First Home Boy Back from France

Corp. Raymond Erickson Back from France – Home on Furlough from Camp Dodge

Corporal Raymond Erickson arrived home from Camp Dodge Tuesday evening being on a ten-day furlough. He was returned from France some weeks ago on account of rheumatism and a slight whiff of Hun gas and has been as the base hospital, Camp Dodge, since. He is now feeling fine and looks the real soldier he is. Ray was in the thick of the Chateau-Thierry fight when the German tide was broken. The battle scenes are indescribable, he says, but they put the Fritzies on the run at Chateau-Thierry and kept them running ever since until they begged for peace. France is alright Ray says, but the old U.S.A. for him. Over there the people are about three hundred years behind times, he says which probably accounts in part for the fact that they cannot understand the gigantic scale on which the Americans do business. He mentioned the vim with which the Americans fought, even raw troops who were given a new type of gun with which they were entirely unfamiliar even the loading operation being new until they were shown how, going in and fighting like veterans. That’s why Uncle Sam’s troops turned the picked Prussian shock troop like water from a duck. Ray was given an ovation at the deport Tuesday night when he arrived. He will spend his furlough here and at Redwood Falls where his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Erickson, now reside.