Page:The history and achievements of the Fort Sheridan officers' training camps.djvu/217

 THE FIRST OFFICERS' TRAINING CAMP

���LIMBERING UP STUNTS

��2. To train officers and their assistants so that they may utilize the weapons at their disposal to the best advantage. (Conduct of fire.)

Problems involving the use of the parallax and parallel methods of com- puting fire data and formulas for figuring the site and crest problems gave many men a preliminary taste of the intricacies of the work ahead. To the man with a limited training in mathematics the subject seemed almost impos- sible. To many others more highly schooled it seemed the same. But it would take more than seeming impossibility to down the spirits of these eager can- didates. By diligent study and working together — those of some experience helping those w^ho were new — all strove and hoped to finish the course with success.

Practice in semaphore was given up for w^ork with the "buzzer." In- structors asked for any men who had a knowledge of wireless or the "Morse code" to volunteer their services in helping to teach the other men the use of these strange little instruments. From six to eight of the volunteers from each battery w^ere chosen to teach sections of their respective batteries. Each section w^as "issued" a "buzzer." The instructor first showed the proper method of holding the key and then explained and gave out the mysterious Morse alphabet of dashes and dots. "Operators" for the most part caught on quickly and by the end of the period of training were able to send and receive at the rate of eight to ten words a minute.

Automatic pistols were issued to the batteries and w^ork commenced at once in learning the nomenclature of the parts and the method of strip- ping and assembling the weapon. Then came aiming drill or "making tri- angles", which was conducted with a pistol in the same manner as with a rifle.

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