive. Our first stop was at Chattencourt. From there we went to Brabant. Stayed at Brabant for about 3 weeks and was under shell fire all the time. One nite they put them as close as fifty feet from where my dugout was and one nite he put over one that was about a 12 inch which nearly drew me out of bed. You had ought to seen me beating it from there. I ran about ˝ mile from there. Made it in about 1 ˝ seconds. Ha, Ha.

      We went to Consenvoye from there. They shelled us even harder there than at Barbant, until I went on the outpost detail. We wasn't shelled at all when we were there, but Fritz got mad again & shelled the Battery at Consenvooye again with his biggest shells and broke down our telephone wires so we abolished the outpost and went back to the battery. And that night Fritz made 2 direct hits on our dugout, but they wasn't big enough to break through.