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SENECA B. YULE
Formerly of the American Field Service
Sailed
from New York on July 23 and it took 11 days to cross, with no
excitement whatsoever. The sea was smooth as a lake. No sickness.
There were 150 of us on the boat and when we landed in ----- were
lined up and marched across the town, escorted by the police, to
the railway station.
The town seemed so quaint and old fashioned to me and I never stop wondering at the old fashionedness of the whole country, with the touches of the modern sticking through here and there. France is a wonderful country and I like it very much. At the station we were herded into a third class train and sent to Paris. An all night ride and very little chance for sleep, so was rather tired when we got to Paris.
At Paris we were met by a headquarters man and taken to headquarters, registered and assigned to barracks and beds. Was in Paris only a little over two days and most of that was taken up with red tape at headquarters, so didn't get much of a chance to see the things I wanted to see. While there we were divided up about 50-50 into "would be" ambulance drivers and transport militaire drivers.
The latter are driving five-ton American trucks loaded with ammunition, supplies, food, etc. They are American field service units and they have between 40 and 50 sections in the field now, with 40 men and 18 cars in each section. We practically had our choice, but those in the best physical condition were put in the transport service.
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