Page:The history and achievements of the Fort Sheridan officers' training camps.djvu/20

 18 THE FORT SHERIDAN ASSOCIATION

The business man went to see the commander of the company, told him the circumstances, and asked permission to have his pay given each month to his "bunkie," explaining that he regarded his experienced services as im- portant enough to justify the Captain urging him not to resign.

This the company commander did, and when he told the carpenter that his "bunkie" w^anted his monthly pay placed to his account, he hesitated for a moment and said, "If he can afford to do it, 1 will take it, although I wouldn't take it from any one else, for w^e are both in the same boat and he understands. "

And the businesss man thought of the hundreds and thousands he had spent in pleasure in this and other lands and realized that he never had either the same pleasure or the same spirit of giving through all his experiences.

At the close of the camp, both these men were commissioned. The carpenter completed the service as a major and so did the business man, but back of that they both came out with a better understanding of life: a broader mutual kindliness.

Through the course of the months the necessity and the spirit increased. Men who were to share the hazards of battle w^ere not merely involving them- selves, but thousands of others — Mothers and Fathers — Wives and Sisters.

Sometimes you would see a little w^oman come into the camp from a distance. Her little children w^ere with her. There was a look of pride as the long lines swept by. There w^as a rush of tender embrace when the ranks were broken and the father greeted the new arrivals, and there was an equal touch of sadness when they departed.

Sometimes you would see a man, silent, apart, troubled. Investigation would show that he was not afraid of the battle line, he w^as not above going as a private if he did not w^in a commission, but he could not shake off the anxiety about those whom he should leave behind.

Worry and anxiety are the worst foe the soldier faces. They handicap him from the start. If he is an officer, they affect his intelligent direction of his men, his ability to grasp situations, as well as the spirit which he imparts to those w^ho serve with him. His depression becomes not merely a personal inconvenience, but a severe handicap to all his men.

He accepts the risks of battle, the discomforts of camp, as the fortunes of w^ar, but when he faces the anxiety for the ones he left behind him, that is another question. There is w^here he must have real friends. The organ- ization of the army did not contemplate this. But there was nothing in the regulations to say it should not exist.

When the Fort Sheridan Association idea was suggested to the leaders in the Regular Army, they were immediately its strong backers. They appre- ciated the thought of linking together the friendship of leaders for the mutual protection and encouragement of the family; of caring for both the fighting edge of a man and for the relations w^hich he can never leave behind him, go where he may.

�� �