Milsurp After Hours

The Fighting 69th Regiment, New York. We know the movie from tv playing it over the years. A Hollywood classic with James Cagney. Well, the real 69th New York was real enough and did get plenty of press in the New York papers as well as a parade when it left for France. No wonder there was a movie drawing on the Regimental name. The New York papers had already made them famous. And here is a story about them in France. And no they haven't done any fighting yet. But they did have one casualty due to an undoctored scratch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIwQDVPJ6kY

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Sammies learn about a new element of war the hard way.

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Back home in Seattle, nothing like a little sanguine speech making from a Scotsman sent over for the purpose of fanning the flames in America.

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It was a good idea to watch what you said back in those days. Any "unpatriotic utterances" could get you put in prison for longer than if you held up a bank.

Seems as though they took leaks seriously in those days........These days they would only investigate if these was no leak!

Hardly a leak. All the guy was doing was saying he was a coward and had no interest in being a hero when the bullets started flying. Should have busted him to private and made him side sink man in some mess hall until the war ended or until he changed his mind...or instead of shooting off his mouth he could have worked up a story about bone spurs or gone abroad to study on scholarship or got assigned to a permanent stay at home National Guard unit or maybe went to some country not at war to proselytize on behalf of Mormons ......like our chief candidates for Commander In Chief have done in the last half century.

"Unquestionable and confidential" sources say.... even though totally unsubstantiated reporting, as is much of today's reporting is as well. And the headline had a few problems...like Nicholai Lenine wasn't exactly his name. Vadimer was his real first name and Lenin was a nom de guerre. The N came in when Lenin, real last name Ulyanov, would sometimes sign his poltical stuff as N. Lenin and somebody just assumed Nicolai was what it stood for because it was a common name. But in America we didn't really care what his name was. It was only important to know if he was giving aid to the hated Germans or not...and this newspaper was ready to believe he was.

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In any case...see what unnamed sources were telling this newspaper.

The "fighting 69th" is now fighting. One guy, the machine gunner was wounded. But New York is expecting great things of them anyway. It does hurt that the 69th New York National Guard is now named the 165th Infantry. However, Irishmen still make up a good percentage of the roster.


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Ain't war exciting? Everybody is just having a ball and wanting a song to dance to playing on their phonograph. From the illustration...even the soldiers.

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