Quentin Roosevelt - Theodore Roosevelt

Transcription

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QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
A SKETCH WITH LETTERS
EDITED BY
KERMIT ROOSEVELT
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1921
Copyright, 1921, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Published October, 1921
OCT -8 !92l
THE SCKIBNER PRESS
0)CI.A627141
"Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die, and
none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of
life and the duty of life.
Both life and death are parts
of the same Great Adventure.
Never yet was worthy
adventure worthily carried through by the man who
put his personal safety first."
Theodobe Roosevelt.
^ FOREWORD
Three
in
years ago to-day Quentin Roosevelt
France in an
lines.
He was
aerial
Two
weeks
combat over the German
buried by the
tary honors near the
later
fell
little
enemy with
town
when the
of
mili-
Chamery.
Soissons salient was
wiped out the Three Hundred and Third Engineers
found
his grave.
The American
burial service
was read over the grave and the Engineers raised
a new
cross,
and placed a shaft to mark where
the airplane had fallen.
Quentin Roosevelt was
not yet twenty-one when he was shot down;
still
the record of a
life;
years count for but
one
man
at twenty
little in
may have
accomplished more
and leave more behind to mourn
another
who saw a century
out.
his loss
than
Quentin Roose-
velt to casual acquaintances typified the light-
hearted joie de vivre (there
[vii]
is
no English phrase
FOREWORD
that can quite convey the meaning) which fresh-
ened
neath
all
who came
it all
it,
but under-
there lay the stern purpose and high
resolve of one
ness of
in contact with
who
realizes the essential serious-
life.
K. R.
July 14, 1921.
[
viii ]
CONTENTS
FAGB
Foreword
vii
CHAPTEB
I.
II,
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Before the
War
The Way of the Eagle
PART
I.
PART
II.
PART
III.
1
—
trying his WINGS
....
TRAINING FOR COMBAT
.
.
the flight
31
122
148
The Last Patrol
165
Official Judgment
198
"The Judgment op His Peers"
Verses
.
.
.
211
266
ILLUSTRATIONS
Quentin Roosevelt, Mineola, May, 1917
.
.
Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt at Field Seven in His
Beloved "Dock Yack" Plane
The Grave
at
Chamery
Chamery
Changed
98
17G
180
to
Gold
274
'-
CHAPTER
I
BEFORE THE WAR
QuENTiN Roosevelt was born in Washington
on November 19, 1897, six months before his
father enlisted for the war to free Cuba. As a
boy he attended the public schools
The
last
in
Washington.
year of his father's second term as presi-
dent he went to the Episcopal High School at
Alexandria, Virginia.
The
in
following
summer
He had
Europe.
—that of 1909—he spent
always been interested in
mechanics, and in a letter to Ambler Blackford,
a son of the principal of the school, he
first
sight of
We
lots.
tells of his
an airplane.
have had a wonderful time here and seen
We
were at Rheims and saw
all
the aero-
Bennett cup for swiftest
who won the Gordon
flight.
You don't know
how
all
planes flying, and saw Curtis
pretty
at a time.
it
was to see
At one time
the aeroplanes sailing
there were four in the
[1]
!
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
It
air.
was the
one was a monoplane called the An-
prettiest
toinette,
which looks
like
a great big bird in the
air.
It does not wiggle at all
It
awfully pretty turning.
is
Isn't
Dame
Notre
it
would take at
have some of the
and goes very
wonderful?
thing could be religious in
think
The
prettiest thing I ever saw.
least
I think any-
And
it.
the Louvre, I
a year to see
pictures.
is
the cunningest
thing I ever saw, and I think they are
We
I
it.
I think the little
Infanta Margarita by Velazquez
beautiful.
fast.
all
very
have been to Rouen and every-
where.
Tell S. that I
am
sending him a model of an
aeroplane that winds up with a rubber band.
They work
quite well.
I
have one which can
a hundred yards, and goes higher than
Much
love to
all
fly
head
^
QUENTIN.
from
That autumn on
my
his return to this
entered Groton School as a
first
country he
former.
His
bent for mechanics, which was not inherited, and
[2]
BEFORE THE WAR
which was inherited, found
his love of reading,
expression in the school magazine.
came an
and
editor
worked as typesetter and
also
general overseer in the
publishing.
was
It
Quentin be-
more
practical part of
in the printing-room that
he
enjoyed himself most when at Groton.
In January, 1915, with the World
upon
for
War launched
its first winter, he wrote the following story
The Grotonian:
"ONE MAN WITH A DREAM"
"The
train stopped with a jerk, the doors flew
open, and the crowd surged out toward the street.
I
made my way
slowly to the taxi stand and hailed
*4
West fifty-seventh street,
and make it fast,' I said. The man glanced at
me quickly, hesitated, and then said, *Why that's
a waiting machine.
John Amsden's house,
isn't
"*Yes,' I said, 'make
and you get a
it
it.^*'
in less
than ten minutes
fiver.'
" The machine started to the street, dove around
the corner into thirty-fourth, and then across.
The
traffic
seemed strangely crowded:
[3]
—we barely
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
moved behind a stream of street cars and autos.
Finally came Broadway and I saw the reason.
Herald Square was packed with people,
silent
crowd,
all
watching the bulletin boards.
strained to catch a glimpse
the flaring arc lights,
McEwen
He
can be expected.
*
and made
10.45
—Drs.
Amsden
report John
is
is
man
traflBc
was
hemmed
turned, cried to
still
doing as well as
to hurry.
blocked, however, and
slightly improved.'
I could see
'11
—
An-
Condition
Strained faces in the crowd
one
man
turning to another
and clapping him on the back, a smile
his face.
The
we were
board again.
other notice was being rolled up.
relaxed.
out, under
Waring and
of the taxi stand,
him
I looked at the
in.
I
partially conscious.'
"I hammered on the window
as the
—a tense,
So that was the reason.
of relief
on
That was why
I had received the telegram, *John needs you.
Come at once.'
"The traffic began
racing
to move,
and soon we were
up Fifth Avenue, 42nd, 48th,
Cathedral,
—
ât
last 57th.
St. Patrick's
Two policemen guarded
the entrance of the street.
[4]
I
was evidently ex-
•
BEFORE THE WAR
pected, for they let
my
me
through with a glance at
card.
" The door was open, and I went into the familiar
hallway with
was
voices
The
stairs.
dead
went
I
silence.
came from the back
'It
pneumonia.
overworked that he can't
Some-
must have been
that speech in Union Square that did
it is
—
Low
upstairs.
of the house.
—
speaking:
one inside was
Doctors say
contrast
Outside the crowded streets;
startling.
inside,
carved oak
its
The
it.
His system
is
so
fight the disease.'
"Another man spoke up, 'Something had to
No man
crack.
can work at fever heat for weeks
on end.'
"I pushed open the door and entered.
men were
whom
seated before the
My
I knew.
reporter
on the
fire, all
cousin Arthur,
feet as I entered.
critic.
'
who was a
Arthur sprang to
I'm afraid
Fred,' he said, 'the Doctors
is
them men
Globcy Charles Wright, the actor,
and Pearson, the
that no one
of
Three
its
his
too late. Cousin
have given orders
to see him.'
"Hopeless, I sat down.
[5]
Why had I gone away ?
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
I
might have known something would happen to
him.
"'Tell me,' I said.
much
'"There's not
to
tell,'
would speak at that mass meeting
was
'He
said Pearson.
in
drizzling a little
Union Square
and he caught
Friday.
It
a
That and overwork brought on pneu-
chill.
monia.
"We
That's about
all.'
lapsed into silence, each thinking of the
man above who was
fire flickered,
The
fighting for breath.
and then died
Arthur spoke
out.
up:
"'You were with him.
Tell us about
it.'
"'It was like a dream,' I said, *A dream come
true.
"'John Amsden and
college.
I think that
friendship.
in
any
He
I
was the beginning
never did
serious way.
roomed together at
much
He worked
of our
there, that
a
little,
is,
went to
every dance in or out of Boston, and that was
about
athlete,
all.
He had
not the physique for an
and though he had several things published
in the Advocate,
he gradually
[6]
let it drop,
and never
BEFORE THE WAR
tried for editor.
He
did not have to work for a
were waiting for
living, for his father's millions
him so there was no incentive. People said that
lost what little capacity he had ever had
for work while in college.
he had
" 'After college he led the
who belong
call
life
that
to the class reformers
the idle rich.
all
those lead
and
Socialists
His winters were spent in Aiken
Palm Beach; his summers in Europe, with
interludes of Meadowbrook and Tuxedo.
I doubt
if he ever did anything more than this for twelve
years. Even his friends, who always claimed that
or
He
he would some day develop, gave up hope.
seemed to have arrived at the end
of his develop-
ment.
"
Last summer we arranged to go abroad to'
gether for a bicycle trip through Holland and
Belgium.
That was
in July.
August found us
in
Belgium, travelling slowly from place to place.
To make
a long story short, we were caught in the
whirlwind of the war.
and we followed
We
saw the
fall
of Liege
in the track of the invader as
tramped through Belgium.
[7]
We
saw towns
he
lev-
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
elled,
cathedrals shelled, smelt the smell of the
battle-field,
saw the
fleeing people,
homes burned,
husbands and fathers gone, the soldier dead, his
rifle
in his hand, the priest with his crucifix,
saw
it all.
"
'
To John
it
was a
He had
revelation.
—we
never
before felt the horror of death, never seen the
human soul apart from its polished
What death he had seen had been
covering.
decorous,
He had
honored, attended with peace and quiet.
barely realized the fact that suffering existed,
that the horrors of war were any more than a
novelist's term.
*'
'
Following in War's path had brought
home
to
him with an appalling
sorrows he had never known,
had never
felt,
—
^he
feelings of people,
nearness.
all
it all
All the
the emotions he
went through
it all,
saw the
not mirrored in a book or ve-
neered by etiquette, but sharp, bitter, unconquerable.
In him
had
lain hid.
tors
came
it
brought out
the character that
All the crusader spirit of his ances-
to the top.
his reaction
all
He was
fired
with
he thought of his former
with loathing.
It
life
it.
In
almost
seemed to him almost unbe-
[8]
BEFORE THE WAR
lievable
that America could be callous to the
suffering, to the horror of
He
very eyes.
duty to
his
"
'
tell
what he saw before
he was chosen, that
felt
of Belgium.
his
was
it
•
He decided quite suddenly. "I'm going back,
Fred," he said, "to
tell
home about
the people at
They must understand, they must help."
"'We made our way to the coast, as best we
this.
could,
and at
last got
home
our voyage we talked of the people at
It never occurred to
On
a steamer for America.
often.
him that people would not
understand, that they would not see as he did.
He
could not conceive of anyone remaining un-
moved
in the face of suffering such as
"'We
parted at the dock.
we had
seen.
The next day,
as I
It was John.
home, the telephone rang.
" Fred," he said, " I must have a talk with you."
"
We agreed, finally, that I was to come over
sat at
'
and
see him.
as
"'He was sitting in this room
we are now, when I came in.
I
have never seen a look
said,
"they don't
see.
[9]
In
all
my
fire,
life
of utter hopelessness
such as there was on his face.
he
before the
"It's
all
wrong,"
I can't understand it."
:
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
"'He
friends,
me
told
then,
had spoken to them, and the
"They wouldn't even
his words.
They wouldn't even
all
it
how he had been
listen
but they cut
wanted to
me
tell
me
!
to his
effect of
me.
listen to
I tried to tell about
short.
Harry Wilding
about the baseball the Giants
were playing.
Schuyler had a scheme he wanted
me
—to
to finance,
over a cargo of
charter a steamer and send
silk
socks to Belgium.
Said
it
was a great opportunity now that the German
He
market was closed."
laughed,
and,
dully,
pulling aside the shade pointed out the window.
"
'
"There," he
ca's countersign;
"
'
said,
That
explanation.
I looked.
is
"there
it is.
That
is
the
the American spirit; Ameri-
her God."
A huge sign showed in electric lights
THE NEW NATIONAL MAGAZINE
James Fried's
on What There
for the U. S. A.
article
War
"'"Yes," said John,
test of
bitterly,
"that
is
is
in
the
the acid
the 'Great American Nation's' feelings.
What do we
get out of it?"
110]
"
BEFORE THE WAR
"'He gazed
into the depths of the
fire,
watched the shadows come and go on
and
I
his face.
Suddenly his expression changed, and his eyes
"I have
sparkled with the light of battle.
he
the play of the war.
cried, *'I shall write
bring war
home
to the people as
brought before.
"
'
I shall
has never been
I shall challenge the nation.
That was the beginning
worked
it
it,"
He
of his great play.
feverishly, at high pressure,
—writing
far
into the night.
weeks
",'In three
it
was done.
the joy on his face as he
done, Fred," he said.
" 'He would not let
him
to.
The
first
me
came
read
night, so
I
remember
to the door.
it,
he
*'It's
though I begged
said,
was the
test.
He wanted me
to see
so I waited.
As you know, Eisenstein agreed,
put it on as soon a
it
then for the
first
time,
and
after the first reading, to
company could be got together.
Then, at last, came the first night. All New
York seemed to be there. It had been wonderfully
advertised.
the name,
All over the city, great placards with
WAR,
in red,
and then John Amsden,
[11]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
underneath.
were there
had to
I
—
^you
fight
my
way,
—but
you
remember.'
"Pearson nodded.
"'You remember how
it
was received.
sound from the whole packed house.
Not a
Not a
clap,
not a cheer, not even the shuffling that a crowd of
people generally make.
A woman
audience.
the curtain
No
fell,
It
was a
me was
in front of
and the crowd
filed
crying as
out
silently.
one was discussing the play in the lobby
when
came
I
over
"
'
was too
It
out.
thinking praise.
Men
great,
beyond un-
went home and thought
it.
By morning it was famous.
appeared on the front page.
sermon of the
presses
In every paper
it
Critics called it
a
stage.
"'That was four weeks
it
tense, uplifted
ago.
Since then the
have been running to capacity printing
has been played
all
over the country.
it,
People
have telegraphed him by the thousand, asking
him
to speak.
prophet
He
has been hailed as another
who should preach
in this war.
[12]
of America's
duty
BEFORE THE WAR
"
'He was asked
to speak at
You know
—
I left.
*'I
stopped, and
tlie rest
we
each busied with his
in the
Union Square before
.'
sat in silence for a while,
own
The
thoughts.
clock
Metropolitan tower began to chime.
I
looked out the window onto the quiet street.
Across was Broadway, with
crowds.
its lights, its
I could just see the top of the
at Columbus Circle:— 'CHARLES
WAR'.
I thought of the great
The
at Herald Square.
passing
huge sign
WRIGHT
in
crowd gathered
clock struck the hour,-
ten-eleven-twelve.
"The deep boom
noise
of
Doctor.
footsteps
We
There was a
died away.
on the
stairs.
sprang to our
feet.
was the
It
*How
is
he;
Doctor?* said Arthur; his voice sounding cracked
and
strained.
"The Doctor looked
at as, his face
worn and
white and lined, and shook his head slowly.
He
turned and went out without a word.
*"0h,
it
*
There
should he
die.f^'
can't be true,' cried Arthur.
must be something wrong.
Why
"*It can't be helped, boy' said Pearson, *It was
[13]
—
"
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
God's plans seem mysterious to our cramped
fate.
view.'
He
quoted
softly:
"'One man with a dream, at pleasure
Shall go forth and conquer a crown.'
Quentin had a remarkable
writing,
and
particularly
gift for descriptive
delighted
in
short
sketches, usually with the element of fantastic
The two
mysticism predominant.
brief
stories
was serving
following were written while he
in
France.
"IN LINE OF DUTY"
"The
"Up
service pistol
there above
is
a merciless thing.
my
desk
it
hangs, between
Hilda's picture and the instrument board, always
loaded, always ready.
loaded;
thats the watchword of our service,
even now as we
teries.
Yes; always ready, always
lie
idly awash, charging our bat-
Its pleasanter this way, tho,
fresh air cleaning off the
And then, when
aren't so many noises,
run.
fumes
with the
of the last nights
you're on the surface, there
or at least I
[14]
know them
all.
BEFORE THE WAR
Sometimes when we are submerged
—ones
that I cant account for.
I hear sounds,
I swear they're
You can almost
only imagination, tho'.
them now; the
soft
fingers groping
and pawing at the edges
plates.
I
deadened whisper of stumpy
Its all foolishness, all foolishness
am, the senior commander
marine
hear
service, with
of our
!
Here
of the imperial sub-
a record that even an ad-
miral might envy, worrying like any child over
noises that dont exist,
"Kuhlman
is
—mere imagination.
He was mad and
responsible.
I
should have put him in irons.
first
I remember when
The old admiral was there,
me, 'Take him and make a man of
gave him responsibility, put him in
he came aboard.
and said to
So
him.'
I
charge of the forward tubes.
Ireland
we
"We
got
liners.
were
I
were,
it,
and sure
too,
was sorry we had to do
but what
children
else could I
warned; and in war there
"I
let
Off the coast of
work before
long.
—a big boat, one of their crack
many women and
sengers,
of
is
pas-
She had been
pity.
young Kuhlman have the
[15]
for there
among her
do ?
no
it,
shot,
and then,
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
as there
was no convoy and no guns, we rose to
watch the
effect.
It
is
very sudden death, a
One moment you
torpedo.
are but two days
from port; the next the boats are manned and
the band plays as she sinks.
and there were many
merged again,
we
lay for
Then
above.
for
night,
of the boats that they could
She sank very quickly, and we sub-
not launch.
so
was a bad
It
for it
was too rough
for us,
—and
two days while the storm went on
it
blew
itself out,
and
luckily too,
two days below are hard on the nerves. Kuhl-
man
felt it
most, for he had never before seen
death, and the sight of that ship sinking from the
torpedo that he had
for him.
fired,
had been too much
So we came up, and were lying on the
surface, just as
we
smoked upon deck.
are now, while
it is
and cease to be a machine.
stood there something came drifting
us,
It
officers
After two days like that,
the air seems very sweet, and
again,
we
good to
live
Only as we
down upon
—something white that glinted in the sunlight.
was quite
too close.
close before I
Somehow
saw what
it
the current caught
[16]
was,
it
and
BEFORE THE WAR
brought
it
us in the
and
alongside,
little
seemed to
it
wash that lapped our
it,
ivory as
—the had
—and the bare skull shone polished
it
bobbed up and down and the water
common
been a
yet, at first,
Then he took
in
eyes.
it
went
the
had
we had sunk
'Cunard
all
It
life
of the suit
Line.'
It
of the air,
below.
must have been that that started KuhlI had grown quite attached to him, for he
seemed only a boy,
me
letters
men
I ordered the
man.
empty
and across the chest
drifted on, but with
*'It
of the
sailor off the ship
before,
you could see the
and
fish
like
washed in and out
two days
All
sides.
the flesh was gone from the head,
been at
stick to
my
even I did not notice any change.
to coming in
and
sitting talking to
room, and I began to wonder.
he liked the company.
real reason
He
me
said
Only, as I found out, the
was that he was afraid to be
Later he told
And
for all of his moustaches.
about
it.
alone.
In the beginning
it
used only to bother him at night when the lights
were out.
begin.
Then, as he lay in bed, they would
He would
hear them outside in the water,
[17]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
talking to one another, In dead voiceless words,
And always
water in their mouths.
the salt
their talk
was
'He
of him.
fired the torpedo,'
they seemed to say, and then he would hear the
fumbling of
soft,
sodden fingers tearing at the
Later he began to see faces, dreadful,
rivets.
greenish, water logged ones, long strings of sea
weed
all
in their hair.
faces he
And
worst of
all
they were
knew, friends and family at home,
that stared at him with blind dead resentment.
They became worse and more
began to go round with
insistent,
and he
his eyes fixed in front of
him, for he said they watched him from the corners.
my
He
slept with his lights turned on.
I did
but I knew that we
month in port, and I
thought that would cure him. Then we put in
best to talk
him out
would soon lay up
of
to take on oil for our last
gave
me
my room
it,
for our
two weeks, and they
a bundle of papers.
at the time,
to read, for I thought
in
them
to
him
might cheer him.
I
was
and
it
Kuhlman was
busy myself, looking over
I tossed
my new
the reports from other commanders.
[18]
orders,
Over
and
my
BEFORE THE WAR
him some question about the
There was no answer, and after a bit I
shoulder I called to
news.
turned around to look at him.
the paper spread before
I looked, he got
He was
him on the
look of one
who has
moment
door
for the
the
it
seen something very terrible,
—something more than one should
face
and as
desk,
up and fumbled
His face was dead white, and on
handle.
for a
sitting,
I stood
see.
doing nothing, for the look on his
had driven
my
thoughts from
all
head and
then, stupidly, I looked to the paper for the explanation.
There was
the war, a
new
little
invention,
enough
in
it,
—
politics,
and at the top
of the
page the pictures of some people, a family I
judged, with father, mother, and a sweet-faced
girl of
about twenty.
I looked closer,
and saw
under the pictures, 'drowned in the Caronia
Even then
aster.'
I could
that look in his face.
dis-
not see the reason for
Orders were orders, and
he'd have to learn that in war people were killed,
and not always the
of the
game.
shot.
I
was
guilty,
—and
it
was
all
part
Suddenly there was the roar of a
in his
room before the echoes died
[19]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
was too
late.
lay bent over his desk, the pistol
still
along the iron walls, but of course
"He
clutched in his hands.
reason.
In a
girl's picture,
little
gold frame before
"A
bad, bad business
I
—'Ah, dearest;
culpa.'
that range,
somehow
him was a
blotched with his blood, he had
written in his round, boyish hand,
mea magna
saw the
last, I
the same that I had just seen in
now
the paper,
Then, at
it
it
was.
The
bullet at
had torn his face terribly, and yet
was
relieved, glad almost.
that his eyes would have been,
—not
I
am
sure
nice.
"That was a month ago and I am still at sea.
when I got back after that run I would
I thought
ask for a
rest,
—I had begun myself to hear things
that were not of the ship.
told
me
I
But once
was chosen to take
on her maiden run.
What
an honor they offered me.
this,
in port, they
our newest,
could I do?
It
All the same, I wish
the captain's quarters were not like those on
old ship.
When
I
came
in,
was
my
and saw the bare iron
walls just as before, with that grim pistol in its
clips
by the instrument board,
[20]
I
seemed to see
BEFORE THE WAR
him
And now,
again.
three weeks out,
I do, instead of the luminous dials of
ment board
"Perhaps he was
is
grow-
my
if
instru-
I see only his poor shattered head,
with great eyes that
pistol
it is
I dare not turn the lights out, for
ing worse.
call
me.
The
right, after all.
service
a merciful thing."
"THE GREATEST GIFT"
" 'What
is
my
the greatest blessing' I mused, as
warm
breath of
spring, sweet with the scent of flowers
and green
I sat at
And
window.
the
things growing whispered softly 'Life.
the greatest
gift.
To
live
and
feel
the grim hand that stays not smite.
Life
no fear
What
is
lest
higher
have the gods to give?'
"In
my
heart youth cried assent, and
full of
the horror of that gray and merciless one
who
spares no man, I went forth into the crowded
ways.
Everywhere was
things living.
As
life,
and the beauty
the cries of children and
all
[21]
the
of
my
ears were
many
voices of
pleasant music to
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Death seemed but some
the street.
foul
vampire
that lay in gloating cruelty waiting to take
all
from me.
my
"I wandered whither
my
of all save
me unknown,
to
carvings.
No
me, careless
a dark street heavy with the
Grey
dust of centuries.
houses' eaves,
feet led
thoughts until I came on a street
and
in
lichens clung about the
the shapeless wind-worn
children played
on the cobbled pavement no
upon the steps and
traffic
passed.
The
roar of the world without was lost, for sound
self
seemed choked with age, and
my
it-
footfall
waked echoes long dead that fled wailing past
the sombre houses and died among the wind worn
tiles.
One door
alone stood open, mysterious,
beckoning, and thru
in
I passed as
it
one who enters
a dream, a place familiar, yet of the dream. All
within lay shrouded in gloom save for a
glow ahead, and toward
its soft
little
crimson I went,
my hands against the velvet arras. And now I saw
whence the
light
came.
A ball of crystal in whose
clouded heart the crimson light rose and
fell
with
steady beat lay between the paws of an ebony
[22]
BEFORE THE WAR
sphinx, that crouched before a tall chair of ebony.
In the light lay mystery, and the very air was
heavy with the secret
"The
and
went
ries
scent of spice and sandalwood, of incense
myrrh.
of
my
I stood in silence
deep and
voice,
of the past,
life
But
griefs long past.
silence, that said:
whom
and past
thoughts, that drifted in a sea of
dim and
came a
of old forgotten dreams.
"With slow
all
that
is
lies
memo-
on them
yet a part of the
*What do you
whose heart
and
clear,
in
me
in the
memories
with the present, to
before alone are fair?*
steps muffled in the crimson car-
pet I went into the circle of warm, glowing light
and was aware
chair.
of
one who sat buried in the great
Face and hand alone were
visible, for
the
gown merged indefinitely into the ebony
the chair.
One hand showed, yellow and
velvet
of
shrivelled
twisted
with age, while ridged tendons like
wires
stretched
with yellow and pointed
lay the
mark
to long fingers
nails.
On
tipped
the face, too,
of ages, for over the skull the skin
stretched wrinkled and creased like an ancient
parchment.
Deep sunk
in their sockets
[23]
glowed
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
eyes that held
them
in
me and searched my soul. There was
age, to which to the
end of time we were
young; tragic age, the bitter sorrow of ten thou-
sand years; sorrow such as had the dead eyes of
As
CEdipus.
I looked in
them
all fear left
me,
and only an awe and a pity too deep for words
remained. Yet when I spoke it was as a child
that answers, and yet
it
is
would ask before even
intent on the question
speaks.
it
'Why
should
not I dwell in memories past, to enjoy the more
wlât Life
"He
may
hold?'
spoke again, and his voice was as a hand
held out to one that gropes in darkness:
not
life
then
above
rise
itself
a secret
it
no higher
and must death ever
to offer than its little span,
lie,
—has
*May
black upon the mind?
terror,
death a penalty that the Gods exact of a
whether
my
has been his lot?
evil or fair
crystal
must
all
—
^look
man
Through
mortals pass when the
of life are flickering low;
Is
fires
now, in your
ig-
norance, upon the face of Death.'
"I looked at the
saw
pictures that
crystal,
and deep
came and went
[U]
in its heart
as the light
BEFORE THE WAR
rose
tho'
Each seemed to tell a tale familiar,
the time was short and the faces strange.
and
fell.
man
**An old
on
lay dying, his children round him,
and the happiness
his face peace,
life
who
well spent,
is
of
one whose
after the long day's toil
waits gladly for the end.
"The
A woman
there.
and another scene was
crystal blurred
lay dying, but none were there
to watch save desolation
and utter
she had lived beyond her time,
loneliness, for
all
that might
have cared were dead, and on her face shone only
a great
relief.
"Many
pictures I saw,
and where the dying
were young, I saw the struggle against death.
Yet Youth did not
to lose
life, its
cup
fear death,
still full.
—only
was no struggle
fret of life.
At length
silent in the great chair,
of
you
—
will
—rather they feared
Where age
lay dying
and
him who sat
and asked humbly What
rest after the fever
I turned to
'
:
not you, too, pass in the crystal's
crimson mist?'
'I,'
voice swelled
its
till
he cried
deep
bitterly,
hung chamber with tragedy unspeakable,
[25]
and
his
grief filled the velvet
*I
have
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
may
sinned too deeply, I
I asked too
much.
not
Of the Gods
die.
I wished for all that
was
theirs
—
They gave it me and
now is their gift as gall and bitter wormwood to
my soul. All that I ever loved or knew is dead
for thrice a thousand years.
Alone I go down
to give,
the
for life eternal.
endless
Moloch and
changed.
Jove to
of the
man.
whom
—
are gone
all
have
Thunder,
and forgotten
live.
of
whose kindly touch
is
little lives is
ceased,
throbbed in
it die,
who have
lost all that
O, blind and more than blind,
forever be free from death;
Of what value
did
gods
Ishtar, Zeus the
I live on; I
still
which men
"He
very
Their temples are ruins, their priests are
who would
our
the
prayed the Romans, and Jehovah
Hebrews
dead, and
for
Aye,
ages.
death for
come you pray.
all that makes
in years to
immortality when
mortal.'
but the memory of his words
dumb agony round
as mortal speech
is
the arras, nor
wont.
Into the
Death,
me it sank, and I fled from his presence.
whom I had cursed, seemed now a kindly
friend,
who, when we
depths of
tire of
[
26
]
our toys, and
all
our
BEFORE THE WAR
mortal playthings are faded and broken,
little
comes soft-handed to heal
all
with his dreamless
quiet.
"And
yes
within
est gifts.'
In the
He was
a
me my
soul cried out:
'Yes.
Ah,
Death, death and oblivion are God's great-
!
"
fall of
1915 Quentin went to Harvard.
unable to take part in athletics because of
he had had in a hunting
fall
trip in Arizona.
His horse had slipped among the slide rock, and
wrenched and twisted so
Quentin's back was
severely that in spite of constant treatment
never fully recovered.
from
it
He
suffered
it
acute pain
when he took any strenuous form
of ex-
ercise.
Bubbling over with
life,
other phase of college
life.
he entered into every
His taste for
litera-
ture was almost as catholic as his father's,
his
room was strewn with volumes
poetry
—
and
and
histories, essays, novels, detective stories,
At one time he was gfeatly indemonology and witchcraft, and
and epic poems.
terested
of prose
in
[27]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
combed the second-hand bookstores
tomes on
for
grimy
this subject.
Intent on following his line of mathematics and
mechanics, he took
trials
many
difficult courses,
but his
were leavened with a sense of humor that
could not be downed.
27 Everett St.
Cambridge, Mass.
February 14, 1916
To
*'
The Father
of
Quentin Roosevelt"
Oyster Bay, N. Y.
Dear Sir:
—The
enclosed verses were written
by your son Quentin at the end of his blue book
in the Midyear examination in my course. Mathe-
They
pass them
matics A, a few days ago.
capital that I
On
want to
account of his
illness
strike
me
as so
along.
the boy did not do
very well in the
first
knows what he
about, and have good hopes for
is
half year, but I think he
a better showing at the end of the course.
Hoping that you
much
will
enjoy these verses as
as I do (he would probably regard
[28]
my
BEFORE THE WAR
sending them to you as a gross breach of confidence!) I
am
^j
,
.
Very sincerely yours
Edward
V.
Huntington
Associate Professor of Mathematics
in Harvard University,
ODE TO A MATH
'
If it
be not
What
A.
fair to
care I
how
EXAM.
me.
fair it
be ?
"
How
can I work when my brain is whirUng ?
I do if I've got the grippe ?
Why make a bluff at a knowledge that's lacking ?
What is the use if I don't give a rip ?
What can
II.
Cosine and tangent, cotangent, abscissa,
Dance
like
dry leaves through
my
sneeze-shattered
head.
Square root of a^ plus b^ plus k^
Gibber and grin in the questions I've read.
III.
Self centred circles
and polar coordinates.
Triangles twisted and octagons wild,
[29]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Loci whose weirdness defies
Mountains
all
description.
of zeros all carefully piled.
IV.
Still I
plod on in a dull desperation,
Head aching
dismally, ready to sip
Goblets of strychnine or morphine or
How can
I
work when
He made two trips,
in the
vitriol,
I've got the grippe ?
during the
summer holidays,
—
West one with his father and his brother
and one with some Western friends.
Archie,
When
at
home
his taste
still
ran to mechanics,
and he would buy a broken-dowil motorcycle
for
sixteen dollars, or a ramshackle automobile for
fifty,
and doctor
his purchase
up
until
it
could
convey him from place to place, albeit with some
uncertainty.
His parents once suggested that he
and Archie should be given a communal automobile,
but the
latter explained that it
would be
quite useless, for he would
want the car to run
and take him from place to
place, whereas
tin
would spend
down and putting
all
it
Quen-
the time taking the motor
together again.
[30]
CHAPTER
II
THE WAY OF THE EAGLE
PART
In
one
I
—TRYING
spite of his crippled
HIS WINGS
back Quentin went to
camps the summer before
of the Plattsburg
the United States entered the war.
employment
Through the
of unlimited determination
and the understanding consideration
periors he
In his
managed
letters
and
grit
of his su-
to last through the course.
he spoke bitterly of the attitude of
the administration:
February 1917.
I just got a very discouraged letter
We
Hon. Pa.
to
want to
sit
are a pretty sordid
and pan gold into our pockets?
I wondered, as I sat
be, for
by
in our land
it is
my
aren't we,
looking on while England and France
fight our battles
any dreams
lot,
from
my
fire,
whether there are
any more.
How can there
lands like ours, and Germany, that
[31]
—
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
kill
the nation's dreams, and then the people drop
Rome
into oblivion.
dreams and fancies of
lust for ease
wonder
if
we
and
died only
its
people gave
pleasure,
declared
their father for advice
all
way
power and
little
to their
gold.
I
same way
are trending the
When war was
when the
four sons turned to
and assistance
in regard to
the most rapid manner to get into active service.
Quentin
forces,
first
planned to join the Canadian flying
but upon confirmation of the rumor that
an American
flying school
was to be started im-
mediately he decided that he would not materially
speed up his entrance into active service by going
to Canada,
and accordingly altered
enlisted for the
his plans
and
Mineola camp.
April, 1917.
Excuse
this scrawl, scribbled
there's a reason
!
on the
Wild excitement
!
I
train,
have been
put in the aviation school at Mineola instead of
the one at Newport News.
I discovered, after I
had gotten down to the
[32]
station, that there
is
a 1.35 train for Washington
that I could have taken, and so stayed with you
at the Mid. Frol.
12.30 and
However,
I settled
woke up the next A.M.
down
in the
at Washington
with that evil tempered, sandpaper-clothed feeling
of filth which
trains.
cessful
A
is
the trade
mark
of all midnight
bath, and such, at Alice's was a suc-
Department, to start in on a complicated
game
little
of catch as catch can, with the Aviation
authorities.
Their policy
is
"pusson" takes you
in
The
colored
little
tow thru some twenty
miles of stairs to an equally
you a blank.
You
one of mystery.
ask for an application whereupon a
gives
War
remedy, and I trotted down to the
little
rest of
white
man who
your day
is
spent
in taking that little blank for visits to various
dens in the building.
Next comes your physical exam., over which
a hypochondriac with the darkest views of his
fellowmen,
presides.
After
two
hours
a
of
twentieth-century refinement of the inquisition
you are pronounced
your mental
test.
fit,
The
and
travel
on again
presiding deity there
[33]
for
is
a
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
gentleman who
feels like
David,
—or was
—that
all
"What
is
correct
answer should be 37.
average
sex.^^"
men
are
And
liars.
it
Isaiah
the questions:
the average age of the
Dodo?"
"What
the
the
is
but to go on.
It really did take
me two
days to get by
all
the red tape, and apparently I was miraculously
lucky at that.
First his instructors
and
later his pupils agreed
that Quentin was gifted with that sixth sense that
singles out the
ability to
is
in it; it
born aviator.
call forth
is
Some men have an
from machinery the best that
a power analogous to that bestowed
upon occasional horsemen, and
plicable.
marked
even more inex-
Quentin possessed this
degree,
aviators
is
and when the
a very
gift to
first
detachment of
was sent across to France he was among
them, as was his boyhood friend, Hamilton Coolidge.
The two boys had been
at Groton and
Harvard together, they were at the same
schools in France,
and went up to the
aviators'
line to-
gether, serving in neighboring squadrons.
[34]
Coo-
—
become one
lidge lived to
American
aces,
of the
most distinguished
and when he was brought down on
October 27, 1918, by a direct hit from an antiaircraft gun, his loss
and
enlisted
On
man
was
by
bitterly felt
oflScer
alike.
July 23, 1917, they sailed from
New York
on the Ordufia.
25 July, 1917.
We
are apparently to put into Halifax and there
wait for a convoy, goodness knows
.
.
There
.
soldiers.
is literally
long!
nobody on board except
Cousin Katy, and five or
six
extraneous
bob up and down on the smoking
nonentities that
room
how
by way of being very dull, for
shufl3e board, bridge, and reading become boring
in time and even the springs of conversation can
horizon.
eventually be
mighty
one
It's
pumped
Our
dry.
fine fellows, all of
them.
outfit are really
We've organized
of those interminable bridge-games,
and as we
play for a quarter of a cent a point there
much chance
of
any great
is
not
financial transactions
either way, ... a thoroughly satisfactory arrange-
ment
magnifique
et
pas
cher.
[35]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Monday, after I left you I trotted down to the
boat. ... I don't mind confessing I felt pretty
down when I saw the Statue of Liberty and the
New York sky line dropping below the horizon.
Thanks, Mother dear, for the " Lute of Jade."
It
was
just the sort of present that could cheer
When
I
opened
know what
it
was, but
up.
it
that
it
first
made
night I didn't
the most tremen-
dous difference, and of course I love
sitting beside
me
The next
It
it.
as I write, looking friendly
very "family and
letter
home"
me
is
and
like.
was from Halifax, where the
transport was held waiting for the convoy.
I
found a paper bundle in
turned, which mother had
my
left.
cabin
when
I opened
found, neatly wrapped in a napkin,
—a
it
I re-
and
loaf of
bread, lots of chocolate, and a knife, with a note
saying
it
was from Margaret, the cook
expected to find
Mary,
The
my pajamas full of
!
I half
messages from
after that.
long stay here has been pretty hard on
[36]
everybody, for you can't help feeling
it
would have
been much pleasanter to put in a week more in
New York
am
Otherwise I
!
and appalling
existence of a uniform
We've been trying boxing
day
fairly well settled in
for exercise
dullness.
but yester-
one on the nose which
I succeeded in getting
may have broken it. It doesn't
the, so I think he may be wrong.
the doctor thinks
look crushed,
The
sociably
sits
clock"
"little
by
Poland water.
finished
is
my
a great satisfaction and
bed, beside the bottle of
The bread and
and was a howling
Margaret.
for total
This letter
is
chocolate
is
just
Please thank
success.
merely a goodbye one,
atrophy of the brain has resulted from
this long stay.
August 10th
As
where,
—so
we were really getting somefor they promise we will be in by tomorrow,
it
looks' as
if
I shall telegraph
you then.
I
was going to
send this from London, but things are so uncertain
that I cannot be sure
let
we
will
ever get there at
alone be there long enough to get letters
There
is
a chance we
will
all,
off.
go direct to Folkestone.
[37]
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
At the moment
I feel as
would be better than
able,
and the food
is
if
anywhere on shore
She's comfort-
this boat.
O. K., but three weeks
Columbus could have given us a good race at that
rate.
There's really astonishingly
little
going on,
on Shipboard. All the regular ship games and such
like
have died from overwork, and our
ment
when we
betting on
is
wise our
life is
arrive.
chief
.
.
amuse-
.
spent in anticipation, which, though
a great solace, makes but poor reading in a
Paris,
39
Starting
ished
my
Other-
way back
last letter to
mouth
that we were
letter.
—August 18th
Rue
Villejust
at Liverpool,
—when
you we were
in sight of the
I fin-
Mersey, and I had de-
lights at the
of the
cided
just about to go in
when our
destroyer convoy began a lot of promiscuous signalling
down
and round we faced and tore
the channel.
began to
feel
that
I
full
had a horrid moment,
speed
for I
we were destined to take the
Dutchman. I could almost
the smoking room" on board
place of the flying
hear the
"man
in
ship ten years hence, as he told over his whiskey
[38]
—
—
and soda how he once had seen the lost Orduna
grey mist pouring from her rusted funnel, go tearing past
light
—leaving no
wake behind her
ribs of her boats,
showing thru the rotted
and had heard the
—the sun-
rattle of the skeleton soldiers
that drilled on her mildewed decks to the wail of a
ghastly band.
However, Sunday morning at
five
my
dreams
were rudely shattered by the thumping of the
anchor chain and we were in Liverpool.
we were met with bad news.
Alas for
We
pleasant schemes of London.
There
our
all
were packed
into a filthy little troop-train with an engine of a
type once used on the
New York
It
was hard to
land.
really see
*'
we boarded the channel
it
until
I don't feel as
we go abroad.
permission" to go there, for
to go there I shall wait over
to
go home
to you.
if
I should ever
I shall never
if
I get long
have
enough
and get an extension
England
hedge rows are green, and the
[39]
steamer.
had gone thru Eng-
realise that I
Somehow,
and
There after an un-
shot off at once to Folkestone.
eventful night
elevated,
is
lovely tho.
little
The
canals mirror
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
the sky, and
about there
all
a kind of "lots of
is
time" quiet, as tho war were an
and not
cottages
hideous
idle speculation,
The
reality.
thatched
little
and the funny old bridges seem
all
vener-
able apostles of peace.
In France, tho,
it
Even on the
different.
is
run up from Boulogne to Paris the signs of war
were everywhere.
Every
while there would
little
come a concentrating camp
of
some
depot, or a gang of Chinese, or
sort,
German
Paris, so late at night that I, for one,
glad enough to sleepily turn into
drop
prisoners
And
that worked along the railroad tracks.
came
—a food
off,
my
then
was
room, and
too tired to care about baggages or the
frenzied protests of the hotel concierge.
Next morning about eleven
I woke,
and
after
—no more
—reported at headquarters. There
a breakfast of war bread and eggs
brioches et miel
was
None
news.
all sorts of
of our nine officers
are to be used for flying, at least for the present.
The
trouble
of course,
is
that
on a vast
organisation.
A
we
are going into this war,
scale,
and that means a vast
huge American school
[40]
is
to be
built in the central part of France,
an
with
provided
—
has to be
it
and
administration,
officers
have to be trained to take charge of instruction in
bombing,
anti-aircraft,
reconnaissance,
and the
various other highly specialised forms of work.
The net
result
is
that
of our nine are placed
all
in one or another kind of
ground job, and scat-
tered to the four winds of heaven.
morrow
American
the
at
Tommy
where
is
I
care very
ness,
much
which
men
know nothing
as soon as I*ve begun.
it is, its all
for
in the
is
—
near
fairly
—to take the place of Seth, who
has gone with our enlisted
The work
School
I report to-
to a French school.
of as yet.
—
report
I'll
I don't fancy that I shall
it,
tho'.
However, whatever
days run and part of our busi-
to eliminate the
Hun.
I shall prob-
ably have no flying for at least two months,
during
all
Armees,
for I
if
that time will not get into the Zone des
that pleases you.
wanted to get started
over with.
long.
am
I
The
here,
—and
is
I confess
flying,
I'm sorry,
and have
know my back wouldn't
last
it
very
thing that I realize more each day I
how
serious a proposition this
[41]
war
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Back
has become.
how important
get hold of
this
in the states
it is.
some
of
would give
I
them who
it,
—but
realises
boots to
me
that
all
Of course they
someone, Napoleon I think, said
that you can't beat a nation
bankrupting
my
said to
war needed was our wealth.
need
no one
We
it.
by starving
or
it
have before us the task of
driving the Bosche back, and overwhelming him,
and no amount
loom
of talk, of airplane fleets that
minds
large only in the
writers,
newspaper
of the
can remove his presence from before
Paris shows that, for
it is
not the Paris that we
used to love, the Paris of five years past.
but the crowds are
streets are there,
There are no more young men
less in
uniform.
black,
and there
laughing.
in the
different.
crowds un-
is
I
Many, many
realise the
There
know
is
in
no more cheerful shouting and
women have
of the
if
weight that
a
they had seen
something too terrible for forgetfulness.
now.
The
Everywhere you see women
haunted look in their eyes, as
make one
us.
lies
on
all
They
alike
a sobering like no other feeling
in the sight of a
boy
[42]
my
age helped along
the street by someone
bhnd
takes pity on his poor
makes me
It all
eyes.
who
feel older.
Issoudun
—Aug. 20—1917
Monday
night,
I've only time for a very short note, as this
to go
by a truck
After
all
driver
who
leaving for Paris.
is
sorts of excitements,
is
I'm
down
settled
here definitely, with Cord for running partner.
My
job isn't half bad either.
for the
a
camp, which consists principally
fleet of fifty-two
and at the proper
motor trucks
place.
I also
endless supplies of gasoline,
all
jumbled into one vast
ship.
tween
I'm supply
officer
in keeping
in running order
have to look
and
after
tools that are
from the
pile, straight
In between times I act as the buffer beirate
railroad
officials
of
full
jabbering
complaints, and equally angry American construction officers
who would
like to consign the entire
French railroad system to Hell, way
farther on.
busy job
!
I've got
Altogether,
However
its
very good fun
responsibility than I've ever had,
[
billed collect
a reasonably
43
]
—
—in
^lots
more
fact lots
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
more than
Only being out
have
back home.
I'd think of attempting
here, with
no one
else to
do
it,
to, that's all.
We're
Its hard, tho', to realise that its war.
stuck five miles out of a typical
town,
—the old
little
appreciable improvements
less
There
I
officers
!
during
a bath
In fact
—as
we have them,
supply and
—and
went
twenty miles to the nearest river to swim.
seemed preposterously un-war like,
off for
no
became so desperate that
we took to our motor cycles,
quartermaster
isn't
than twenty -five miles
on Sunday Cord and
—with
sanitation
in
the last six hundred years.
tub within
French
tower and Hotel de Ville dating
back to Richard Coeur de Lion's time,
off
we
It
—motor-cycling
a Sunday swim, and then lying on our backs
and watching the sunset as we talked
of the place
that seems pleasantest to our minds
now
Island.
We
—Long
both agreed that we hadn't realised
how much we
we were away. I
think he's been a little homesick down here, it
is a forsaken hole.
However mail gets here, and
loved
it
until
—
apparently
its
equally
quick
whether by
the
Farmer's Loan and Trust or the Military mail.
[44]
had a
I've
letter
from father and one from mother
dated the thirtieth which came in
less
than three
weeks via the Farmer's Loan and Trust.
I
have no idea how long I
afraid
it will
plane again.
be here.
I'm
be months before I even get in a
we would
they came after we had
Both Cord and
our jobs a lot more
like
shall
if
I feel that
been a couple of months at the front.
August 23rd.
I
have been so very busy that
this is the first
chance I have had for a half an hour to write
As
ters in.
I wrote Mother, I
am now
American Aviation School, or rather what
the American School.
am
will
Mother knows where
it is
At
I
the
moment
looks as
it
little
School as anything I have seen.
like
an Aviation
We
have about
two hundred men, and are busily employed
all
get-
the vast equipment necessary to the school
unloaded.
With
here as supply
little
be
not allowed to mention the name.
and
ting
let-
at the
my
usual evil luck I
oflScer,
gifted as possible.
am
a job for which I
stuck
am
as
Judging by the way I have
[45]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
mishandled the ten thousand kinds of red tape
which I have struck,
war
will
I'm
my only destination after the
be Atlanta State Prison.
in the
midst of a tremendous fight with
the quartermaster up the
me
low
can not possibly keep
I also
line,
as he refuses to al-
a motor-machine-shop, without which I
my
trucks in commission.
have been unable to get any sort
Will you ask
reading material.
of
American
Mother to send me
anything she has in the line of books, that
will
—
fact,
keep
me up on
fancy and
what's going on outside
fiction.
You have no
idea
how
thor-
oughly isolated we are out here in the A. E. F.
Eleanor treated
me
wonderfully in Paris.
She
has a really delightful house from the military
viewpoint
—good
bed, piano, lots of room, bath
tub, nice servants
is
the best of
all,
and even a garden, and, which
"family" in the shape of
herself.
Wednesday August 22nd.
Issoudim U.
S. Aviation School
(or rather soon-to-be-school).
I
can truly say now that I
guerre, for in the last
two days
[46]
I
am
a blesse du
have been
in
two
The first one was yesterday. I was on my way over to Nevers eighty
miles from here to arrange about some supplies,
and Cord, who is mess sergeant, had gone with
motorcycle smasliiips.
—
—
me
on
We
his machine.
were passing a truck,
with him in the lead when, for some
he slowed up.
son,
slammed on
my
I
my
the way, but as
side
spill
coming
and every
my
best to get clear of the truck.
thing I remember
is
I
of
brake was locked I could do
nothing so I saw a bully
my
jammed, and
Cord put on power and got out
which way.
tried
rea-
was coming on him, so I
brake, which
down the road skidding
started on
unknown
way, and
The next
on the bank with Cord
lying
and the truck driver pouring water on me and
trying to put
was pretty
on
not
my
well
face,
aid compresses on
first
bunged up
some
loose teeth
much palm left.
luck we happened
By
school
where
Tommy
—and
stop there
I
face.
I
and two hands with
to be near the aviation
is
—we
had intended to
was bundled into the truck
and sent over there to the
up.
my
—a couple of deep cuts
hospital
and bandaged
Then, after about an hour, I went over to
[47]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
the barracks and saw
Tommy,
ing for one of our cars to
very good form, and
an instructor told
would be the
"ace" which
last night
from
come
for
one of his
class to
pretty good, I think.
is
—bringing
all
for
In
is
in
fact,
make an
I got
your
back
letter
—and
off to
my
bed by
the way, those two letters,
Tim and Tommy
you
you but found that
hands were too bad, and was sent
By
He
sorts of messages to
and thanks
started out to write to
the doctor.
me.
flying very well.
me that he thought that Tommy
first
Tommy
is
while I was wait-
—nearly
got
me
—to
into a row.
They were spotted by a customs oflficial, opened,
and read, and I was nearly jailed for life for attempting to bring them in. That en passant.
At all events this morning, stiff all over, and about
an inch deep in bandage, I had to go in town to
see about loading some cars.
As there was no
auto, I went via motorcycle side car,
way
in the
and on the
man who was driving ran into
and shot me out on to my
wall of a house
That time
I reopened both hands
and
hip with a bad cut and bone bruise,
[48]
laid out
the
ear.
one
—so that at
the moment, tho' in excellent form, I
what
I'm beginning to rather
for
am
some-
dilapidated.
smashups.
It
is
like
my
job
—except
quite interesting trying out
how each turns out,
them, and how to size
the different men, and seeing
how
to get the best out of
them
I suppose
up.
it all
down
to us at once, so I suppose
soon have planes.
pretty far
experience.
We are having a hangar
There's some good news.
shipped
makes up
a queer
shall
off.
August
Today
we
At the moment they look
I
my
was at Bourges and had
little
25, 1917.
lunch at
tavern, black with age, that
the corner of an old castle wall.
way hangs a faded
sign,
*Âux
and up by the wall runs a
is
Over the door-
trois raisins noirs,'*
little,
cobblestone, half steps, that
lies in
crooked
called
Rue
—
alley, half
Cassecou.
know you would have loved it, and Madame
who stands at your table, red cheeked and with
I
[49]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
the white cap that the peasant
Monsieur
an hour
that
le
off
cried
proprietaire, cooks the omelet.
my
from
— narrow,
to the cathedral.
all
Dame.
It
is
cluster of crooked little streets,
went
winding
and
It has
jfinally
one square
around the walls are buttressed,
those in Notre
as grey
took
I
work, for there were places
exploration,
for
me
did bring
tower, but
it
wear, while
that might lead anj^where,
streets
I
women
like
surrounded by a
whose houses seem
and ancient as the gargoyles on the tower.
in, for
seemed
like
there was no service.
another world.
Once
inside
There was quiet so
deep that I could hear the patter of the sacristan's
feet
of
as
he came toward me, and the whispers
two old peasant women who knelt at a
shrine in the wall.
come
in
you
It
is
little
like Chartres, for as
see only the
sombre gloom
you
of the
vaulted arches, and then asôu pass on you look
back on the glory
was one window,
whom
of a great rose
—a
candles were
window.
There
—before
—that was so lovely that I
virgin with a veil,
lit,
burnt before her a candle.
I shall
be very glad to get any books that you
[50]
—
At the moment my
can send me.
library consists
works of Gaston Leblanc, father
of the collected
Arsene Lupin, and the "Pageant of English
of
Poetry," and
I
wonder
"The Wind
in the Willows."
you
I ever told
if
my
pet prayer,
almost the only one that I care
written, I think,
by Bishop
It
for.
was
" O Lord, pro-
Potter.
on
tect us all the
day long
earth, until the
shadows lengthen and the evening
of our troublous life
comes, and the busy world
life is
over,
and our work
mercy grant us a
last,
Then
done.
safe lodging
is
it,
and now, when
dearest to
me
is
to think that sometime
that
is
hushed, the fever of
we
will
far
Thy
life is
away,
I've al-
hard, and
all this will
all
a comfort
it is
be past, and
have peace.
August
You know,
day that
in
and peace at the
through Jesus Christ, our Lord."
ways loved
that
is
there are periods
I ever learned French.
[
51
]
when
I
28, 1917.
I curse the
am
one of the
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
two
officers in
my
side of
camp who can
talk
work
regular supply
so that out-
it,
I get sent off all
over the country on wild goose chases after ma-
with nothing but a rather limited French
terial
vocabulary to go on.
Last Saturday was one,
of the others.
six in
I
—and
was sleeping
the morning
—
it's
most
typical of
a log at about
like
good and cold then, too
when someone grabbed my foot and shook it,
to wake me. I turned over sleepily, and with
one eye open, remarked that tho' I didn't know
who the Hellespont it was, I extended the hoswas
on
any spot outside
of
pitality
in
And
it
out of
my
tent.
There
and then the person went
a sort of pause,
an apologetic way, "I'm Major Hyles."
was
!
Of course that woke
my warm sleeping bag
into
me
clammy
and found out what the matter was.
apparently, a
motive,
—for
pump, a
switch,
up, so I slid
clothes,
He wanted
and an extra
loco-
which I was to scour the country,
and not return empty handed.
That being the case
—
cycle
it
was the
first
I
hopped on
day the doctor
[52]
my
let
motor-
me
ride
my
since
—and
accident
disappeared, breakfast-
Twelve o'clock found
less,
into the scenery.
at a
town about 30 miles away,
tired
me
and dusty
with over a hundred miles to the bad, and no
success.
However
and
having seen several regiments of
after
things began to look better
M.
le
Chef de Sections, and Chef de Districts^ I got the
engine and arranged to have five trucks over
at eight the next morning for the switch.
pump
Of
however, there was no sign, until I found
one in the barn at the back of a manufacturing
company's shops, and then I started back,
re-
ported in town to the captain, and came out here
to
my
tent,
about 9:30,
all in,
and with pleasant
prospect of getting up at six in the morning and
going over with the trucks for the switch.
September
My
hours
longer.
work
have
been
getting
5, 1917.
progressively
I start in with six o'clock breakfast
till five.
Then
I go over with
[53]
and
Cord to the
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
French camp to
fly,
which means that I don't
get back to bed until between nine and ten.
a mighty long day,
We
all
Its
—
and the work's tiresome.
are arranging for the storing and unpacking of
—and as ranges from rock
—and has to be
an invoice from the
—stored
the equipment,
it
crushers to flash lights,
checked with
listed,
all
states,
according to classification and then cross indexed
in a filing system, I
am
as
busy as several hivefuls
of bees.
Then on top
think I'd do
relieved
much
of that there's flying
if it
from
which I don't
He
weren't for Cord.
his quartermaster job,
has been
and so hasn't
Consequently he has arranged that
to do.
he and I go over to the French school and
We
flew twice with instructors,
alone,
—as
They
(except
aren't
chines
much
for
the
and then went
controls)
different
the
ma-
from the Curtis.
are as safe as an auto, as safe really as the
old Curtis.
All this doesn't interfere with the fact
that a seventeen mile motorcycle ride, a
and then back by night aren't very
fact
fly.
my
flight,
resting.
In
back just about quit on me, so I struck,
[54]
a
and
this afternoon called off
washed and shaved (though
reason to over here
work at
five thirty,
no particular
there's
!).
September
6, 1917.
Last night, just after I had finished writing to
you, a tremendous thunderstorm struck us.
was
in bed,
that
it
—dozing,—and luxuriating in the fact
was half -past eight and I was
to sleep,
all
—when a regular cloud burst
Inside of five minutes
my
tent
ready to go
hit the
camp.
had become the
housing for a very respectable water course,
fact
which I discovered when
some
of
I
my
clothes.
it
I hastily
started to
—
wash
off
moved everything
above high water mark, and then turned over to a
sleep,
punctuated by leaks, and one
water-soaked dog, that fled to
In the morning our
sea of
gumbo mud.
my
visit
bed
from a
for refuge.
camp had settled into a
down to my office for
I got
work, and after a strenuous two hours succeeded
in getting six of the trucks
The
out onto the road.
others were buried axle deep in
[55]
mud, and so
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
we
them
left
Consequently
dry weather.
for
my
—
day was peaceful interrupted only by the arrival of a French general, described to me by my
supply sergeant as "a French admiral, or something, all dolled
ing after
P. S.
up
you out
evacue
Next morning
A.M.—And
6 :30
fell
become a water
—alas
who's a jabber-
there."
blew and the rains
tent has
in gold lace,
the winds
and the centre
course,
and alackaday-de
—
^so
!
now
my
of
I
am
an
rained
It's
all
night
September
7.
There's been a temporary cessation of work
due to flood conditions so I have a chance to write
to you.
I
have never seen such a place
It started in last night just
for rain.
about the time I got
to bed,
and poured, beginning with a thunder
storm.
I settled in for a comfortable sleep, as
tent didn't leak,
when
water course across
my
I noticed the beginning of a
my
tent floor.
time to put everything up on
began to come through
in
my
I
just
trunk when
dead earnest.
[56]
had
it
I don't
mind a
bed as a geological formation, but
river
I can't say that I think
much
of
it
as a resting
place.
This morning when I woke up there was about
an inch of water everywhere, and I had the pleas-
damp
ant job of getting into
precariously on the edge of
down
my
to
oflSce,
found another
clothes while perched
my
When
cot.
I got
and supply department,
The
flood.
I
roof leaks in about
seventeen different places, and the supply staff
were clustered around the few Ararats afforded
by desks and
wasn't
tool benches.
much work
ahead, for the trucks are
mired down so deeply that
the
most
enthusiastic
wouldn't try the roads thru
about an hour of work on a
fixing
up
for
We
down onto the
all
would be almost
all
and
So, after
this.
filing
file
road,
motorcyclists
of
system we are
our tools I had to give
rain spattered
calling it
it
them out to the
impossible to even get
even
Consequently there
up, as the
it
cards,
a day and writing to you
and
I
am
instead.
are really beginning to get settled in here
in spite of the weather,
and I think we
[57]
shall over-
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
come
that, for I
am
going to start building cinder
roads as soon as the weather clears enough, to
get
my
they
will really get
the school
and then maybe there
The
stead of tents.
trucks,
I
trucks thru to the railroad tracks.
and sheds
started soon,
itself
be barracks for us
will
trouble
for tools
much more important than
and so they have to come
hope
in-
that garages for
is
and equipment are
sheds for mere men,
first.
I have gotten in a certain
amount
of flying
over at a French school, some seventeen miles
from here. I go over there with Cord at
when the work
half
an hour's
is
over here and
I can't
flight.
five thirty
get in
do
about a
very often
it
am having a certain amount of
trouble with my back, and I don't want to have
it give out on me while I am still supply Officer.
About every third day I call my work done at
though, for I
five thirty,
and
settle
until eight thirty
to a
book and a pipe
bed time, and so
I don't
pretty well.
down
know when
I
I
make out
am
going to
be put regularly into flying service again.
afraid that
it
I
am
won't be for some time, to judge
[
58
]
by the way
things are going.
I haven't
Still,
got Ted's point of view, and I'm certain
I'm not in the
in in plenty of time.
I'll
least afraid
that the war will be done before I've had
whack
at the Bosche.
get
my
have to go up to Paris
I
on business next week, and I hope I
shall get
a
chance to see Arch and Ted then, for Eleanor
thinks that they are going to try and get back en
I won't
permission.
have much time
for
them, as
I have to get vast quantities of parts for motorcycles
and
trucks, but I
am
going to stay with
Eleanor.
sound from the States
I haven't heard a
for
over a week now, so I suppose there must have
been some mix up
in the mails at the
have gotten two
came by way
My
is
me
in the end, though,
from Eleanor that
of the military
becoming an
all
Post
Office.
fingers are getting so cold that typewriting
call it off for
to
Office.
letters
I suppose they will get to
for I
Post
illegible
attempt, so I shall even
the rest of the day.
the family, and thanks for
Mother
all
Lots of love
your
^
dearest, from,
letters,
QUENTIN.
[59]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
39 Rue de Villejust,
September
Just last
13, 1917.
Monday the Order came thru that Cord
and I were assigned to the
Aero Squadron, and
1st
then to report there at once for
I could
flying.
my
not leave, as there was no one to take
as supply officer.
However, I did
Paris at once, as there were
I needed for
my
all sorts
start
place
up to
of things that
supply department.
It
seems to
be an interminable job getting things here in
France, so I shall probably be up here with Eleanor
As a matter
days more.
for several
of fact I
was very sorry to leave the supply department
just at this
moment.
I
had expected to leave
it
about three months
later.
As it is I leave just
when I was beginning to get things running well,
and when I had really become attached to the men
that were under me.
When
sergeant he said nothing at
then *'0h Hell,
sir,
can't
I told
all
for
you take
my
supply
a minute and
me
with you to
?
that outfit " which I thought was pretty nice of
him.
However
I
had to do
[60]
it.
I rather think
that
I
if
the job,
had wanted to
—
^but it
time
this
meant that
it
being stuck with
it
busquS occupation.
become the
outfit
I
had stuck
If I
it.
was running the
risk of
permanently, a sort of em-
And
so I
am
changed, and
juniorest of junior lieutenants in
composed mostly of regular army
Still
I get
that
I'll
back to planes again
—and
it
changes
feel
means
rather like an embusquS,
it all.
an
fliers.
probably see service fairly soon.
beginning to
this
have stayed with
I could
wasn't worth
I
was
—but
I rather think we'll first
be
—
down where Tommy is, and so I'll be able to
get hold of him. As soon as I get with the squadron
give you
I'll
One
all
the news of
rather amusing thing happened
because
it
was so typically American.
mandant where we were
war dog, with a
The
it.
is
—amusing
The Com-
a regular old French
string of medals across his chest.
him give a great
roar of laughter, and so naturally I asked him
what was amusing him so. It appears that he had
other day at dinner I heard
admired a dog belonging to one of our captains,
whereupon the captain,
—a
[61]
long,
scrawny
indi-
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
vidual with a strongly American sense of
and
humor
delightful blue eyes with a concealed twinkle
in them, explained to
the dog was
him
all right, yes,
in laborious
French that
but that
mother had
its
"plus de medailles que vous n'en avez,
mon com-
mandant."
Paris
is
as delightful as ever, tho' I have been
—
much of it, at least of the
when we go here after the war.
too busy to see very
parts that we'll see
Most
of
my
goings and comings have been in
obscure garages and warehouses with addresses
like 14
Rue Roger Bacon and
64 Quai de Billy.
29 Avenue du Bois de Boulogne
September 15th, 1917.
Eleanor originally had a bad cold, but she has
succeeded in passing
It
—
went out
is
as
for a spree last
dinner at Premiers and then a French play.
was a
farce,
the darndest.
ing
on to me, now, and
We
bright as a button.
night,
it
by the end
and "I give you
I
my word"
it
was
was perfectly weak from laugh-
of
it,
but scandalous
[62]
is
no name.
I shan't
even say anything about
after a
off
morning
it
—for
you
Then today,
couldn't retail the plot to anyone.
an afternoon
of business, I took
and went shopping with Eleanor.
We
started
out rather prosaicly with heavy woolen underclothes, slippers
and a pair of boots. Then Eleanor
decided that she wanted to give
a birthday present.
warm
me
a wrapper for
I voted against a heavy,
one, because I felt that everything I have
over here was practical and suggested preparations for
a long stay in uniform in the
we went
to Liberty's
the material for
—a
blue one at home.
*'
after the
and
I got
silk one,
It
—or rather chose
rather like
may be
my
pet
a bad plan to do
war" shopping, but
I
want on
birthday to have things that remind
and not
So
field.
me
my
of peace,
of this war.
September 20, 1917.
Thursday.
I don't
who
mind
says he
is
so
much an out and
out slacker,
afraid, or unwilling to go,
[63]
but I
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
hate the one that gets a bullet-proof job in the
Red
Cross or Y.
M.
C. A., and then proceeds to
talk of "doing his bit."
Monday
all
afternoon I arrived back here again,
prepared to leave at once for the First Squad-
The Major met me at the station, and on
the way out in the car began talking to me about
Colonel Boiling's visit he was down at camp.
ron.
Suddenly he
said,
— "I
—
gave you a darned good
recommendation to him, but why are you chang-
You
ing to that other outfit?
for you're getting
some
experience you've gained
you've done here,
is
don't gain much,
flying over here,
and the
the supply
in
work
worth twice what you can
get out of the job of plain flying lieutenant."
Of course,
it
was a big surprise to me,
upshot was that I agreed to put
nel,
—Colonel
Boiling
American Air Service
is
it
—
^but
the
before the Colo-
command of
To my surprise,
second in
in France.
he agreed with the Major.
He
said "the only
reason I was transferring you was for the flying
if
you are getting your
flying here, stay
[64]
by
all
You have
means.
this one,
—
first place,
apparently
was to give you experience.
you, I should stay, for
more
in a
made a good job of
down in the
and the reason I sent you
man's favor
it will
if
If I
were
count a good deal
he has made a good job
of something like this supply position of yours,
than
if
he has merely flown as junior lieutenant in
a squadron."
After that of course I stayed, especially as he
promised to put
me
in
a squadron at the front as
soon as they got started sending them up there. I
am
glad in a way, for
now
I
know
I shall not be emhusqued here,
quite attached to the
for certain that
and
men working
I
had become
for
me.
Five
them came round, when they heard that
I was going to go, and told me that they were very
or six of
sorry to hear
it.
My sergeant asked me to get him
transferred into the outfit I
was going
—
made me feel quite well, a lump
throat, if you know the feeling.
really
Last night,
—or
to.
It
in
my
rather yesterday, I received
orders to have trucks in to receive about
hundred men, coming from one of the
[65]
two
ports.
I
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
got the trucks and went with them myself,
to be on the safe side.
till
I sat
—just
around the station
midnight, for the troops were being sent in a
freight train,
which was late
train appeared,
and when
officer,
who should
outfit,
just arrived.
it
went up to greet the
be but Phil Carroll, with his
I nearly collapsed, out of
combined surprise and
after business
was over,
the news of
Long
all
I
Then the
of course.
Of course,
satisfaction.
made him
I
tell
me
all
Island.
September 30th, 1917.
Sunday.
Today, being Sunday, was inspection and so
when
it
was over
country.
It
is
I
went
off to
look around the
glorious weather now,
—the roads
bright and dusty, with flurries of fallen leaves
whirling across them,
and that
feeling in the air
which says, despite the golden countryside, that
autumn
is
passing fast into winter.
I
wandered
little
farm houses,
nestling close to great stacks of hay,
and pleasant
where the roads lead me, past
[66]
—
—
fields
where the Httle boys ran out from their
me pass, and the sheep
sheep to watch
disapproval,
—
past
little
dogs barked
towns, barely more than
a cluster of houses, with their weather worn
little
church, and cobble stoned streets.
The afternoon was passing, and I was begincamp once more, when I came
ning to think of
upon a somewhat
larger town,
—over whose roofs
And
came opposite I stopped to look a minute.
It had been
an old chateau, gone partly to ruin, and round
it had grown the town,
where its front must
I
saw an old tower
rising.
—
—
—
have been was a
Lion Noir."
so, as I
little
The
old
inn, with the sign
arch
was
still
where the knights went out to battle
past,
all
—and
I could see through
it
bright in the afternoon sun, with
and back
of
the windows,
them the
—and
as I looked, out
have some beer,
route.**
there,
in times
a courtyard,
little tables,
old wall with flowers in
rusted
iron
came the inn
apron round him, to know
grande
"Au
if
I
gratings.
And
keeper, a great blue
would not stop and
"car vous devez avoir soif sur la
And
so I
came
[67]
in
and
sat in the
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
courtyard, watching the pigeons wheel and circle
back to their nests
had
roof
fallen.
I
where the tower
in the holes
was told
all
about the old tower,
into
—how was
very
—but now
—save where was used for the inn,—even
ruin,
fallen
old,
old,
it
it
the great stairway, whose rafters I could trace
along the side of the walls, was half gone.
so Monsieur said,
he called me,
coming to
it
"on y
est hien,
fight for
go,
yet,
cher*\ for so
—
—I was
was time to
mon
But
"wow cher" an American
France. And then, at length,
and
I
put
my hand in my pocket
—when Monsieur stopped me with "non,
Arguments
non, non, —
ne faut pas faire
we parted, — and just
were
—and so
to pay,
ga.'^
il
finally
useless,
as I
was going he brought out a
snuff box,
and offered
I loathed
it.
turn, with
my
me some,
And when
friends,
little
black brass
which I took, tho
I left he told
and
visit
him
me
to re-
again.
October 8 and 10, 1917.
The flower I'm enclosing is mimosa. I don't
know if it will keep its perfume, but it's too lovely
[68]
Yesterday the Major and an English Cap-
now.
who has been
tain
bay to a funny
reformS sailed over across the
bit of
little
a fishing
village.
mimosa there
There's the most glorious grove of
—part of the grounds of the parish church.
all
in
bloom now, golden yellow avenues
a heavy sweet scent that
fills
the
of it with
was a
It
air.
down
hot afternoon, with no clouds overhead, and
in the grove, with
no noise
Its
of the outside
world
except the trickle of a brook and the clatter of
an old peasant woman's sabots as she went up
and down tending the
far
away and
bordering
it
No
unreal.
seemed to be of
winding street
trees,
one in the village
The
this century even.
is
were
the war seemed very
made
oyster
low, white
little,
with overhanging eaves.
except for a few old
of
shells,
—and
washed houses
The wharf was
men
tiny
in the big,
deserted
patched
trousers they wear here, that look like bloomers,
—and
where the sunlight came thru the open
doors you could see the polished brass candlesticks
floor,
on the mantelpiece, warm red bricks on the
and children playing
[69]
in the sunlight.
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
It
was more
like
than a real place,
and
flying,
with
We
camp.
a page from a sketch book
—and
all
utterly apart
from war,
the hurry and noise of the
stopped at the inn
—
it
was a com-
bination of inn, general store, social centre
took oysters, for which the town
is
—and
famous, while
the old proprietress chattered around and to us
like
She told us that
a nice, motherly old hen.
the Ancre dÔr, that was the inn's name, had been
in their family for over a
men
hundred years,
—the
fishing while the women-folk ran the inn.
Then, after complimenting her on her oysters
at which she
beamed
all
over
bobbed "aw
revoir
"And
Samuel Pepys
so," as
The autumn
is
messieu"
bright with
nights.
its
in
the
"To
doorway.
bed."
two weeks
and the country
of
side
brave resistance to the frosty
cliffs,
its
—with here and
—or a chateau on
and crimsons,
there a clump of somber pines,
the sky.
while she
All along the road the trees are showing
brilliant yellows
the
left
said,
well here, often
dismal, chilly rain and mist,
is
—we
towers in sharp silhouette against
The fallen
leaves swirl
[70
1
and dance among
the eddies of white dust along the "grand routes,"
—and
everything and everyone seems to be
ing hfe to
its fullest
long winter nights set
exquisite,
is
villages,
else
—
in.
The Loire country
chateaux, and funny, ancient
little
that round the ruins of some
bustling
modern
contrast strangely,
cities
—the
like
street
castle, or
Nantes,
cars
of
narrow winding
Aviation
all
its
net
alleys in their midst.
November
During the
—that
and broad
asphalt streets, with the old castle, and
work
liv-
before the dreary dark of the
Camp
1,
1917.
few weeks I have been chasing
last
over the lot and so haven't had any chance to
write
you and
my
to that
tell
you the news
last letter,
Added
you by a
of myself.
which I sent to
transport officer two weeks ago was unfortunately
delayed.
I found out to-day, just
by
accident,
that he was in the hospital as the result of a too
protracted spree, and that his ship had sailed
without him, so I shall have to go back into the
dim distant periods
ago to
tell
you
all
of the past over
that has happened.
[71]
two weeks
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
In the
first place,
I was sent
away from here
with orders to go down to one of our ports of debarcation and take charge of a lot of
Hudson
touring cars which were to be taken overland to
Paris.
course
this
I got
it
down
there in great spirits, for of
was a regular spree to get away from
camp
for
about a week wandering
France in a brand new touring
car.
over
all
However, I
found when I got down to the port that things
weren't going to be quite as easy as I had thought.
In the
first
place the cars weren't even unloaded
from the boat, and there didn't seem to be much
chance of
my
getting
them
stevedores were crowded
off for
weeks, as the
up with work.
After
one day I decided that particular place was no
sort of location for
for
some way
of the ship
merchant
me
so I began to hunt around
to hurry things up.
The
proved to be the solution.
ship,
She
is
a
taken over by the government
for the transport service, with the
chant captain.
captain
He and
I got
on
same old merexcellently
—
^he
came from Arlington, Mass., which was an instant bond in common, and so I ended up by living
[72]
on the boat, and using the
and
to unload
crew and winches
ship's
my own men
to get the cars out,
so that they were out on the dock in three days.
I
my own
had
me
to take
we got them assembled
in short
truck
charge of them so
men down
with
time and in four days were out on the road again.
It
was a
delightful run up.
and then up the valley
little
All thru Britanny
of the Loire.
"presink" for you which I
home by
the
first
person.
It
I
am
is
have got a
going to send
a very cunning
little
enamel cross that comes from Herve Kiel's
town,
—do
Loire
is
you remember?
really lovely.
The
valley of the
I hadn't realized before
lovely France was, for our region, though
pretty,
is
it
is
very monotonous, with nothing except
the perpetual run of farm houses
become accustomed
to.
—which you soon
The Loire
different, though, for it is
of the
how
valley
never the same.
is
all
Part
time you are driving high up on the crest
of the hills, with the Loire like a silver thread
down below you, and the
country,
"pleasant
France," spread beneath you with no hint of the
war that
is
raging in the North, or again you drop
[73]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
down
little
sky.
into the valley where
you can watch the
towns and chateaux silhouetted against the
I
saw so many places that
and investigate and
couldn't,
I
wanted to stop
—^funny
little
towns
where the street winds around between houses,
and under the ruined
the houses cling, or
walls of the chateau to which
little
grimy
inns, '^Les Trois
Raisins Noirs^* or "le Cheval qui Boite,"
which I
am sure had all sorts of
all of
nice things in
them
However, we could only stop very occa-
to see.
sionally for meals,
and so
I didn't get
a chance to
do much more than see the country as I passed
thru.
on the second day get a chance
I did however,
to stop off at Chartres
cathedral.
I
and burn a candle
in the
had no idea that the road went
thru there, when
all
of a
sudden I saw
off
on the
horizon the towers of a cathedral and thought
that
it
must be
while the
the cathedral.
we were
there,
So I called a
halt,
and got lunch
I
that.
men went
off
Do you remember
—when
find out about the
I
and
went
in
the last time
was so busy trying to
window, and we went out with
[74]
Goodness but that seems ages and
Mr. Thoron ?
However, I
ages ago.
finally got to Paris,
and
arrived in on Eleanor out of a clear sky, to find
myself a very welcome guest as she had been
The next morning
feeling very lonely.
to headquarters
and then went back to Eleanor's
to get over the last of a slight attack of
of malaria that I
When
later I
I
I
had contracted
be taught the supply
course I kicked.
work
for
sort
reported to headquarters two days
had the most horrid blow.
from
some
in the run up.
was slated to take a detachment
afield
I reported
flying
me.
It
oflScer
I found that
of fifty
men
job in England.
to
Of
seemed to be
getting too far
up
in the supply
and too
However
I
far
had no success and went
down to Issoudun again feeling rather low about it.
Once down here however, I found that Jim Miller
didn't want me to be taken away and after much
telephoning to Paris I think
that I
as I
am
am
to stay here.
it
has been arranged
I shall
know to-morrow
going up to Paris again.
As a matter
job here.
of fact I
There
is
am
going to have a bully
one of the squadrons here
[75]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
that
is all
disorganized.
It got over here
under
who was a poor bone head with no idea
of how to get on with the men and the result is
that there is no sort of morale to it at all. The
men don't care whether they are out in the guard
an
officer
house or not, and they are in a frightful
And
state.
yet they come from the same place as our
crowd and are
me
what I can make
to see
good
really exactly as
they are going to put
command
in
of
I
it.
am
stuff.
So
of it here,
much
very
away with it it means
a very big step toward getting my own squadron
to take out in the spring when we start sending
pleased, of course, for
I get
if
our squadrons out to the front.
It also
nice for they were very nice to
said that they
refer to it as
I can
my
it.
I
am
me
I get
back from
everything works
rather
me when
they
on, though they do
I don't care, for I think
going to get about five of
old crew transferred to
when
If
make
would put
a dirty job.
is
it
and then
start in
Paris.
all
right I
am
to stick here
until they get the other fields working, for the
plan
is
to have five fields working within a radius
[76]
of ten miles,
am
and
move over and take
fields.
The idea is
then to
charge of one of the outlying
that they put one squadron in each
and at the same time get
plete its training
working in together before they send
front.
It sounds as
bully chance to get
officer
though
it
I
am
out to the
it
away from any
taint of supply
flying
end
am Commanding
hundred cadets and forty
do
their work,
about the cadets.
lieutenant.
time,
In the
is
first
there's
really
command and
And
all,
it
all
then, too,
all
the
am
the
any complaint
for
takes
of
I
called
about
have to
—that
no job
—
place
—or rather should take
clusion of flying.
to
It
if
is
I
officers.
—and most of
one the Colonel hops on
8, 1917.
It includes
work properly,
see that cadet affairs
officers
what
Officer of
the Headquarters detachment.
six
in the
very cheerful.
December
1
it
were going to be a
and to get back into the
right way.
and com-
field,
it,
it is
a flying
all
of
my
to the ex-
pretty hard
discipline thirty nine other first
[77]
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
lieutenants
when you
same rank and
are of the
only a few months sooner.
have been working
I
nights on the thing trying to get
it
organized,
then stealing a couple of hours off in the
The real trouble
fly.
I suppose
where.
ence,
—but I
feel
a
it
is
that
can
little
it
all
as
doesn't get
day to
me any-
be classed as experiwere just "one more
if it
dirty job.'*
My
one,
commanding
—
tho',
officer
now
my
is
old Mineola
which helps, for he says he
will let
me get away as soon as they start sending any
men out to the front. At the moment, tho', it
doesn't look as
any
if
couple of months.
sent
up
in
of us
What
I
would get out
am
chance there
is
am
am now
my
These
to be
work, and enjoying
home
the cockpit for
this
how much
What one
At
army.
all
plugging along from day to day,
little fast
feel so at
not sure
for anything like that.
wants so rarely happens in
doing
is
a
a British squadron some time toward
the end of January, but I
events, I
hoping
for
in
my
flying.
machines are delightful.
them, for there
you and your
[78]
is
just
controls,
You
room
in
and not
—
And
an inch more.
not like piloting a great lumbering Curtis,
Its
for
you could do two loops
the time
now,
pretty generally,
if
teen thousand.
it.
muffler
Do
any
I try
my
teddy-bear,
—I freeze
ceiling work.
If its
some cold up about
it is
fif-
Aviation has considerably altered
views on religion.
stand
in
Its fright-
those aviator suits,
call
down below
freezing
Even
tho*.
what they
thats
a Nieuport during
in
takes a Curtis to do one.
it
fully cold,
my
then they're so quick to act.
I don't see
you remember that
you made me?
how
the angels
delightful grey
Its very soft, either
gora or camel's hair I think,
—and
is
now
An-
doing
yeoman duty bridging the gap between the top
of
it
my suit and the bottom of my helmet. I think
is bringing me luck, too, for I am flying much
better,
now
that I wear
it
am wearing just
'round my room now, and
of fact I
able
next four months or
I
As a matter
about everything mov-
every day.
had an
plane.
I
so.
exciting time
was taking
wheels clear
when a
expect to for the
two weeks ago with a
and had
off,
bit of
mud
[79]
just got
my
got thrown against
—
!
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
the propeller and broke
it.
One
of the pieces
went thru the gasoline tank and before the wheels
were really down on the ground again, or before
I even
had a chance to cut the switch, the whole
thing was in flames.
my
safety belt, got
it
I
made a
undone, and
plane on the doublequick time.
taken
me more
I got out,
my
wild snatch at
slid
out of the
It cant
have
than thirty seconds, and yet when
boots and pant legs were on
fire.
As a matter of fact, its marvellous the amount
you get away with in these planes. Two fellows
in the last week have gone straight into the
ground in
vrilles,
totally wrecking the plane,
and yet neither one
one
of the
feet, hit
seriously hurt.
is
The worst
two came down about three hundred
the ground so hard that he pushed the
engine back where the rudder bar should be and
the rudder bar under the seat,
He
break any bones.
in three
of
will
weeks they think.
bad cuts on
his face
stove-in chest.
of shooting
a
—and
yet didn't
be out of the hospital
All he got
is
a couple
from the wind shield and a
I've decided that nothing short
man
or breaking a control
[80]
is
fatal
—
December 16
Here goes
for
a very long
of news, for I've just
posed to take
an
to
officer
is
on one
know, and
and
my
is
letter, full of all sorts
met the man who was suphome. He was
last long letter
whom
of our ships,
I
back in Paris now, for
happened
his ship
my letter were sunk. As a matter of fact, this
the
first
chance I've had to write for I really
have been busy.
At the moment
tho' I
am
con-
fined to bed, the result of a mild attack of pneu-
monia.
I
had had a cough
for a
month, which
I'm
sorry, for I've
suddenly developed into that.
lots of
work to
do,
—but
its
a rather pleasant
rest.
To
my
begin 'way back
work
—after
back from
of taking cars to Paris, I found that I
had another job waiting
command
I got
of a
for
me.
I
was put
in
squadron in quarantine for mumps.
They had been under a bad CO. and were pretty
thoroly disorganized.
I had Ham Coolidge for
my second in command and two other very nice
fellows from out West. I followed the Brushwood
Boy's principle of sweating the fat
beef on. First I put in
off
'em and the
two days making them clean
[81]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
out their barracks, and
things
fix
up
generally.
Then I took them out and drilled and hiked until
I know I was good and tired so I rather think they
were.
It
worked
like
a charm, tho', for after about
two weeks they were
all
the American of the mechanic class
fine specimen, I think.
Really,
in fine shape.
You
a pretty
is
see all the mechanics,
labor, has gone into the aviation
—the
—so you do get a good crowd. At events,
ser-
skilled
all
vice,
just about the time I
had got them
really going,
another reorganisation hit us.
That has been the trouble
Service.
The
first lot of
all
along in the Air
regulars that they sent
over here in the aviation weren't
were mostly
useful
men who had
enough
much.
made themselves
keep them. They
not
in the States to
got over here, and found that the reserve
who had been
They
sent were a far
oflficers
more capable crowd.
Then, instead of turning in and trying to work
together as far as possible they tried to buck the
—
You see, nearly all of them the regucame over here as captains, and as
lars I mean
they are now either majors or colonels, they've
reserves.
—
—
[821
gone promotion wild.
They have been hanging
on, trying to prove that the reserve officers were
We
had about three months
of that,
and then, thank heaven, Washington
realized
useless.
what was going on, and sent over a complete new
organisation.
(The
letter at that
Major Goldthwaite,
roof off
This
that.
I
am
me
have
moment was interrupted by
who came in and blew the
is
continued two days
being allowed to read and write again.
good
as soon as
so,
down again
for letter writing
be kept in bed here until I
is
my
am well
am to
the trip safely, and then
a two weeks* sick leave, when I
nor in Paris, and get
We
have now got a
all fixed
real
[83]
up
man
my
tem-
The medico
of doing anything at all for ten days.
for
was
I
thought I was
I
and reading.
on that scheme, tho, so to-day
make
and
a while, a good deal sicker
than I thought I was, and
perature began to go
like
later.)
just started to really convalesce,
really quite sick for
sat
do anything
for trying to write or
first
I
day
am
to
enough to
be sent up
shall see Elea-
again.
size organisation
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
over here now, and
here, for
made
has struck our school
down
we now have my old Mineola K. O. He has
the most tremendous difference to the place.
He was
responsible for
Just after he
is
known
tho.
here, when they made the new
made me commanding officer of
officially as
tachment.
That
some
officers.
fifty
my last change in job,
came
organisation, he
what
it
what the cadets
the headquarters de-
and
consists of all the cadets
You
are, as
probably don't
no one back
know
in the states,
including the war department, seems to have any
The
very definite idea about them.
was
that, as all fliers were to
be
ing students should be cadets.
too,
—I wish they'd had
for I'd
it
when
have gotten a hundred
stead of forty.
forth that
all
Then some
At
all
original idea
officers, all fly-
Its a
I
good
was at Mineola,
dollars a
month
six
in-
events the edict went
students were cadets.
lunatic got the idea that there
a crying need for pilots over here, that
ready for
idea,
was
we were
hundred students a month, and
some other pipe dream, so they started shipping
over untrained cadets by the hundred to France.
[84]
Of course we have no earthly means
of coping
with them, and never wanted them in the
What
place.
getting construction gangs
if
this school will
by next June,
What
back
let
first
we have had
with the troubles
in
and materials, I doubt
be ready for
six
hundred
alone six hundred a
pilots
month now.
is
more, and what they didn't seem to realize
in
Washington, we are an advanced school,
and have no
sequently,
facilities for training
we have now about
Con-
beginners.
six
hundred non-
flying cadets here with nothing in the world for
them
to do,
and apparently no chance
flying in the next couple of
The
told
Colonel,
me
I
of their
months.
when he put me
in
command,
was to try and get things straightened
out as far as possible, and then
on the
make a
detailed
I started in
and
found I was up against a most tremendous
job.
report
The
state of things.
cadets had no organisation at
all.
They
were being used for guard duty, and nothing
and there
of
is
men than
tions,
else,
nothing more demoralizing for a lot
doing guard under frightful condi-
and nothing
else.
I started in,
[85]
and
after
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
two days, sent
in
a report as long as a presidential
men be detailed
that arrangements be made to
message, asking that more enlisted
to relieve the guard,
ship off cadets to preliminary schools
and that
if
if
possible,
there were any vacancies for non flying
commissions in the
air service,
they be issued to
cadets on a competitive examination.
Then
I got together the ojBBcers,
and picked
out six assistants who I knew would work and
were good fellows, and arranged that the seven
of us
be excused from regular flying formations.
Thus we could work
at the cadets and tuck in
our flying whenever we had a spare moment.
Then we divided them up
two hundred and
into
some
non-fliers,
fifty
fliers
—and
them
fifty fliers,
unofficially
as
we have got them working
out fairly well, tho
its
I
situation at best.
—known
lick
Outside of the
I now have one hundred and
the flying fish
listed
and started to
sort of military shape.
and twenty navy
should
into organisations of
a pretty unsatisfactory
know
if
feel justified in kicking,
I
if,
were a cadet I
after being en-
because I had a college education and was
recommended by
all
sorts of people as
[86]
good avia-
was used as a guard
tion material, I
camp with
tion
for
an avia-
the prospect of flying in four or
months.
five
The doctor has come in and ordered me to lie
down again, so I must stop. I have been a perfect pig about not writing more, and from now on
you
a vast change in the news from me,
will see
for I
have loved your
writing
home makes me
start looking at the
system.
I
that flying
I wish
is
that
you
it
The only
up
—an impossible
entirely,
Curtis wallow along thru the
is
new machines.
after watching a
air.
in again.
Lots of love, and
I'll
write again as soon as
^
QUENT.
I'm out of the hospital,
^
December
I
of
am
it
We can do stunts that
see them.
you would think were impossible
The doctor
and take
really satisfactory thing is
wonderful fun on these
you could
trouble
is
war as a whole,
have given
day by day.
The
get gloomy, for then
letters.
18, 1917.
in the hospital, the result of a mild case
pneumonia.
You
around here thru
I
see,
mud and
[87
1
have been
cold,
trailing
and draughty,
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
month with a tremendous cold and cough. About three weeks
ago it got pretty bad, but as I had lots of work
on hand and no one else that I wanted to do it,
About a week and a half ago
I kept on going.
unhealed barracks for the
began to
it really
last
me, and I turned into bed
hit
one night with a fever of one hundred and
There was no place
has
still
in the hospital
elementary sides to
slightly
stayed here in the
officers
—our
camp
and so
it,
my
barracks in
four.
I
room,
under the charge of one of the doctors, being
fed
by the Red
I
wilson.
Cross,
embodied by Miss Given-
was pretty
sick for a couple of days,
but now I'm well on the road to recovery.
soon as I
am
well
enough I
am
to be sent off on a
two weeks leave to recuperate, which I
with Eleanor at Paris.
I
As
will start
have written father a
may be
long letter just yesterday, so some of this
repetition.
I
am
rather sorry to have to leave for so long
just at this
moment,
as both
other job are very interesting.
lots of
war
left to
go round for
[88]
my
flying
and
However,
all of us,
my
there's
I'm think-
I wish
ing.
you could see the
over here, though, for
it
Mineola educated eye.
When
I
wondered why every
is
flier
flying
we
are doing
a revelation to the
I first got over here
was not
killed within
of his flying.
Now
changed so far the other way that I
feel as
the
a
first
man
into
three
months
I
have
though
could hardly drive one of these machines
an accident, short
of completely losing his
head.
We have had very good luck so far on this field,
and tho we have had a good many pretty nasty
smashes, no one has been killed yet, or even per-
manently injured.
make
us do
considered
tion flying
all
tom
is
And
yet the French monitors
the wild flying stunts that were
fool tricks
back home.
Forma-
They send about
the prettiest, tho.
seven machines up at a time, to practice squadron
and formation
flying;
vol de
It looks fairly easy, too,
groupe they call
it.
but when you get up in
the air trying to keep a hundred and twenty horse
power kite
in its position in
a
V
formation with
planes on either side of you, you begin to hold
different ideas as to its easiness.
[89]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
I
am
rather tireder than I thought I was, so I
shall stop,
and write to you soon again.
QUENTIN.
Friday, Dec. 28, 1917.
Obviously on the train.
I did not write
till
today, for even tho' I was
with Eleanor, Christmas was ghastly.
first
in
It
was the
Christmas I had ever spent away from home
my
•••••••
life,
•
and there was nothing to help
it
out.
At the moment, I am bounding south to get
some warm weather. The prospect is discouraging.
I stayed in Paris as long as I could, with Eleanor,
ordered out by the medico.
At the
minute two of Eleanor's workers got
sick, so
and was
last
finally
she couldn't come, and I
am now
gloriously en-
sconsed in one of those gilded horrors that the
trustful
Frenchman
considers a
'^
wagon
lit,'*
try-
ing to persuade myself that a temperature cold
enough to make one see one's breath
vacation.
**c''est
a pleasant
I suggested a little heat in the car, but
the cold hearted lady
that
is
la guerre,**
who
sl
rules the car informed
fact of
[90]
which I was
al-
—
!
ready dimly aware,
—and then retired to her
little
stove at the back of car.
I think I
have at
away from that
last
managed
beastly camp.
to pry myself
had
I
ar-
it all
ranged that I was to go up with an R.N.A.S.
squadron, and just at the last
moment
was sat
it
on by headquarters, on the grounds that
not part of their scheme.
was
it
Their scheme
—Off the train and at Marseilles
The
trouble with their scheme
that
is
come
gains for a vast development, not to
height of
its
his
bar-
to the
power until next August at the earliest,
my
and, unless I miss
do
it
bet, the
Bosche
is
going to
very best to finish the war, and incidentally,
the Americans
now
in
in the military sense,
hunch that within
six
it,
is
this spring.
fairly close.
And
spring,
I've got a
weeks or so things are going
to be just about as hot
up on the front as they
have been since the Marne or Verdun.
And, con-
sequently, I rather hope I shall be in a French
squadron within three weeks.
I
would have to
have ten days machine gun work at Cazeau, but
after that
L. of
C,
—Anyway, I'm dead sick of being in the
to
all
intents
and purposes as much
[91]
of
an
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
embusce as
camps
I change
at
Once
the front.
easier in
or
,
—
There's one thing
.
all,
after Cazeau,
îf
be for
it will
I have got there I shall feel a lot
my mind,—^for it
will
and
I left you, pretty soon,
be
six
for all I
months
since
have done to
help the war I might have stayed at home.
I wish you'd
the Hon. Pa, that
tell
the big bugs happen to be talking of
darned shame
if
they cut out
fliers
General Pershing cabled advising
aviation
him,
Headquarters
—but
all
because the
that
man
it
in
is
it,
any
—
of
a
its
extra pay.
because the
very wrong with
make us the goats
up made mistakes. Both
does
higher
it,
if
British
and French pay
British
68%,
is
their fliers extra,
—the
—while we only get 25%, which they
want to take away.
And
easier
than the infantry,
pilots,
and the number
it's
not true that
—look at
the number of
of casualties.
"January
7, 1918.
Next day we took an afternoon off,
wanted to go to Notre Dame des Victoires.
always intended
it's
to, for it's
for
I've
the church to which
[92]
I
all
|
—
the poilus go just before they return to the front.
It really
first
is
You come
quite thrilling.
can't see very
much, as
and at
in,
there's semi-darkness
Then as your eyes get accustomed you
can make out the people. There were no lights
inside.
except at the altar,
—which was ablaze with can-
Eleanor and I each
dles.
went back to
sit for
a
lit
our candle, and then
moment and
was no service going on;
it
was the middle
and yet the church was
come to pray for victory.
afternoon,
full of
—
We
all
There
watch.
of the
people,
sat for a
while and then, gradually, I began to distinguish
things,
—for the
brightness of the altar only em-
phasized the gloom around.
in cases,
around the
were rows upon rows of medals,
d'honneur, croix de guerre,
recognise,
and old
All
—in
flags,
and others
walls,
legion
I did not
some there were crossed swords,
—
all
given in thanks for victory,
and safe return from the wars.
January
After
all
cussing, I
15, 1918.
the excitement, and worrying, and dis-
am
on
my way
[93]
back to
my same
old
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
know how long I shall
camp.
I don't
I don't
know anything about what
stay there,
is
going to be
done with me, and nobody
else does.
finally given up, in despair,
attempt to squeeze
any
all
have
I
definite information out of the casual
The
that constitutes our headquarters.
mob
future
is
crammed with any number of possibilities, most
I shall know a little
of them highly discouraging.
more by to-night, when I have seen Ham and
Cord, so
I'll
either write
you again or lengthen
this.
Of course I hated leaving Eleanor's to come
back to the same dingy old camp, where
cold, wet,
and muddy most of the time.
Eleanor has been so very
what a trump she
really got to
is.
know
nice.
During
You
I'll
be
And then,
know
don't
this last long stay I
her quite well,
—and we had a
very particularly nice time playing around and
Poor thing,
sorts of impossible things.
doing
all
—
hard being so near and yet so far from Ted.
it's
And
then, the time
dangerous work
Why, why
is
when he
will
begin his very
coming very near.
don't the people at
[94]
home
realise
—
what
before
lies
them?
have been reading the
I
papers from the states lately, and
it is
painful.
Our
policy seems to be one of verbal camouflage.
The
little
sit in
tin-god civilians
have never been
German
strength,
how
choose to
I
is
—and
about our own strength,
They've
all
things go over here,
deliberately
lie,
saw one
lie,
easy, for they
touch with the realness of
inexcusable.
is
ports of
them.
in
—which
that
fossils
Washington seem to do nothing but
about German weakness,
which
and army
official
and
seen the re-
—and yet they
publicly,
about
statement about the
hundred squadrons we are forming to be on the
front
by June.
over here,
—
it
That doesn't seem funny to us
seems criminal, for they
will
expect
us to produce the result that one hundred squadrons would have.
that
all
The one comforting thing
the rest of the services are as badly
is
off.
There's one good thing about going to the
front
of
—I
shall
my own
be so busy worrying about the safety
neck that I shan't have time to worry
about the way the war
I only
hope
I'll
get
is
going.
up there soon
[95]
—
it
seems
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
such a solution for
get clear of
fill
up
life
all
the
little
behind the
worries and jealousies that
if
—
you are
all
the others arrange
And
fighting.
then, I
—
owe it to the family to father, and especially
Arch and Ted who are out there already and
feel I
to
and you have only the
lines,
big eventuality to face,
for themselves
You
of difficulties.
all sorts
facing the dangers of
to get out myself.
it,
January 17th, 1918.
Things have cheered up a
wrote you.
to you, because I
into
my
one's
it
was.
And
so I wrote
now, however, I have gotten settled
job.
So
I
is
nothing so narrowing as
have
religiously resolved to
look at nothing but the immediate future.
course I
to forget
I
was discouraged and writing you
work, and there
own
last
knew they would. This place is a
to come back to, and I knew that first
day would be awful, and so
By
since
I
squalid hole
helps.
lot
know how bad
it all is,
it for this little
space.
[96
1
Of
—but I'm trying
My
shown
leave has
Just before I
was
left I
Now, however,
I
am
its
my
effects in
flying.
really doing very badly.
flying really pretty well,
it
has become fun again, not work.
I
am now
If I
and
keep on as
I shall be ready for the front in three
weeks, and then I hope I shall be able to get out.
Of course
it will
to the front,
—
be at
but
least
still it's
a month before I get
encouraging to think
The scheme now
^by us I mean
I'm getting appreciably nearer.
is
to put us
Cord,
up
Ham and
for six
all
our crowd who have been work-
Then,
ing here at the school.
—we
will
months
thoroly and
we
I
if
we
are
still
alive,
be taken back here to work behind the
lines, for six
the
months, —
lines.
It's
will
fighting will use us
up pretty
need the rest of work behind
a good idea, and perfectly true,
—so
have firmly decided not to get shot down dur-
ing
my
first six
months.
before I have a second
This letter
written on a
Cord.
We
is
!
I
hope the war
is
!
scrawly and scratchy because
little
over
wooden bench while
it is
I wait for
are going to dinner tonight and have
had about fifteen
different delays.
[97]
"
I rather expect
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
to go out to one of the outlying fields pretty soon,
and
as
Cord
move over
is
in charge of one, I
am arranging
to
So IVe been doing a good deal
to his.
of tearing around.
Camp
a good deal the same as ever,
is
that meaning
muddy and
thaw has contributed
ever, it
I
makes
A
dingy.
largely to the
mid-winter
mud.
altitude flying a lot easier
have to do a
five
—by
Howon
thousand meter altitude
us.
test,
so I speak feelingly.
•
I have loved
all
Same Old Camp, January
your
22.
and only wish
letters,
there were something I could do about the ones I
write.
I
know they
uninteresting, but
are unutterably dull and
somehow,
I don't
seem to be
able to write interesting ones, principally, I suppose, because the things I
much
different,
planes
we
any
I
of the
doing are not very
except as far as the types of
are using, from
what
is
being done at
camps at home.
am very
flying.
am
busy at the moment
finishing
up
my
I at last succeeded in getting permission to
[98]
^
-^
<
do nothing but
have to be on
at
I
all.
The
as the doctor said that I
fly,
light
duty
result has
if
I
went back to the camp
been that for the
have flown practically
all
my
still
week
am now
to finish
field
combat work and group
chines of a type that are
last
the time, and
going to go over to Cord Meyer's
with
would
flying
up
on ma-
in use at the front.
have a bully time, and tho I rather
I expect to
hate to be doing nothing at
all,
yet there
is
a
when you aren't feeling
know that you have no earthly
glorious sense of relief,
very well, to
responsibilities except keeping
when you
I
had rather a hard time with
week, thanks to having been
do
your neck intact
are flying.
my
acrobatics,
which
my
flying last
sick, for I
had to
rather scary even
is
when you
are feeling thoroly
I hated to
have to get into a machine and go up
and do
in
my
stunts, for the
acrobacy
one that they
is
a
As
I wasn't
work they give us here
certainly
call
fit.
They have
wicked.
glissade that
thing I have ever run into in
is
the fastest
my life. You
bank
your machine up perpendicularly and then with
[99]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
your motor turning up at about three quarters
speed, so as to keep the nose of the machine up,
you sHp perpendicularly down toward the ground.
Its far faster
haven't got
than a straight nose dive, for you
all
to hinder you.
down
my
the head resistance of the wings
I got into
it,
three hundred meters, in
back, and, as I was
all
and
it,
coming
after
got over onto
mixed up as to
my
whereabouts, didn't have the slightest idea of
where I was or anything.
I got
down
to within
about a hundred metres of the earth before I
finally did get
I will
be
my
over onto
all right
now
right side again.
tho, for I
know how
to
do the various stunts, and I won't feel that I
have to do things
I
am
I don't
know anything
about.
going to get to work on them again next
week, and get them perfected, for even tho you
don't use
all of
them on the
front, they are enor-
mously valuable, because they give you absolute
confidence in your machine, and teach you
to get out of
any kind
of difficulty
how
you happen
to get into.
I suppose things are sliding along at
[100]
home
in
their usual slip shod fashion,
how
getting our things ready to
of effort
is
a
and that we are some-
make some
toward becoming a factor
sort
in the war.
It
discouraging to us over here, though, to
little
pick up a
New York
paper and read a statement
that the Production Board has put out saying
that the work toward getting a fleet of two thou-
sand and ten thousand
fliers
gressing very rapidly.
Considering the fact that
all
at the front
is
pro-
our flying for the next spring and early sum-
mer
will
have to be done on French made ma-
chines supplied to us thru the courtesy of the
French government, I wish someone who knew
the truth would get up and say what liars they are.
I suppose that they consider
it
satisfactory
have the two thousand planes by the
The French
fall
we
of 1919.
how much talk
what we said. They
are beginning to see
there was in a good deal of
grant us only one thing, good material.
rest,
if
For the
they are turning back again and making
plans to count on us at least six months later
than they had expected from what we promised
them.
[101]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
In Camp, January 23, 1918.
Again a long gap betweeu letters;—I'm afraid
that I have lost
my
former faculty for writing
Somehow, when
letters.
have any time to
I
myself, I always seem to either have
some
sort
of official correspondence to write, like letters to
the adjutant general's
plain tired out,
office,
dull, uninteresting,
am
or else I
and know the
letter
just
would be
and probably gloomy.
As you may gather from the heading, I am
in camp again.
I left Eleanor's just a week
back
ago.
I could
weeks longer,
I
ought
to,
have stayed away on leave
—Major
Goldthwaite told
for
me
two
that
—but just at that moment Warrington
came back with the news that Ted and Arch were
going up very shortly, so I decided to take a
chance and go back here as I was in order to get
my
training finished,
and get
out.
So I trotted
back, and arrived as usual, in a pouring rain storm.
This
is
really the
run across in
men
muddiest country
my life.
I don't see
don't turn into frogs,
[102]
why
I
have ever
the French-
by natural
selection,
after a thousand years of
is
However, the camp
it.
beginning to really get whipped into shape.
The flying training has become more or less routine,
and the construction
is
about half
I got back, I was
marked
light duty, so I
was relieved
flying,
Naturally,
something
that I
When
unfit for anything except
of all duties other
which was what I had been working
than
for.
percent, for
finished.
you
my
flying
can't fly
else at the
am moving
improved about
fifty
and have your mind on
same
The
time.
result
is
out to the perfedionnement
school to-morrow, and in three weeks at the out-
have finished
side, will
to go for
front.
my
my
flying
and be ready
machine gun work, and then the
The French machine gun course
at Cazeau
takes about ten days, so I think I can count on
the front in a month, for they have promised to
send
me
I shall
out as soon as I
ready.
have a very good time
weeks too, for the
Cord Meyer.
that I
am
am
to
field I
am
Consequently
move
as I get there,
in
for the next three
going to
it
is
all
is
run by
arranged
and room with him as soon
and generally have a good time.
[103]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
We
have evolved a system
for giving ourselves
a good time when we are not working that goes
a charm.
like
are the
very
little
off,
fighters,
and consequently
So we have arranged when we have
fast.
a day
All the planes over at that field
monoplane
—and unless there has been bad weather
during the week, there
is
no
flying or work, other
than the necessary inspections on Sunday,
go
He
on voyages.
off
—we
takes his plane, and I
take mine, and
we go off to some one of the French
landing
within a hundred or so miles of
here.
fields
It
tise, for
good fun, and also good
the more time you get in the
you are
I
is
off,
I
have just
don't
finished
It
more days
the better
like that.
had taken an
my
up
acrobacy, doing
I
hope I don't get many
To
begin with, the day be-
altitude test, going
up to four
thousand metres, and staying there for
minutes.
I did
it all
right,
fifteen
but thanks to having
just gotten over being sick,
rather,
it
was rather strenuous, and I
mind saying that
fore, I
air,
have decided.
one day.
all in
flying prac-
it
got to
my
lungs
and I picked up a bad cough and had
[104]
that I will
The doctor says
probably be that way for a month
more, but as
it
rather a hard time breathing.
and
I
doesn't bother
me under three thou,
won't have to do any ceiling work
now
until
I get to the front, I don't particularly care.
The doctor
just
happened along, and as
I
am
not
supposed to stay up after 9.30 at the moment, has
packed
me
off to
I shall write again as
bed.
as I get over to the other
the family, and
dear,
"un bon
field.
soon
Best love to
all
baiser" to you, mother
from
r\
QUENTIN.
Romorantin
January 27, 1918.
I
am
over at Cord's
any luck
—be ready
two weeks.
field
now, and
these
of
—^with
for
my
machine gun work
After that
it's
a question of getting
myself grafted out of the school
can manage.
will,
The
new machines
flying
is
in
—^which I think I
wonderful, tho', with
I don't like
it,
from the point
view of personal comfort, for the motors are
much
harder to manage.
[105]
You have
the same
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
—practically, with one hundred and twenty
some reason the
horse instead of eighty, — and
plane,
for
one hundred and twenty motor
to keep running.
It's
is
very easy to
much harder
when
stall it
you're doing stunts and almost impossible to
catch
Generally a stalled motor means
again.
it
a landing wherever you happen to be, with these
thing that makes up for
The
birds.
power you
astonishing rate,
A
delles.'*
about one,
You can
get.
it,
is
the
climb at the most
—and do perfectly wicked '*chan~
—in case I haven't told you
chandelle,
a steep climb in a vertical turn.
is
very hard to do
do
it
well,
It's
wonderful fun when you can
and most important
for fighting
when you
am practising a lot on all of
them,
get out there.
I
and getting
about three hours flying a day,
in
about
you can comfortably stand.
which
is
As
I'm always glad when I get into
it is
sleeping bag,
all
and
settle
down
my ancient
for a night's rest.
In camp, on the 29th of January.
Such a funny, and rather a pleasant thing has
happened,
—
all
at once to-day I got a whole lot
[
106]
I think they
of packages in a lump.
been missent, or
else held at
At
some mistake.
(This,
of things.
all
must have
the Post Office thru
events there were
by the way,
all
sorts
being type-
is
written under difficulties, as I have the typewriter
on
my
Then
knees,
and no
light
worth speaking
of.)
there were also three books from you, which
They were
I loved.
detective stories, the last
I'm wonder-
one being the Black Eagle Mystery.
now whether you have sent any others, and
hope you have. They really made me quite homeing
sick, for there
was a
sort of undefined presence to
them, as of father in the
I
catchall.
when
I
am
them
and then the
forwarding them on to Eleanor
have finished them,
appreciate
train,
quite as
for I
much
know
as I do.
The
get any of that sort of thing over here.
we can do
Eve. Post,
adequate.
in the line of
home
reading
—and even that at times
is
she will
We never
is
best
the Sat.
rather in-
So nearly anything, no matter how
common it is over home, is a novelty here.
send me some more books, or magazines, or
thing from a blue Ribbon Garage
[107]
bill
Do
any-
up, for I
a
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
very
much
Garage
appreciate the ones I have got
bills.
At the moment
wanted
to do
flying.
I
am
am
I
doing what I have really
along which
all
is
at the last stage now,
formation flying now, which
is
finish
my
up
and should be
We
finished in about ten days, or so.
after
—not
are doing
a revelation to you
They will detail
go on a reconnaissance, make a plan of
what we did back home.
two men to
a camp
that.
from here, or something
fifty miles
Then they
will detail
another five
like
men to go
along in patrol formation acting as escort and protection against
fly
rather the
second
At
men
first its
Boche
way
In formation you
patrols.
geese do, in
V
shape, with the
just higher than the leader and so on.
rather scary, for
together, but once
you have to
you get over that
it
stick close
begins to be
amusing, for you have to watch your plane and
motor
all
the time without looking at them,
mean is that you
watch the other men so as to
rather Irish statement.
have to be able to
keep your place in
manage your
plane.
What
—
line,
I
and at the same time
We get the most tremendous
[108]
amount of
hours and a
flying
in a day, for I did three
in
half yesterday,
and over four hours
to-day.
I have been having a continual fight with the
doctors, tho,
trouble
is
The
and incidentally with myself.
much flying
the time. The
that I have been getting in so
lately that I
am
tired out
most
of
net result was that I collected another cough, as
my lung wasn't quite fixed up.
I
had been
feeling
my
rather poorly, but I was pretty anxious to get
flying done, so I
I
was keeping on.
Then
to day,
dropped over to the main camp to see Ham, and
was caught by Major Goldthwait.
there
first
thing he decided, after looking
me
The
over,
was
that I had measles, because I had a cold, and a
temp, and there was a suspicious rash on me.
finally
turned on the other tack, and said that
was low, and that
thing
for
it,
if
me
week.
I
persuaded him out of that, and then he
I
was very
I didn't look out,
to go on
I don't
likely to get
and do no work
I
am going to
109
]
for a
do about
for I certainly can't quit flying for a
I
some-
and ended with orders
light duty,
know what
my vitality
week
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
right now,
when
am
I
In the
finishing up.
first
place, they are getting ready to send a couple of
squadrons up within a reasonably short time, and
I
am
going to have a hard enough time anyway
trying to get myself a place in one of them.
think I shall wait and see
In the mean time I
hour of eight
thirty,
things turn out.
am going to bed at the noble
which means that there won't
be very much more to
now you
how
I
are getting
this letter.
my
I
hope that by
letters regularly again,
after
my lapse from virtue, —I have posted them to
you
in a variety of ways,
by French
mail,
and
military mail, so I hope they have started to
arrive.
I
am
enclosing
some snow drops that
at
much
of Oyster
Bay, and hunting for the
out in front of the porte-cochere.
they
will
mail
is
to
show
indication.
that, even
if
I
At
all
first
so
one
I suppose that
be out by the time you get
any
I found
They reminded me
Romorantin.
over
this, if
my
events, they go
have been very bad about
writing, there are places I
would rather
persons I would rather see, than the
[110]
be,
and
AEF provides.
Give
my love to all the family;
I
am writing father
Goodbye, and un bon
to-morrow.
from,
haiser,
QUENT.
•••••
February
•
We
all
went over to the funeral
fellows that were killed.
and so
was
1918.
•
of those
flying
The
I couldn't tell so well.
two
above
coffins
it
were
soldiers,
and one
French sent out from the French post.
Then,
escorted
of
I
3,
•
by a platoon of American
flying just above,
in
and
crossing
it
was
really beautiful to
watch them
and recrossing over the cortege
smooth right-angled S
they were lowering the
pilots,
They are marvellous
the larger machines.
pilots,
ful
were two of the French
Then, just as
turns.
coffins,
in beauti-
another Frenchman
dropped down in a long swoop, his motor almost
dead,
off.
five
—dropped a wreath on them, and then swung
All the time
we were up above,
hundred meters,
in formation.
formation, two "V's" of
round
till
ground
it
it
was over.
flying at
about
We had
a ten
five, circling
round and
They say that from the
was very impressive,
[111]
—
for there, being
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
two
buried, were
fellows
flown with a few days before,
and over, the planes
known and
and round them
we had
circling,
—
all
paying a
last tribute.
It takes away some of the bare horror that
the two
little
twisted heaps of wrecked planes and
You
twisted motors leaves.
after
all,
we
realise that perhaps,
don't entirely, like the boche, "put
our trust in reeking tube or iron shard."
Soon
after being detailed to Issodun
met the Normants who were living
and instead
of
i
Quentin
at Romorantin,
having one "marraine," he found
himself with a whole family, grandparents, parents,
He
and grandchildren to accept him.
ways referred to the Normants
in France,"
and was devoted to one and
their friendship
to Quentin
as his
and
al-
"Family
all.
What
and unfailing hospitality meant
Ham
can never be estimated.
Only those who have experienced the wholehearted generous kindliness with which French
families greeted the
Americans who went over
to serve can begin to realize
[112]
what
it
meant.
—
Romorantin
Sunday, February 16, 1918.
Friday afternoon, we got orders over at our
field to
have eighteen men ready to go out
in
a
squadron the next morning.
Of course when I
heard that, I thought "at
we've got our
camp
to see the Colonel
and get permis-
sion to go out with that squadron.
absolutely,
"I'll tell
that
sent so
front.
yet,
all
you why
going out
is
I
through kicking he said:
do
merely a
is
is
That squadron
that.
sort of
political
move,
an organisation to allow
breakage and spare parts.
is
refused,
we can say we have a squadron at the
They haven't even got machines for them
—or any
them
He
—and of course I put up a tremendous
After I'd got
kick.
first
So I went hotfoot over to
squadron going out."
the main
last,
that they will
What
move out
will
into a
for
happen to
camp
that
not yet finished, up in the zone of the advance,
—and
then
sit
there for a month, until our or-
ganisation can take care of them,
probably form not the
first
[113]
when they
will
squadron, but the
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
finishing school staff of the zone of the advance.
I
am
going to keep you back here for that reason,
but I
will
do
this.
I'll
send you out to the front
as soon as Meyer gets back, and send you out in
a
real squadron, either English or
French."
So you can imagine how cheerful I am.
Cord
ought to be back within two weeks, and then I
get sent out in his place in a real squadron, with
real
machines, and
men who know something
about the game. I rather think
—cheers!—
in
about two weeks
be a French
it will
squadron, as I can talk French.
At
all
events,
have stopped
I'll
being embusque Quentin.
Things are also rather amusing over at the
field
now, for besides the eighteen, twenty more
were taken out, to be used as instructors, and to
learn bombing.
Consequently, I have only seven
students now, so you can imagine
flying I
am
arranging for them.
It
how much
is
the
first
time that I've really had enough planes to do
what
I wanted, so I
stunt flying
have.
others
I'll
am
giving
them
all sorts of
and formation work the others didn't
bet they're better pilots than any of the
when
I get thru with
[114]
them.
And
all
the
am
time, I
working on
the calendar
I took
We
and watching
flying,
Cord comes back.
till
Ham
my
me
over here with
have been intending to do
Sunday.
this
for
it
a long time,
and now that he is plane tester over at my field,
I can take him out, on expeditions, as I am in
charge of
amount
all
it
—
if
you can look over
your shoulder and see some one
else sitting
machine just over your wing-tip.
in his
would love
it
over here,
bully time.
We
bathroom to
ourselves,
zation again.
Its
sionally hurling
—and he
is
I
up
knew
having a
have a great big room, with a
—and altogether,
now
10:30 A.
finished breakfast, so I hear
mendous rumpus
had any
more amusement
it's lots
touring the country in a plane
Ham
We
the planes over there.
of fun doing
in his
some
it's civili-
M. and we've just
Ham
making a
tre-
bath next door, and occa-
insult at
me.
February
17, 1918.
SAME OLD CAMP
Its
and
been quite a long time since
all
sorts of water has flowed
[115]
my
last letter,
under the bridge
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
since then, but I
against the discouraging
am not sure when my
fact that I
please excuse
got your
am up
if
last letter was, so
In the
I repeat.
first
place, I
together with ones from father
letter,
and Ethel, and was particularly glad to get them,
especially yours, for
it
hasn't been pleasant being
under the ban, however well deserved
been.
We
it
may have
haven't had exactly a mild winter
ourselves over here, though
as
it
must have been on
L.
I.
it
hasn't been as bad
After one frightfully
when we had snow all the time, and
flying was most unpleasant, we had nearly a month
of delightful weather, almost like spring, but now
the weather man seems to have had another recold snap,
lapse,
and
all
the winter clothes and fur lined boots
have come out again.
Its rather of a bore,
am
now
doing
I
because with the work I
have to get in a
lot of flying of
the most uninteresting sort, where I merely take
out a patrol of
them
so
men and
try to lose them, or get
mixed up that they can't show on the
map where
they have been when they come
again.
means about two hours
It
[116]
down
of straight-
away flying, with nothing in the world to relieve
the monotony of it except twisting about, and
trying to find some part of the country within
a radius of seventy five or eighty miles that I
have not already investigated.
Its not so
bad
when the weather
sit
back
your
is
warm,
for
you
in
and let the controls loose, and think of
when the war will end, or what Long Island would
look like now, or some other pleasing fiction. But
plane,
now, there
cold.
is
Either
always some part of you that gets
its
your forehead, or one finger
or your feet; but whatever
your mind
off
it is, it
tip,
serves to keep
any more amusing thought.
You
try your hardest to project yourself out into the
fields of speculation,
you
find yourself
and always
after a
few seconds
back up against the one
dis-
gusting truth that that particular finger or what-
ever
it is is
cold.
February 21, 1918.
Letter No. 1.
I'm at the moment indulging
satisfactory
feeling
of
in the not over
knowing that I've done
[117]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
what
I ought to
what was
have done, even tho'
pleasantest.
being permanently
months
—that
of
is
for the next three
—stationed at Paris,
to deliver planes to
You
the various depots.
aeroplane industry
tories are there.
testers,
wasn't
it
was given the chance
I
who
is
see,
Paris,
the heart of the
—for
all
the big fac-
Consequently, we have American
and
receive the planes, test them,
then accept or reject them.
If
they are accepted
they have to be flown to their various destinations.
I
was to be
in charge of that particular branch,
and to arrange
for the deliveries.
would be
It
wonderful fun, of course, for I'd be flying
all
over
—out to the front as well as to the various
France
schools behind the lines.
tain
amount
trouble
for
a
of
is, it's
rest,
his nerve.
There would be a
good experience
a job for a
in
it,
too,
man back from
but the
the front
—or one who's had a bad crash and
It's
no occupation
never been to the front.
And
it
down,
regretfully, of the
in Paris.
I
to get a job testing, tho', for I think that
[118]
lost
me who have
so I turned
and I've been thinking, rather
good times I might have had
for
cer-
would
is
like
valuable
I don't think there's
work.
A
tester
is
can't call a
man
planes to see
if
a slacker whose job
they're strong enough,
enough to stand
built
much chance
never an embusque, for after
is
of that.
you
all,
testing
and
well
Besides, a tester
service.
gets wonderful flying experience, for he
flies
all
kinds of machines, and, in case he gets a machine,
that is what the French call " malregle," he has a
sample of what flying at the front
slight
may be
with part of your controlling surfaces shot
like
away.
So, I
am
still
rather amusing
what
I am.
my old work here, and having a
time, for I am not exactly sure
in
I feel a little like the song, "
Governor General, or a hobo,"
of all headquarters, can
status
is.
I
am
make out
hanging on
like
I can get sent out to the front.
my
just
what
my
grim death, until
Once
I
have had
three weeks or so with the French or English,
I will
but
Am I the
—for no one, least
have some sort of a foundation to base on,
till
then,
I'll
probably remain an
oflficial
mys-
tery.
In the meantime, I
am getting in all kinds of fly[119]
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
and
ing,
amount
the same
I think, accomplishing a certain
in the line of training the
new men
at
Yesterday I took a group of ten
time.
ofif
for
They all had their maps, and
the object was to make them keep formation
and at the same time make out from the map where
a reconnaisance.
they are going.
by way
liven
cale,
it
It's
good practice
of being dull for me,
up by doing a couple
and generally
that for
about
fooling
for
—so
of virrages a la verti-
round the sky.
five minutes,
—
my
more or
less
en route, and then looked around
tail
for the formation,
which should have been follow-
ing above in two nice "V's" of
were scattered
I did
always keeping the
general direction I was going, but
wagging
them, but
I thought I'd
all
five.
Instead, they
over the landscape like
I
flies.
stopped doing everything at that, and flew in a
straight line, so that gradually they formed
again.
Then when
I got
the matter, and found that they had tried to
low
my movements.
Of course,
possible, in formation, to
and
I told
them
so.
up
back I asked what was
it's
absolutely im-
do anything
like that,
I've also been polishing
[120]
fol-
up
—
my
acrobacy a good bit
lately, so that I
can do
it
without thinking.
February 23, 1918.
No. 2.
Not much news
sad
heard
this time, except
one rather
Al Sturtevant has been shot down.
bit.
He was
from Bob Lovett.
it
I
patrolling,
doing seaplane work, when he had the bad luck to
run into a squadron of Bosche planes, out on some
Of course he didn't have
sort of reconnaisance.
a chance.
They shot him down,
—so thoro'ly that
even the plane was totally destroyed, and sank.
Poor Al,
—he's the
knew and played round
—there's
that bunch
first of
with, that
no better way,
—
if
is
whom we
gone.
Still,
one has got to
die.
It solves things so easily, for you've nothing to
worry about
it,
and even the people
whom you
how you
way he went,
leave have the great comfort of knowing
died.
Its
really
very
fine,
fighting hopelessly, against
the
enormous odds,
then thirty seconds of horror and
[m]
its all
—and
over,
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
for they say that
on the average
it's all
that length of time, after a plane's been
PART
II
—TRAINING
over in
hit.
FOR COMBAT
March
I
am down
at Cazaux,
it's
where they teach
the Chasse pilots machine gun work,
From what
ing and very valuable.
7th.
about half the game in "chasse"
is
it is
interest-
I can gather
good machine
gun work.
It has
down
nice
been really a kind of vacation to come
here, for although
and warm and we are
living in a big
summer
was awfully nice about
still
we work
keep
my
eligible to
pretty hard,
it's
right
on the ocean
resort hotel.
The Colonel
it
too, for
he said I would
status on the flying staff
go out next in
line
and be
with a French or
British Squadron.
Our own
They train
affairs are
pilots
going along about the same.
and send them up to depots at
the front and then leave them there with no planes
to
fly.
You
will
get
all
[
of that
122]
from General Wood.
!
One thing that is making trouble is the fact that
we seem to be a door mat for G. H. Q. and the
Line. The first they got us on was cutting flying
pay when every other army in the world pays
Then the new service stripe
their flyers extra.
regulations came out, and we got it in the neck
—
again.
In the aviation section one has to be six
months
in actual
stripe; that
combat at the front to get a
means that a mechanic working near
the front and bombarded every night has nothing
to distinguish
him from the Washington embusque.
A pilot has to last six months and they hardly ever
keep a chasse
some one
like
testing planes
pilot
Ham
up more than
Also,
three.
Coolidge for instance,
who
is
back at the school and doing dan-
gerous work gets no credit and yet
we
kill
on an
average of one a week at the school.
There,
my
wail
is
done
March
7, 1918.
Letter No. 6
General
as he
is
Wood was
out here yesterday,
leaving very shortly,
[123]
is
—and
going to take these
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
So, as this will get to
back with him.
ably a good deal before
To
to repeat myself.
my
last few,
you probI'm going
begin with, I'm at Cazaux,
at the French ficole de Tir Aerien.
They teach
you the machine gun side of chasse work.
I was
by Colonel
Kilner,
very strongly advised to do
—as he considers
it
very valuable training.
also promised to keep
status, so that
when
it
me on my
He
training staff
back I can be sent out
I get
with either in British or French escadrilles.
In
the meantime I'm having a most interesting time
They
back here.
start out with explanations of
the mechanism and jams in the various types
of
machine guns.
the ground,
—shooting at
boat at targets,
you
Then
start in
on
some work on
after
targets,
—shooting from
and shooting at
air
work.
little
balloons,
First there are
no guns
on the planes and you have to go up a couple of
thousand metres, drop over a paper parachute, and
then chase
start,
it,
manoevring round
it.
After that you
beginning on fixed balloons and ending with a
sleeve
towed by another plane.
In
all
that work
they keep record of your shots, and count the hits
[124]
afterward.
a three weeks' course, and I do
It's
not get finished until the eighteenth, and then,
after
two days
again.
From
in Paris,
there,
if
I'll
go back to Issoudun
things
work as
I hope, I
go out with the French or British very shortly.
However, I've given up prophesying as to when
I'll
be anywhere.
I
went to Cazaux on ten hour's
notice.
March, 1918.
The only unpleasant part
is
that the machines
here are the most awful old crocks.
They have
been in service for ages, and have old motors and
fuselages
and wings that are
out of shape.
warped and bent
Consequently, the French warn you
when you go up,
of acrobacy at
dives with
all
to be very careful to do
all,
them
no
sort
and not even try any steep
to vertical virages.
That's
all
very well, but they also expect you to follow the
parachutes
all
the time, and
when you are shooting
make good
at the machines.
[125]
scores
I
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
You
get
up
in the air,
trying to follow
it is
and get excited over
up the parachute, or whatever
you are trying to shoot
at,
and you forget
all
about your machine except as a means of keeping
your sights on the target.
one of our fellows was
As a matter
killed just last week, in a
chine that was supposed to be perfectly
He was
dred,
of fact
all right.
doing combat work at about fifteen hun-
when
for
some reason or
other, just as he
straightening out of a dive, his wings folded
Of course he didn't have a chance.
him.
ma-
was
up on
He was
a Cornell boy, named Hagedorn.
Quentin made an excellent record at Cazaux;
his score card
was afterward sent to
and the note on the bottom reads:
pilote.
tireur.
Atterrissages
reguliers.
"Tres bon
Tres bon
Esprit tres militaire, Beaucoup d'allant."
—incidentally,
—
actually got a room and bath at a
As we are
I've
tres
his family,
at Arcachon,
all living
hotel,
dine with four or five oflicers every night, and have
a most delightful time.
Last night we gave a
[126]
little
dinner, to a couple of French aces,
month's
Boche,
One had
rest.
—so
you can
Things went
ing,
telling
One
of
well,
nine,
back for a
and the other eleven
see they were pretty good.
—and
they were most interest-
about various times they had had.
them
was captured,
started as observer,
kept in a reprisal camp for five weeks, and
escaped, via the lines, and across
Finally one of
!
No Man's Land
After that, he became a
to the French again.
chasse pilot
them got up, and
proposed a toast to America,
—with
with,
gift for
the dramatic,
and the war
empty
places."
is
over,
best
has a
—and he finished
"and gentlemen, when we
again,
the
He
speech I've heard in a long time.
wonderful
finally
dine together
may
there be no
That's only a bald attempt at
conveying the sense, for
it
was beautifully done.
Cazaux, March 12th.
Down
here things are very pleasant.
been having the most glorious weather,
spring-like.
The
result
is
[127]
that
We
have
warm and
they have
in-
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
creased our hours of work, so that
upon the
field
from seven
in the
we have
to be
morning to seven
with only lunch time out.
in the evening,
makes a pretty long day
pleasant by 9:30.
Sunday was a
of
It
and bed looks very
it
we went
half holiday so
off for
an expedition, the Major, Lou Bredin, myself
and an English Captain named Ainsley.
would have loved
bay on a
little
We
it.
mouth with a
each side that go
into
pine
the
went away across the
nondescript sort of sloop, which
The bay
her owner called a canot.
the
the
all
forests.
way along
of sand
it's
and except
deserted
fishing villages.
in
sail
trees,
how
country
I
have flown
lovely
You have
it is.
for
for occasional bare patches
—no
We
on
planted by Na-
clearings,
no houses
little
went out to one of them on
and stopped to look at a grove
bloom.
up at
the ocean up
Only along the coast there are
nothing.
our
closed
curious
It's
poleon's orders (not the sand).
it
is
sort of strait with high dunes
nothing but sand and pine
miles over
You
seen
it
of course
The whole
[128]
of
mimosa
and know
thing was like an
!
brown
The men wear blue and
sketch book.
artist's
shirts
softened
by
and red baggy
trousers, all toned
salt water, so that there are
The women
edges to the colors.
too,
and
no sharp
when they
same red
are working at the oyster farms wear the
trousers.
fifteen
We
houses
explored
it
all
—there
were
—and then sailed back and
Samuel Pepys,
fully
so, like
*'to bed.'*
I leave in five days, although
or where I shall go, heavens
what I
shall do,
knows
March 29
Its
been quite a long time since I
home, and
In the
first
all
place; I
Cazaux, and
I finished
up
sorts
am
of things
wrote
have happened.
have finished up
my
work at
back again at the same old camp.
up there on the twenty-second and went
for a forty eight
hour pass in Paris, hoping to
be able to get out to see Arch.
got up there that
in
last
it
I found
when
was impossible, as he
I
is still
an evacuation hospital in the zone of the ad-
vance, and I was not able to get passes to go out
there.
However
I did see Eleanor,
[129]
who was up
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
and having a horrid time, because she
in Paris,
She
too had been unable to get out to see Arch.
had
tried
puUing every string she could, and the
general opinion was that
to do
and that
it,
it
would be impossible
she did do
if
it this
time,
talked
it
over with Doctor Lambert, and also
who had
with several people
they
just seen Archie,
and
agreed that his wounds were not serious
all
enough to warrant
deal better,
it
it
She
would be the last chance she would have.
she
if
that.
is
As she
said, it is
a good
only going to be able to do
once, to wait until a time
when one
of us
is
very seriously wounded and needs her more. Also,
move Arch into Paris very
will see him and be able to
they are expecting to
and so she
shortly,
look after him as soon as he gets up there.
has gone down
soon as
it is
moved, she
come up
definitely
is
it
known when Arch
is
to be
to be telegraphed so that she can
to him.
As a matter of
away from Paris,
and
She
to Aix again, leaving word that as
wasn't
fact I
was rather glad to get
for the offensive
much
was
starting,
of a time for playing around,
[130]
or doing anything at
job.
but getting back to one's
all
There's no use talking about the offensive
because
it will
be
all
past history by the time you
we don't know anything
The
one thing we do know is
about it down
that our chasse planes are being held up now by
a new shortage machine guns. They have so
The
far got only enough for the first squadron.
get this, and also because
here.
—
squadron
other
profitless
doing decoy work
is
my
occupation to
out over the
lines escorted
They
mind.
most
are sent
by two French planes
The
with machine guns.
—a
object
is
to get the
Then they leave for
the Frenchmen look after
German to attack them.
home
in a hurry
the Boche.
and
let
It seems foolish to
way, but we can't choose.
have to work that
They've done one
As you know,
has some special
rather delightful thing though.
each squadron on the front
insignia.
Guynemer's, for instance, was the Stork,
there are the Leopards, the Indians, and lots of
others.
The poor
souls
who have
to go across
without machine guns have adopted a decoy
duck, with one leg stuck out
[
131
]
stiffly in
front as
if it
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
were doing a goose step.
on
all
I
They have got
painted
it
their planes.
am
moment
at the
the finishing
any day.
There
we have no
as there
field here,
is
is
in charge of training at
and expecting
orders
no vacancy at the present, as
planes, but I
am
to be sent
All schemes of going
any.
my
up
up
as soon
in
French
squadrons and such have been disarranged by the
and
offensive,
I rather
doubt
if
they
will start
working smoothly again until the offensive
In the meantime,
finished.
here, doing our
work from day to day with an eye
on the mail each morning, and a hope that
have
orders.
has given
of
bad
me
it will
In a way I'm not so sorry, for
it
the chance to get out of a streak
flying that I
was the
is
Ham and I are sitting
had gotten
into.
I think
result of the landing field at
complicated with not feeling awfully
well.
it
Cazaux,
When
I got back to this part of the world again I started
in with
a very heavy cold, and had to turn in for
a day or two, as the doctor thought I was going to
get another attack of pneumonia.
Then when
I
started to fly I found that, either as a result of
[132]
that or as a result of a landing
smooth as a
as
is
all
billiard table,
gone to the bad.
beautifully
when
field
at Cazaux that
my
had
landings
smashed one plane up
I
I started out.
very neat job, for I landed with a
It
was
drift,
really
a
touched one
wing, and then, as there was a high wind, did three
complete summersaults (spelling?) ending up on
my
back.
I crawled out of
it
than a couple of scratches.
most
of
with nothing more
So now I'm
flying
the time, getting into practise.
got to go now, as there
I've
a plane out en panne
is
that I have got to locate.
Lots of love to
family, from
all
^^^^^
•••••••
March
•
30, 1918.
amount because, being
I've had to decide whether
I've flown a certain
charge of training,
was
the
fit
for flying.
It's
it
quite amusing to fly in
very windy weather.
Yesterday when I cut
motor to come down,
I
found I was making
most no headway against the wind.
down
in
my
al-
So I came
turning over about a thousand, and feeling
[133]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
as
if
road.
wind
I were in a delivery cart
She slapped and thumped on the gusts of
like
a
bottomed boat
flat
gether, flying for
me
Ham
the afternoon.
the idea,
separate.
a sea.
it
Alto-
Yester-
rained until five in
and I had almost given up
when we noticed the clouds beginning to
I said try it anyhow, and so we started.
was funny
first set of
Then
in
has been amusing.
day before coming over here
It
on a cobble stone
flying weather.
We
went thru the
clouds at about three hundred metres.
there was clear air for about a thousand
metres, with only occasional banks, and finally a
solid ceiling at
about thirteen hundred.
took the middle flying
fairly
the ground between clouds to see where
had a most unpleasant time
of
end, for I was really scared, and
its
I
I
have been,
in the air.
So we
high and watching for
We
it
we
were.
just at the
the only time
were just about
five
miles from here, and I was getting ready to nose
for
down and come thru the clouds
some unknown reason I began
and
dizzy.
her
I'm
good and scared.
to land
to feel faint
free to confess that I
However
I
134
]
when
was scared,
there was nothing to
—I
do except trust to luck, so I nosed her down, and
went
in
As luck would have
for the landing.
happened to have
on that
me up.
I
just hit
it
rightly,
and
I
it,
—
came
glide with only a couple of S's to slow
was mighty
glad, tho,
when
I got
on to
good, solid ground again."
•••••••
Sunday, April
•
6, 1918.
Ham and I are planning a big party very shortly.
We are both going to take the seven day leave
which the army gives us every four months,
only
we
are going to take
probably cruise
all
Eleanor at Aix
les
marvellous time.
good fun.
5^
looks like
it
over the map,
by
plane.
—drop
in
We'll
and
see
Bains, and generally have a
Don't you think
it
sounds like
The one draw back is that my plane
a Liberty Bond ad. The mechanics in
the hangar said that they were going to arrange
a
little
surprise for
that we've had,
me
during the four rainy days
—and they lived up to their word.
They've got a huge American shield with white
[135]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
wings stretching across
top
the
red and blue stripes ending in a
Then
plane.
running round the fuselage they have two
spiral
little circle
with
the American insignia right back of the cockpit.
Even the wheel
result is that
large
crowd
taken of
it,
to you.
Its
covers are painted up.
The
net
wherever I land the plane collects a
I'm getting some pictures
instantly.
and
V.
if
they're
any good
I'll
send them
sporty.
April 15, 1918.
Please excuse this very spurious paper, for I
have been too busy to get away from camp during
the last week to get any more respectable variety.
Things are beginning to
For one
thing,
we hear
hum
here at the school.
that they are not going to
send any more pilots over from the states for the
present, which
that they have
As
it is
is
about the
made
first
sensible decision
as regards the Air Service.
they must have about two thousand pilots
over here, and Heaven knows
it will
we have enough machines
even half that num-
for
[136]
be ages before
Not one
ber.
me have
with
of the
bunch that were at Cazaux
got out to the front yet, and there
doesn't seem to be
much chance
immediate future.
in the
too, for with the
way
of their doing so
It seems
an awful
pity,
things are going on the front
now, I can't help but think that
all
the pilots that
can be handled ought to be sent up there in French
and English squadrons
if
we
can't provide the
machines for them ourselves.
says that he
certain that they
is
go up with the French, as the
sent
up there only got
the Major
Still,
will
not
let
anyone
last pilot that
as far as Paris
we
and was
then held up on account of the offensive.
I
wonder
if
they are hearing
all
the news about
the offensive back in the states, and
how
serious
about
in the
I'm rather afraid
because I
it, first
censor,
are, I
it is.
am
a
of talking
leary of the
little
in the rear as we
we know as much even as you do
A. All we do know is that its a
and next because, being
doubt
U.
if
S.
mighty serious business, and that
to get into
time I
they realize
if
am
it
as soon as possible.
working
my
[
its
our business
In the mean-
hardest trying to get the
137
]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
students that go thru here as well trained as pos-
and incidentally
sible,
I
am getting my
air
flying myself a lot.
work down pretty
for I don't think there's
any
Ham who
haven't tried.
with
me
most
interesting.
is
well
now,
sort of a stunt that I
here testing, goes up
every day for combat work, which
The
other day he
came
is
over in
a new type of plane, that they are just putting
on the
in
I
front,
went up
and we had a bully time with
in mine,
which
is
it.
of course specially
taken care of by the mechanics and we chased
each other around for about a half an hour.
I just got a note from
doing
finely,
and
Arch to say that he was
also hear
from the papers that
he has been moved to Mrs. Reid's hospital in
Paris.
am
going to
fly
about a hundred and
Its
up there next Saturday,
decent weather, and spend Sunday with him.
if its
make
is
I
it
in
fifty miles,
and
about an hour and a quarter.
I can
Eleanor
already up there with him, as I just got her
telegram asking when I could get up there to see
him.
I
have just gotten one piece of news that
very bad,
if
true.
It
is
that Cord
[138]
is
is
reported
missing.
have been over in the Major's
I
day trying to get
all
official
oflSce
confirmation of the
rumor, and as yet have succeeded in hearing nothing about
I don't see
it.
he was as good a
how it can be possible, for
pilot as
any
I
which means as any in the U.
still
have seen here,
S.
poem
?*
It
was two years ago,
of your letters.
I
sending
it
on to you, as
in a clipping in
all
getting
in
all
then,
this
one
and
am
again, so I
have a copy I made
letter,
much room
our heads.
right again.
for
anything
else
of
but
so full of the offensive over here that
doesn't leave
"shop"
it
it
This seems a rather short
the other.
are
I
me
sent
remember loving
rather curious to run across
we
So I'm
S.
hoping.
Do you remember when you
its
A.
it
except
I'm so glad father
is
Lots of love to Ethel and
Co. and to you especially, from your loving,
QUENTIN.
May
Its
4, 1918.
been perfect ages since I last wrote to you,
and I've got a variety
of reasons for not
* "Christ in Flanders."
[
139]
having
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
done
laid
The one
so.
up
in
one
real
is
that I had one hand
an accident and aside from that haven't
been feehng decently for quite a while now.
started a
I
little
had been
while after I got back from Cazaux.
feeling all overish for quite a while,
and then one day when
I
motor blew up on me, and
fool people got in
my
and as between
trees.
and got out
Among
my
I
had to come down
for
off
some
it,
way, just as I was coming in
hitting
them
or crashing,
hung myself up
I took the latter, and
some
on a voyage
was
As luck would have
a forced landing.
to land,
nicely in
I reduced the plane to kindling wood,
of it myself
whole but rather battered.
other odds and ends, I had a bad wrist
which reduced
my
epistolary
That
efficiency.
in itself wasn't anything particular, but
it
I talked things over,
were about
this,
that
we were
in the
same
we both were
doing,
I
and found that we both
fix.
It boiled
down
heartily sick of the
to
work
and that we wanted to get out to
the front, or anywhere
hole.
was
Ham
part of a vague general uncomfortableness.
and
It
away from
this
mud
ridden
had got to the point where even the
[140]
sight
of a flying student filled
men
rather hard to teach
me
to
with loathing.
fly,
It
is
and send them on
thru the school, when you can see no future in
sight for them.
I
knew that the men we were
sending thru would just be sent to a gunnery
school,
and then have to hang around goodness
only knows
for
them
to
how
fly.
long until there were any planes
And knowing
that
it
was awfully
hard to get up any enthusiasm for a job, which I
hated anyway.
that
Ham
and
The long and the
short of
it
was
I both decided, independent of the
we were stale. So I went to the Major
and asked him if he could not arrange to have
other, that
Ham
take a leave.
He
said that
on account of
the offensive, leaves were being discontinued, but
that he would allow
Ham
cross country to Paris.
to take a plane on a
So he sent
for
Ham
and
him this, whereupon Ham told him some long
song and dance about me, resulting in our both
told
being sent
off
in Paris.
Don't you think that was pretty nice
of
him ?
with our planes for a six days' rest
made the most tremendous difference
now I am back here again, and tho I
It
to me, for
[141]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
how
don't like the work, yet I do see
to kick about
it
and not do
it,
useless
it is
when there is no
The Major
chance to go out to the front anyway.
has promised us anyway that as soon as any bunch
goes out to the front he will see that our names
are on the
Eleanor
list.
is
up
in Paris
now
looking after Archie
so I stayed with her and naturally
She
time.
the
way
tion
fact, neither
He
now
to him.
been a perfect trump about
she has taken care of
matter of
well.
really has
is
of not
is
knowing what
be about
five
Myself, I can't see
is
going to happen
is
of A.
As
better slowly.
better off
if
it is,
he
is
I think
fit
for active
what to
do.
wasn't sent back to the
states as soon as they evacuated
Z
very
months, so the Major
and the question
why he
is
in the horrid posi-
at the hospital says, before he will be
service again,
As a
of us.
all
she nor I think Arch
very thin, and
It will
had a bully
him from the
in the hospital, getting
he would have been much
he had been sent back to the states to
convalesce.
[142]
•••••••
May
•
4, 1918.
There are some nice things about aviation,
It seems to
really.
be the one part of the war in
which brother Boche has the instincts of a sports-
man and
Of course the
a gentleman.
service
is
as
wild stories as a boarding school, and this
full of
one I'm not sure about,
—tho I think
its so.
After
Guynemer was brought down a Boche flew over his
squadron's airdrome and dropped a letter saying
that his funeral would be on a certain date and
that four Frenchmen would be given safe conduct
to land on the
accepted
field,
it,
German
and flew
They
landed on the German
field
over,
and attend
it.
were received by the Germans, attended the
funeral
and then went back.
thing
true,
if
and
I
do know
It's rather
a fine
for certain that they
know where Guynemer's grave is, so it may be
true.
Then just shortly ago. Baron von Richthofen the German ace, was brought down by the
English. They buried him with full military
honors,
—three French aces and three English aces
for his pall bearers.
It
must have been most im-
[143]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
pressive, the
French and English
to attention as they lowered
soldiers standing
him
into his grave
while the English chaplain read the burial service
over him.
All those are the little things that will
make up
the traditions of the service after the
war's over.
And
it is
know
a nice thing to
that
the things that you are to some extent a part of
will
be the traditions
left
That and
of the service.
the certainty that there
will
be plenty
of
war
even when I get up there, helps to make
Issoudun a
little
more bearable.
May
Its
12, 1918.
been perfect ages since I wrote to you, and
again I'm ashamed of myself, but I
ashamed
of
my
am
also
mail from the states, for I haven't
gotten a single letter from there of more recent
date than the third of April.
I don't
know what
has been happening to them, for most of the other
people here have gotten them as recently as the
eighteenth.
I've got
I hope they weren't sunk.
uncommonly
little
[144]
news
that's
worth
To
the repeating.
the same
still
back at
definite
prospect of getting out.
what we can get
am
and with no more
begin with, I
old place,
Thank
goodness, from
Wood
in the papers, General
seems to have tried to give the people some idea
what
of just
their wonderful aircraft production
board has accomplished for them with
hundred and twenty
hope that
I only
prospectuses.
and
five millions
it isn't
it,
doesn't
if
it.^*
we were
in for a
glorious
too late
This certainly
to get things rolling over there.
does look as
its
six
its
good long run of
Arch and I were discussing
it,
in
the cheerfully ignorant fashion in which every-
one does who
there's a
and a
is
half more.
will last
we
over here, and
don't think
chance of their being beaten for a year
Or
rather,
we
don't think
thru more than one more winter.
it
But
have said the same thing last fall.
They can certainly put over an offensive when
they make up their mind to, in spite of "insufficient man-power" and all the rest of that line.
The one thing that we've heard that has pleased
of course, I'd
us in the aviation
that their
is
[
145
]
new monoplane
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Albatross was a wash out and that they have
D3
gone back to the old
If
which was so successful.
we have the D3 we know what
I've loved
your
all
going on really,
we're up against.
letters, for
they say what's
—not what ought to be going on,
if
May
I've just been
ally
I'm
called
full of
me
in
and
many French
up
in Paris again
and so natur-
Just last week the
news.
said that he
knew
27.
I
Major
knew a good
aviation officers, consequently
if
I
could persuade one of their squadron commanders
to apply
by name for me and Ham
(!)
he would see
that the request was O. K'd. by our headquarters
and that we were transferred up
imagine
how Ham and
I felt
been trying to do for ages.
Capt. Pelissin,
to
Capt de
V
!
there.
Its just
You can
what we've
So with the help of
who composed the letter, I wrote
who commands a group of 4
Spad squadrons.
We
Ham
and
knew
of this, sent
Then the Major, as he
me up to Paris on Sunday to
deliver
me
asked him to apply for
at once.
some important papers that had to go
[146]
by hand.
His idea was that while in Paris I
H
could go to the French aviation
about
q to arrange
which I did.
it
I put in one whole busy day chasing from one
another soft soaping
office to
officers,
ment,
with
"Om mon
sorts of
all
French
Capitain/* and ^'parfaiie-
mon commandanV
until I
began to
feel
rather like a phonograph with only one record.
However, I think I got something out
them have agreed
at least
two
instant
any action
Arch
I
of
is
to inform
it,
—
for
me the
taken.
For a while
getting along splendidly.
is
of
was quite worried about him, but now he seems
to be in very
much
are improving right along.
up
that I was
Paris
had
returned,
his
wounds
kinds of fun
together both days
there.
Everyone who
started
and the boulevards are crowded.
couragingly
it is
all
when the bombardment
gun shoots
think
had
wonderful fun now.
is
left
I
we lunched
with him, for
and
better spirits,
still
at intervals but
anti-clim
(It
!)
[
147
]
its
isn't
has
The
a most dis-
what you
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
PABT
III
—THE
FLIGHT
Cablegram
June 8th.
Paris
Mrs Theodore Roosevelt
Moving out
to
at last with
Ham
very glad love
^
Quentin
all
T»
Roosevelt
June
I've
had so much happening to me,
8, 1918.
tho, in
the last ten days, that I have not had time to
think even, which
is
Ham and I had
just as well.
almost begun to think we were permanently stuck
in Issoudun,
when with no warning, we were
dered up to Orly, which
is
just outside of Paris.
No one knew anything about the orders,
and I felt sure that
it
or-
meant our
first
and
Ham
step out to
we only had
twelve hours time to settle everything up and
leave.
You can imagine how we hurried, with all
the front.
Once the orders came,
tho,
the goodbyes to be said and packing, and paying
bills.
I thought
we never would
[148]
get away, but
was thru, and we got
finally It
started to leave for the
in the truck
main camp
and
to get our
Then they did one of the nicest
Our truck driver
instead of going out the regular way, took us down
the line of hangars and as we went past all the
mechanics were lined up in front and cheered us
goodbye. As we passed the last hangar one of
the sergeants yelled, after us, "Let us know if
you're captured and we'll come after you." So I
left with a big lump in my throat, for its nice to
know that your men have liked you.
clearance papers.
things I've ever
•
•
had happen.
•
•'•
•
•
June
At
last,
states,
too, for I
18, 1918.
almost eleven months after I
Its all
left
the
came over here for, out at
different from what I thought,
I'm doing what
the front.
•
I
am not with the French at all. You see,
we were down at Chartres telegraphic orcame in for us to report at once to the First
Pursuit Group. That is an entirely American
while
ders
outfit,
except for the planes of course.
[149]
Ham and I
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
have been chased about so much that we didn't
really believe
we'd be put in a squadron when we
got here, but there were no two ways about
we
so
started out via Paris to
it,
and
comply with our
orders.
I
had a
eventful run out here, chiefly
fairly
because the motorcycle developed a passion for
my
third in ten miles, I said
punctures.
After
just exactly
what I thought
got to work
repairing
ing
—
I
of the motorcycle as I
Just as I stopped talk-
it.
had no idea there was a
I heard
me
a voice behind
motor-bike,
—what
!
"
soul within miles,
say "Priceless old
I looked
up and saw one of
those long, angular Englishmen, with that thoroly
blank expression which they use to camoufler a
sense of humor.
behind
He had
me and had
appeared out of a path
apparently absorbed
my com-
ments, anent motorcycles as I talked to
had a pleasant discussion on things
it.
I
in general with
him, the net result being that I dropped round to
his quarters
ing on.
and had a drink
He was
of Scotch before
a very good
1150
1
sort.
mov-
Late in the afternoon I arrived here, to find
The
myself assigned to the 95th Aero Squadron.
one drawback
is
that
Ham is assigned to the 94th.
However, we work together and have adjoining
barracks, so things aren't as
Otherwise everything
be.
bad
is fine.
hour ride yesterday to get used to
somewhat to the
sector.
Then
out on a patrol just up along the
put
might
as they
I took a half
my
later
plane,
on
I
and
went
lines, to, as
they
get used to being (loathly split infinitive)
it,
by the Archies. It is really exciting at
first when you see the stuff bursting in great black
puffs round you, but you get used to it after fifteen minutes. To-morrow I'll be working in Gershot at
my
many
as
tion.
So
air,
—
hate
is
on
for reglage planes' protec-
far there are very
^but as
tensive
flight is
few Bosche in the
the B. infantry staged quite an ex-
little
hate yesterday
(The French for
a coup de main, by the way) we think they
may
liven things up.
icans
up
here,
There are
lots of
—and we think they may
Amer-
want to
smash them up.
I'll
write to-morrow,
when
[151]
I've been over
and
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
turn in an
oflScial
report of
my
to Ger-
first visit
many.
June 25
Its
been
five
weeks since I've heard from any
of the family, so I feel sure I
must have com-
mitted some horrible crime and be in deep dis-
From my
thoroly black conscience I can
any number
of explanations but the one I
grace.
find
feel guiltiest
about
is
that this
cuse tho' for I have
moved
all
is
the
There
I've written in three weeks.
first letter
is
some
ex-
over France in that
length of time.
I wish
some one who did know something about
would go back, just to talk
flying at the front
for
a while with the designers and builders of
the Liberty Motor and plane.
Its going to
be
a long time before that thing gets to the front,
and
tho'
I'd be
in
I'm not crazy about the bus I'm
much more
a Liberty
if
I
comfortable in
it
had to go across the
flying
than I would
lines.
They
have no right to send the things over
here, tell
how wonderful
they are,
the people in the states
[152]
—
and then to expect us over here to work with
them when each
be remedied.
to
but
defects,
still
flight
shows some new defect
Of course they're
all
minor
they've been flying the planes
over here for a month and yet she's not ready
for the front yet.
My
you was written from the
last letter to
French concentration camp at Chartres, but as
I
know
reached
At
all
to go
that mail forwarded to
me
me I don't trust the out going mails either.
events after being ordered from Issoudun
up with the French, and having put
week at
their concentration
camp
back to the Americans again,
with the
first
this
here,
and anyway
its
I
in
a
was ordered
time to go up
Of course I was
pursuit group.
tremendously pleased, for I know
up
there never
much
all
the bunch
nicer to
be with
Americans.
I
am now a member of the 95th Aero
1st
Pursuit Group.
interesting time, too.
Squadron,
I've been having a
I've been
most
up on the front
now
for
after
Issoudun to be out and really doing some-
about two weeks.
[153]
Its such
a change
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Where we first were it was rather a quiet
sector and we generally had to go across the lines
before we picked up any Boche, but just yesterday we were moved down into a hot sector quite
near Paris, and from all we can gather there are
thing.
Boche here
all
the time.
I've
seven hours over the lines so
had about
six or
and I'm just
far,
beginning to get an idea of what goes on around;
at
first
you don't see the Boche at
ally
you begin to get on to them.
tain
amount now
is
wing.
The
first
real thing is that
I can
show
for
my
oh cheers
I'm on the front
—and I'm very happy.
write again day after tomorrow, after our
patrol of this sector,
like.
I've not got
a hole where an archie went thru
myself
I'll
but gradu-
I can see a cer-
of what's going on.
any combats as yet and the best
cheers,
all
Lots of love to
all
and
tell
you what
its
the family, and a sepa-
rate special kind to you.
July 2nd, 1918.
Even tho
much
this is
an active sector
excitement as yet.
[154]
I haven't
had
Yesterday they kept
In the morning we went
us pretty busy, tho'.
out for a patrol along the ceiling and spent two
down the
hours of cruising up and
line
without
Then in the afternoon the inhad a show arranged, in the shape of a
seeing anything.
fantry
2x2
kilometre push on a seven kilometre front.
That means
of course a great deal of reglage
photography work, so there was a
and
lot of chasse
work to be done, what with protecting our own
biplanes and keeping off the Boche.
scheduled to
on the low
fly
We
were
at twenty-five
level,
hundred metres, to intercept any enemy photogThere were two more
raphers or reglage planes.
patrols above us, one around four thousand
one up along the
We
planes.
ceiling,
keeping
didn't run into
any
off their
and
chasse
of their planes,
but there was enough doing down below to make
up
for
it.
We
were too high to
make out any
infantry but everywhere the artillery were work-
The seven kilometres of attack ran from
a wood on past a couple of small villages and ended
up in a fair sized town. They were shelling hard
ing.
all
along
it
and one
of the villages
[
155
]
was
in flames.
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
You
could see the white puffs where the shells
landed and then when the smoke cleared away,
the round crater that they dug in the ground.
Altogether there was lots doing, and I was
glad I was comfortably above
it all,
with no worries
When
but two cold fingers and a bad magneto.
we got
in
we found that tho we hadn't seen any
Boche the top
flight
—and then some.
had
There
were ten of them, and they got into a free for
all
with nine Fokker biplanes.
They had bad
made
them aren't back
luck with machine gun jams, and the Boche
it
Two
pretty hot for them.
—tho
they
may have
of
landed inside our
lines,
and they accounted
for two and maybe three
One man got back here with his plane
Boche.
so shot
that
up that
it
he escaped.
was nothing short
He had
shot away, and to hit
it
gone within an inch of
fuselage,
lets,
of a miracle
one centre section
the bullet must have
his
head.
The whole
and one gas tank are riddled with bul-
and as the Boche use explosive
bullets, that
fellow can thank his stars.
I'm writing
the hangars as I'm on
but so far no Boche
[
alertey
156
]
this in
THE WAY OF THE Ex\GLE
have been reported. I go on again from
to-night,
and
as that's their pet time I
six to
nine
have hopes.
There's nothing in the world duller than waiting
in the
hangar for an
alerte
that doesn't come.
July
Yesterday our
flight
patrol at thirty-five
officer
was sent out to
hundred metres over about a
ten kilometre sector where
some
sort of straight-
ening the line action was going on.
were not to cross the
to.
For about
6, 1918.
fifteen
line,
Our orders
or fight unless forced
minutes we chased up and
down, up and down, with no more excitement
than scaring a few reglage planes back into Ger-
many.
I
—I
—when I saw our leader give the
was busy watching below us
flying right
signal.
was
alert
I hadn't seen anything below, so I looked
ahead and there up about a thousand metres, on
the
German
side I
saw a patrol
started climbing at once,
and
I
of six Boche.
We
was having a hor-
rid time, for while the rest of the formation closed
[157]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
in I
dragged farther and farther behind.
have
I
a bad motor, so that when the rest hurry up they
There I was, with only the slim con-
leave me.
solation that the leader
his
We
eye on me.
was probably keeping
my
climbed on, and I did
darndest to keep up and at the same time keep
an eye on the Boche who remained comfortably
on
top.
across
The next
my
plane,
thing I knew, a shadow came
and
about two hundred
there,
metres above me, and looking as big as
He was
out-
all
so near I could
make
out the red stripes around his fuselage.
I'm
doors was a Boche.
free to confess that I
was scared
was
I
blue.
behind the rest of the formation, and he had
the altitude.
for motor,
So I pushed on the
and watched out
stick,
all
prayed
of the corner of
my
eye to see his elevators go down, and have his
tracers
shooting
by me.
However,
for
some
reason he didn't attack, instead he took a few
swung back to
Our only explanation is that he
fight in our lines,
he had every
general shots at the lot and then
his formation.
didn't
want to
—
kind of advantage over
us.
[158]
Lord, but I was
glad wlien he
to pull
my
When
left.
I got
back they decided
motor, so I was given another plane
for this morning,
which belongs to a fellow who's
sick.
We
went out on patrol again,
this
time at five
thousand and started over across, hunting for
trouble.
A
we spotted
couple of kilometres inside the line
them about a thousand metres
below us. We circled and came back between
them and the sun, and dove on them. They
six of
never saw us until we started shooting so we had
them
just
cold.
I
—I had my man
had miserable luck
where I wanted, was piquing down on him,
(he was a monoplane) and after getting good and
close, set
My
my
sight
on him and pulled the
gun shot twice and then jammed.
really awfully
feed box
had
hard luck, for I couldn't
could, but finally
It
fix it.
slipped, so she only fired
at a time, and then quit.
trigger.
was
The
one shot
I did everything I
had to give up and come home,
we were about fifteen kilometres their side of
the line. As the papers put it, tho', "a successful evening was had by all."
We got three of
as
[159]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
—
They weren't the circus of course. We
We
tho', and we aren't sure how.
rather think his motor must have gone dead on
him, and forced him to land in Germany. So
things are looking more interesting around here,
them
lost
one man,
and I've had
before,
—for
my
first real fight.
I thought I
I
was doubtful
might get cold
You
something, but you don't.
feet,
or
get so excited
that you forget everything except getting the
other fellow, and trying to dodge the tracers,
when they
start streaking past you.
July 11, 1918.
There's lots doing in this sector.
We
lost an-
other fellow from our squadron three days ago.
However, you get
for
it,
excitement to
make up
and nearly every patrol we run into some
of them.
We've moved
ten kilometres.
the other, but
kilometres,
us.
lots of
It's
it's
a
again, this time only
much
nearer the front
and the other was
Also, I like
smaller field than
my
quarters
[160]
by those ten
really too big for
much
better.
I'm
billeted in
a
little
French town near the
field.
room with Ed Thomas, our transportation
in a delightful room.
I
officer,
one of those white,
It's in
plaster houses with tile roofs that sag in between
the rafters, and an impossible weather cock on
the chimney that doesn't work as there's a spar-
The room is on
with a window on each side,
row's nest in between
the ground
floor,
—
its legs.
one where you can watch everything that's going
on
in the street,
garden that's
all
with red tiled
and the other looking out on a
in bloom.
Its spotlessly clean,
and a huge grandfather's
floor,
clock ticking solemnly in the corner.
The
lady who owns the house
old
She's a
delightful.
little bit
at least as old as the
tacles,
of a dried
At
first
she regarded
equally
up person,
with gold rimmed spec-
hills,
the red cheeks that
all
these country folk
have, and a beard that even
of.
is
me
might be proud
with deep suspicion,
but I've now succeeded in winning her over.
thawed a
—but
little
She
when she found I talked French
won her over completely
the thing that
was her dog.
When
came
I first
[
161
]
in I
was greeted
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
with furious barkings and growlings.
mental
and
effort I
my inward and spiritual doubt,
That
sitting reading the old lady
and then put
appeared and with
my
head on
his
his
knee to be
After that the old lady and I became
am Monsieur Quentin
person. Among other things
and now
fast friends
and a privileged
she told
was
night, as I
who solemnly advanced, wagged
her the dog,
patted.
a strong
succeeded in showing no outward
visible signs of
and walked on past him.
tail,
By
me
I
that she had had
German
oflScers
quartered in her house in 1870 and then again
in 1914.
I got
Think
my
of
it.
first real
excitement on the front for
The Operations
I think I got a Boche.
is
trying for confirmation on
on high patrol with the
we got broken
I
rest of
now.
my
I
was out
squadron when
up, due to a mistake in formation.
dropped into a turn of a
have so
little
can't do
much with them.
vrille
—these
planes
surface that at five thousand
ened out I couldn't spot
as I
it
OflScer
When
my
crowd any where,
had only been up an hour,
[
162
1
you
I got straightso,
I decided to fool
around a
over the
little
before going home, as I was just
I turned
lines.
utes or so,
At
formation.
—the
way
planes
saw three planes
in the air, I
first
were
thought they
I
Boche, but as they paid no attention to
finally
min-
circled for five
and then suddenly,
do come into focus
in
and
me
I
decided to chase them, thinking they were
part of
my
crowd, so I started after them
I thought at the time
speed.
with the wind blowing the
it
full
was a little strange,
way
it
was, that they
should be going almost straight into Germany,
but I had plenty of gas so
They had been going
was nearly
and
turn,
tails
I
my
kept on.
absolutely straight and I
in formation
saw to
I
when the
leader did a
horror that they had white
with black crosses on them.
Still I
was so
near by them that I thought I might pull up a
and take a crack at them.
little
I
had altitude
on them, and what was more they hadn't seen
my sights on the end man,
my tracers going all around
me, so I pulled up, put
and
let go.
I
saw
him, but for some reason he never even turned,
untn
down
all
of a
came up and he went
wanted to follow him but the
sudden his
in a vrille.
I
tail
[163]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
other two had started around after me, so I had
to cut
and run.
However,
I could half
him looking back, and he was
he
hit the clouds three
Of course he may have
just been scared,
hit,
I
all
the
way back
clouds.
an awfully long
had a long chase
of
it
that
lines,
it
for they followed
I
am
me
to our side of the lines, but our
The trouble
was about twenty kilometers
and
Three
spin.
speed was about equal so I got away.
is
but I
or he would have
come out before he struck the
is
when
thousand meters below.
think he must have been
thousand meters
spinning
still
watch
inside their
afraid, too far to get confirmation.
At the moment every one
is
very
much
pleased
in our Squadron for we are getting new planes.
We
have been using Nieuports, which have the
disadvantage of not being particularly reliable
and being
The
ward
inclined to catch
fire.
victory recounted in this letter was after-
verified
by the French, and duly
credited;
but the verification was not recorded until after
Quentin had
fallen.
[
164
]
v^ CHAPTER
III
THE LAST PATROL
Oyster Bay, July 17, 1918.
" Quentin's mother and I are glad that he got
the front
to his
and had
tJie
chance to render some service
country y and to show the stuff that was in
him
him."
before his fate befell
"On
to
July fourteenth the French were to cele-
brate and asked us to contribute a
number
in
a
theatre in a nearby town, so I appointed Quentin
Roosevelt
raked up
to
all
very fond of
up the entertainment.
get
—the French are
American ragtime and banjos—and
the musical talent,
the night before he
came
on
my
of
what he had done.
called
He
into
my room
and
sat
bed, telling, with a great deal of humor,
The next day
up to arrange about getting
town when
When
Coolidge,
I heard he
Quentin
who was
at
noon I
his party into
was reported missing."
failed
to turn up,
Hamilton
serving in the 94th Squadron,
[165]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
and Philip Roosevelt, who was Operations
of the First Pursuit
learn
to
his
hardens one
small
Group,
The
fate.
who
protection
is
left
no stone unturned
inevitable
that
crust
was but
daily meeting death
them against
to
Officer
the
blow.
Coolidge wrote:
"^"'^
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt—
^^
In this awful period of suspense when we don't
know whether Quentin
the best thing I can do
is
is
dead or alive I
to
tell
you
circumstances of his disappearance.
ing of the Fourteenth a report
tin's
feel
that
in detail the
On the morn-
came
in to
Quen-
squadron, which was the one on duty at
that time, that Boches were crossing the lines in
the north eastern part of our sector.
Accord-
Q among
them, set
ingly a patrol of nine
off
to find the Huns.
men,
Just over the lines they
encountered a Boche patrol of seven.
was blowing into
their territory
hazy even above the "ceiling" (a
clouds) which lay at about
altitude.
The Boches
The wind
and the
air
was
solid layer of
two thousand meters
at once started retreating
[166]
THE LAST PATROL
and a running
This soon developed
fight began.
combats during which
into a series of individual
The combats did
range as the Huns
the patrols became broken up.
not take place at very close
had no
in
desire to fight.
drawing our
men
They succeeded however
and further into
further
their
The combats finally ceased and the
men all made for home individually, groping their
way through the clouds and mist largely by aid
territory.
of their compasses.
No
one remembers having
seen Quentin after the shooting began, but this
is
entirely natural.
way
men lost their
come down for gasoline
Several of the
or were forced to
soon after recrossing the
lines;
it is
quite likely
that one of these things happened to Quentin.
Capt. Philip Roosevelt yesterday interviewed an
observer
who
distinctly
saw an
allied
plane de-
scend "piquing sharply, but not in flames and
The
apparently under control."
place and time
he gave corresponded exactly to those of Quentin*s
combat, so
The
fact that his plane
in flames as it
it is
safe to
assume that
it
was
he.
was neither spinning nor
came down makes me
[167]
believe that
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
safely.
There are many good reasons
why he should have been "piquing sharply"
he landed
perhaps to escape from pursuers in superior force,
perhaps again,
because he
was wounded and
wished to land before becoming
talked to the
men on
seem to think that he
his patrol
faint.
I
have
and almost
all
is
a prisoner and was not
is
being done to find out
shot down.
Everything possible
news
of Quentin, but
ports do not
at this critical time re-
come through
very rapidly.
or receive confirmation
Of course you
will
the Associated Press any news that
much more
hear through
may
quickly than I could cable
you may be sure that
develop,
it,
but
I shall forward to
you
immediately any information which
may have
escaped the notice of the Associated Press correspondents.
I
have packed
all
Quent's things
and sent them by truck to Mrs. Ted Roosevelt,
39
Rue
find
Villejust, Paris, where,
them again before
God
grant he
may
long.
Affectionate regards to
you and Mr. Roosevelt
Hamilton Coolidge.
r
168
1
THE LAST PATROL
Months
later, shortly before his
own
fate over-
took him, he wrote:
"Death
thing, and
I feel that
of just as
though they were
sitting
is
certainly not a black unmentionable
around
dead people should be talked
our quarters the boys that have
in
been killed are spoken of
little
At mess and
alive.
all
the time
To me
know we
thing reminds some one of them.
Quentin
shall see
is
away somewhere.
just
I
each again and have a grand old 'hoosh'
talking over everything together.
the
when any
way
I miss
I miss
mother or the family,
sonality or spirit are just as real
him
for his per-
and vivid as they
ever were."
Lieutenant Edward Buford,
Jr.,
was
also re-
ported missing, but landed safely on a French
aerodrome.
He had
and described
several
it
months
in
a
seen Quentin's last fight,
letter to his family, written
later:
Sept. 5th, 1918.
Father dear:-
You asked me
Yes, I
if
I
knew him very
[
knew Quentin
well indeed,
169
]
Roosevelt.
and had been
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
associated with
him ever
and he was one
of the finest
boys I ever knew.
I
since I
was
came
to France
and most courageous
in the fight
when he
was shot down and saw the whole thing.
Four
had
of us
were out on an early patrol and we
just crossed the lines looking for
Boche ob-
when we ran into seven Fokker Chasse planes. They had the altitude and
the advantage of the Sun on us. It was very
servation machines,
cloudy and there was a strong wind blowing us
farther across the lines all the time.
of our formation
out,
lines,
leader
turned and tried to get back
but they attacked before we reached the
and
in
a few seconds had completely broken
up our formation and the
general free-for-all.
all
The
of our fellows
fight developed in
I tried to keep
an eye on
but we were hopelessly separated
and out-numbered nearly two to one.
half a mile
a
away
I
saw one
About a
of our planes with
Boche on him, and he seemed to be having
a pretty hard time with them, so I shook the two
I was manouvering with and tried to get over to
him, but before I could reach them, our machine
three
[170
1
(
THE LAST PATROL
turned over on
its
back and plunged down out
control.
I realized it
sistance
and as none
in
sight,
I
made
was too
late to
of our other
be of any
of
as-
machines were
a bank of clouds to try
for
and gain altitude on the Huns, and when I came
back out, they had reformed, but there were
we must have
only six of them, so I believe
gotten one.
around about ten minutes to see
I waited
if
I
could pick up any of our fellows, but they had
disappeared, so I
came on home, dodging from
one cloud to another for fear of running into another Boche formation.
of the fight I did not
know who
had seen go down, but
back,
Of course, at the time
as Quentin did not
must have been him.
it
of the severest blows
the pilot was I
we have
His
loss
come
was one
ever had in the
Squadron, but he certainly died fighting, for any
one of us could have gotten away as soon as the
scrap started with the clouds as they were that
morning.
Col.
for
I
have
tried several times to write to
Roosevelt but
me
it
is
practically
impossible
to write a letter of condolence, but
[171]
if
I
:
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
am
lucky enough to get back to the States, I ex-
pect to go to see him.
Two days after Quentin fell the following German communique was intercepted by our wireless
"On July fourteen seven of our chasing planes
were attacked by a superior number of American
planes north of Dormans.
one
the
of
pilots
After a stubborn fight,
—Lieutenant
Roosevelt,
—who
had shown conspicuous bravery during the
fight
by attacking again and again without regard to
danger, was shot in the head by his more experienced opponent and
Not
fell
long afterward a
at
Chamery."
German
official bulletin
was found on a prisoner:
Group "Jeporen" (name
General
Ic?
Command
—The
of the general?)
Headquarters.
Intelligence officer, in the
name
of the General.
No. 128185.
Army Corps
Headquarters,
the 24th of July, 1918.
Edition including even the Companies, except those
which are just now on the first
will be only mentioned after their
[172]
lines,
relief.
and which
THE LAST PATROL
Sheet of Information, No. 10.
from the 21st of July to the 23rd of July, 1918.
THE SON OF FORMER PRESIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
ROOSEVELT, FOUND DEATH IN AN
AERIAL FIGHT ON THE MARNE
At the time
of a struggle
between a German
pursuit squadron of seven machines and twelve
American pursuit aviators above the Marne, a
fight took place between the German pursuit pilot
non-commissioned
pilot.
officer
Greper and an American
After a long fight, the
ceeded in bringing
The
hostile
down
German
airman had been
bullets in the head.
flyer suc-
his gallant antagonist.
He was
killed
identified
by two
by
his
papers as Lieutenant Roosevelt, of the U. S. A.
Flying Corps.
A
clipping from the Kolnische Zeitung obtained
through the Spanish Embassy gave this account
of the fight:
"The
aviator of the American Squadron, Quen-
[173]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
break through the
tin Roosevelt, in trying to
air
zone over the Marne, met the death of a hero.
A
formation of seven
German
Marne, saw
crossing the
Dormans a group
aeroplanes, while
American fighting
of twelve
aeroplanes and attacked them.
tle
neighborhood of
in the
A
lively air bat-
began, in which one American in particular
persisted in attacking.
The
principal feature of
the battle consisted in an air duel between the
American and a German fighting
pilot,
named
After a short struggle Greper
Sergeant Greper.
succeeded in bringing the brave American just
After a few shots the plane
before his gun-sights.
apparently got out of his control; the American
began to
lage of
fall
and struck the ground near the
vil-
Chamery, about ten kilometres north
The American
the Marne.
flyer
two shots through the head.
was
His
effects are
of the United
being taken care of
in order to be sent to his relatives.
by German
by
Papers in his pocket
showed him to be Quentin Roosevelt,
States army.
killed
of
He was buried
aviators with military honors."
The German
pilot
[
who
174
]
shot
down Quentin
THE LAST PATROL
Roosevelt told of counting twenty bullet-holes
in his
He
machine, when he landed after the
fight.
survived the war but was killed in an accident
while engaged in delivering
German
airplanes to
the American Forces under the terms of the
Armistice.
The
by the Germans were
by Captain James E.
funeral services held
witnessed on July fifteen
Gee of the 110th Infantry, who had been captured,
and was being evacuated to the rear. Captain
Gee passed through Chamery, the
little
near which the plane crashed to earth.
village
He
thus
describes the scene:
"In a hollow square about the open grave were
assembled approximately one thousand German
soldiers,
standing
were dressed in
stiffly
gray uniforms, wore
field
helmets, and carried
in regular lines.
They
steel
Officers stood at at-
rifles.
Near the grave was
it was a small group
tention before the ranks.
the smashed plane, and beside
of officers,
one of
whom was
"I did not pass
close
speaking to the men.
enough to hear what he
was saying; we were prisoners and did not have
[
175
]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
the privilege of lingering, even for such an occa-
At the time
sion as this.
I did not
know who
was being buried, but the guards informed
later.
The
funeral certainly was elaborate.
me
I
was told afterward by Germans that they paid
Lieut. Roosevelt such honor not
only because
he was a gallant aviator, who died fighting bravely
against odds, but because he was the son of Colonel
Roosevelt,
whom
they esteemed as one of the
greatest Americans."
On
July 18, in the great allied counter-attack,
the village where Quentin
fell
was retaken from
the Germans, and his grave was found by some
American
cross,
soldiers.
At
its
head was a wooden
on which was printed:
Lieutenant Roosevelt
Buried by the Germans.
Following the custom that sprang up in the
heroic soil of the air-service, the broken propeller-
blades and bent and scarred wheels of the plane
were marking
Near by
his resting-place.
lay the shattered remains of the air-
[176]
:
THE LAST PATROL
plane, with the seventy -six
Quentin had painted on
The
"wound stripes" which
it, still
engineer regiment of
to be seen.
the division that
had retaken Chamery marked the spot where the
airplane
fell,
and
raised a cross at the grave with
the inscription
Here
on the field of honor
Quentin Roosevelt
Air Service U. S. A.
rests
Killed in action July 1918.
The French
placed an oaken enclosure with a
head-board reading:
Lieutenant
Quentin Roosevelt
Escadrille 95
Tombe glorieusement
En combat aerien
Le 14 Juillet 1918
Pour le droit
Et la liberte.
A
young American
officer
in
a letter to his
family thus described the arrival of the tribute
from the French:
[177]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
*'0h yes,
—one
might be of
episode of the other day
little
I
interest.
was back
of the lines
on
a truck, in search of kitchen utensils and other
things for the men,
big
when down the road came a
open truck loaded with something which
looked like a gigantic wooden bed
feet long
and eight
feet wide.
—perhaps twelve
At the head
of
it
there was a large shield, and above this a carved
wooden
cross.
Did
I
not
know
the French idea of
homage to the dead, I would not have recognized
what it was. As we went by, I looked at the
shield in large carved letters I saw the words
—
*Quentin Roosevelt.'
far to our rear.
for,
It
You
was a
to these people, there
They
velt.
still
their
their friend;
show
no
is
buried not
is
French tribute,
bit of
is
man
like
Roose-
and
their eyes
mentioned.
He com-
talk about him,
snap whenever his name
mands
see he
profound respect: they consider him
was the only way they could
this
it."
Many
very beautiful letters were written to
who visited
them three have been selected.
Quentin's father and mother by those
the grave; from
[178]
THE LAST PATROL
The
from Bishop Brent, the second from
first is
a lifelong friend of the family, Doctor Alexander
Lambert, and the third from the Reverend C. A.
White
of Chicago:
Chamery 14th Aug.
I
am
1918.
standing by Quentin's resting place where
came up on duty
near Fismes and learned quite by accident that
he
lies
on the Field
we would
pass
of
Honor.
I
by the
grave.
It
is
at the bottom
of a shell scarred slope.
The
by the
and the twisted wheels
shaft of his plane,
are against the brick fence.
rifle
cross
There
is
is
supported
a reversed
at the foot, at the head behind the cross a
There are some
trench knife.
little
tributes
—
one from Evangeline Booth.
the grave
month today
Macfarland
for
since Quentin flew to his fate.
is
him and
with
me and we
for all of you.
diers of the
this
It
said
a
Dr.
some prayers
There are two
Division here
on
is
who
sol-
fought over
very ground and drove the Germans across
the river.
We
are
the storm of battle
still
is
in the
zone of action and
raging, though all
[179]
is
peace-
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
ful at this spot.
Tonight I
am
some
to be with
of our chaplains at a dressing station.
C. H. B.
"I do not know
if
any one has told you
kind of country around Chamery, the
lage four
hundred yards from which he
is.
Marne
seven to eight miles North of the
of the
little vil-
It
is
directly
north of Jaulgonne on the river just above a swinging curve of the road above Cierge.
is
The country
a rolling grassy open hilly place, with only here
and there small patches
I found
Last Tuesday
of woods.
some one had planted some pansies on
the grave and there were other flowers.
dently some one
fully,
is
Evi-
looking after the place care-
because no faded flowers collect there.
" Two months ago I went there to find the place
and took with
Service.
We
miles north.
me
were
A
Colonel Elliot of the British
still
fighting in Fismes a few
Field Hospital stood on a ridge
a mile away and troops were going steadily north
along the road through
Chamery
walked through a harvested oat
[180]
to Fismes.
field
with
I
little
THE LAST PATROL
purple flowers scattered through
I gathered
it.
we stood by
the stone which marks the place where the machine struck, some fifty feet from the grave, we
handfuls and so did ElHot, and as
saw coming up the
side road a staff oflScer
on
horse back, and along a path worn out across
the
field
from the main road, trudged a
American
soldiers
from the battalion halted
way to Fismes.
on the way and stood
around Quentin's grave, and
where we had
lain ours.
the real American
is
loyal tribute to
have stood
in
a group
laid their flowers
Elliot exclaimed:
spirit,
in
The boys
the village on their
picked flowers
line of
*That
an unconscious and
what both the boy and
Father
his
for.'
"It must be some comfort to
great a cause Quentin laid
realize for
down
his
personality."
how
splendid
.
j
Chicago Oct 30 1918
I
am
not sure that I do either of you a kind-
ness in sending
on
my
you
part charge
this letter.
it
If it is
a mistake
to the feelings of a father
[181]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
who has a son "somewhere
in France."
A
few
weeks ago I motored some miles from the then
Vesle battle front to the grave of your son Quentin.
if
I believe
would be a comfort to you both
it
you could see
his noble resting place in the soil
The day was beautiful.
company of boys in
khaki march past, eager, active, on their way to
the front.
There are no other marked graves
near.
The very isolation and the immediate
of
France as I saw
it.
A
Sunshine everywhere.
calmness of the scene seemed to
Yet the roar
of the
could be heard.
and
guns along the Vesle front
Captive balloons both Boche
Air planes whirred overhead
and now and then one with the
Iron Cross of the
American
like
broad
to a
more
it
your son.
it
sinister black
shot across the sky.
seemed to
me
The grave
is
for
a brave
in the midst
rolling country, at the foot of
slope which
is
Hun on
noble burial place
of a
splendid.
Allied floated lazily along the battle line a
few miles away.
A
me
a gentle
beyond the grave drops rather sharply
level field.
The view
in every direction
practically unobstructed for several miles ex-
[182]
:
THE LAST PATROL
cept by the near sloping
you know
As
hill side.
of course
a simple fence incloses the grave,
some
simple plants, I think a few faded flowers,
indicative of the loving thoughtfulness of
one.
Here where he
your
son sleeps in the
fell
now
bosom
of France.
is
field
Nature
busy making
is
is
a
beautiful
again.
She
great
this
is
grasses around the edges of shell holes,
tering
It
done, peace-
that the battle front has rolled back to
the Aisne.
battle
some
doing his whole duty
brave place to rest after one's work
ful
all
growing
and
some blood red poppies here and
scat-
there.
Your hearts would find a great peace I am sure
if you could just see where your boy sleeps.
C. A.
Don Martin
W.
thus described the scene in a
despatch
"Word
that the grave of the young lieutenant
had been found spread
division
would be
icans
rapidly.
An American
was encamped near by at the time.
difficult to
estimate the
who have made
number
of
It
Amer-
the pilgrimage to the grave
[183]
:
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
since
it
was
located.
It
is
about
feet off a small, slightly used road,
of earth overlooking a gorgeous
five
on a
hundred
little
panorama.
ledge
Paths
have been worn to the grave from a half dozen
different points
are
still
—worn by American
soldiers,
walking sometimes five and
just to see the spot
six
miles
and pay reverence to the young
American who to serve
most dangerous branch
his country entered the
of the service.'*
Quentin's death called forth
many
that flamed forth genuine feeling.
editorials
Three have
been chosen, two American and one French.
first is
who
The
from the Boston Transcript
LIEUTENANT QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
"Not with
evil intention,
but doubtless
in ac-
cordance with what they regard as chivalrous,
Germans have dropped upon our advance
lines in France what is nevertheless a poisoned
the
dart, for it
Roosevelt
is
the news that Lieutenant Quentin
This word
indeed dead.
will
bring
poignant sorrow to millions of Americans.
And
is
the sorrow will not be merely sympathy for the
[184
1
THE LAST PATROL
distinguished family
son, its Joseph
and
the people's own,
now bereaved
its
Absalom;
who
of its
it is
It
the
is
Roosevelt to dramatize
fortune
many
dear to the people
qualities
sorrow of
find in this brave
own
the type and representative of their
attachments.
youngest
youth
dearest
Theodore
of
and
sentiments
—the
home
and the home treasure; service and
spirit
sacrifice for
country; and the hopes and aspirations that are
common
to us
all.
The people
therefore feel the
death of young Roosevelt, typical boy of
boys, in a
manner
tenser than
if
all
our
they were mourn-
ing merely with another.
a boy, for he was not yet twenty-one
*'Just
years of age, following or side by side with his
brothers,
all
of them,
young Quentin Roosevelt
went, seeking the most daring service;
of
them
all
he has
fallen to his death.
and
first
The coun-
try simply stands shoulder to shoulder with the
heroic father,
death;
trust
who
says,
*A great
fight
him, he would not
but a tender pride; a kind of high
with tears in
it,
and a good
fail.'
Pride,
rejoicing,
but
especially tears for the devoted
[185]
!
"
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
mother; for a thousand bereavements exactly
it
march hand
and
it is
in
hand with
the forerunner of
AH
yet to come.
today; he
is
'*
'
this
like
bereavement,
many more thousands
our boyhoods are in Quentin's
the volunteer of
all
our volunteers:
He
leapt to arms unbidden,
Unneeded, over-bold;
His face by earth is hidden,
His heart in earth is cold.
Curse on the reckless daring
That could not wait the call.
The proud fantastic bearing
That would be first to fall
O
tears of
human
passion.
Blur not the image true;
This was not folly's fashion.
This was the
The second
is
man we
knew.'
from Reedy 's Mirror
—
St. Louis:
THE ROOSEVELTS
"How
everybody's heart goes out to Colonel
and Mrs. Roosevelt
of
their
sympathy over the death
in
son Quentin
!
The outburst
[186]
of
affec-
a
THE LAST PATROL
tionate expression has been finely spontaneous.
And
the
way the
intensifies the
ing
Colonel takes the blow only
popular admiration for him.
The parents bow
in it of theatricality.
is
Noth-
to inexorable fate in a gracious simplicity of proud
The Colonel stands
sorrow or sorrowful pride.
out, in the affliction that has befallen him, with
a finer glory than ever.
How
man.
He's an American
cheap and mean the aspersions upon
him
it
for criticising the conduct of the war
became General Pershing to send him a
his condolences.
The Colonel would be
special
the last
to say his boy, as such, deserves any
honor than another for doing his duty.
lived
and died
He
service.
planes,
fell
his father's creed
died
in the
fighting
enemy
with
lines
among
the
enemy
we all knew
seven
—as
And two other
wounded. What argument
and such a death lend to the creed
American
!
The boys
and career before
more
Quentin
of sacrificing
a Roosevelt would.
pel
Well
!
and the President to wire
cable about Quentin,
man
—
sons are
such lives
of the true
justify their father's gosall
[187]
the world.
And we
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
think of gallant, modest Quentin as typical of
all
Americans, as the flower and fruit of the patri-
otism a lax generation
call,
first
awoke to at
his father's
come and death begun its
He stands for all the fallen upon whom
before war had
revel.
no public glory
And
falls.
the Colonel and Mrs.
Roosevelt seem to gather and give
to fathers
made
and mothers
the same
standing.
sacrifice.
They say
that liberty
may
be destroyed
it is
live,
our pity
unknown who have
They take the blow
well their dear one dies
may
that force and fraud
world-affairs.
in
velt has been given
of years,
all
off
much by
Colonel Roose-
the people in a score
but now they give him their
tears, their
heart of heart; they are drawn into oneness
mak-
ing these parents' grief and pride their own.
these
gloom-glory
their country
and
hours
the
Roosevelts
their kind in high fashion.
In
serve
And
when they prayed, thousands who never prayed
before said 'Amen' to their resignation to the
Divine Will. Again the Roosevelts bound their
people in oneness of spirit about the altar where
bled their ewe-lamb.
And Quentin
[188]
rests in
Ger-
THE LAST PATROL
many by
sessed of
The
his people's orders, lives in
fame that never
last is
shall
grow
death
"
*
pos-
old.'
from Le Temps, Paris:
TEL PERE, TELS FILS
"La mort
heroique du capitaine aviateur Quen-
tin Roosevelt,
fils
de I'ancien president des Etats-
Unis, ajoute une nouvelle page de gloire et de
que seculaire
deuil a I'histoire de I'amitie plus
qui unit I'Amerique et la France, dans une magnifique confraternite d'armes, pour la defense
droit eternel et des libertes
"Le
du
du monde.
president Roosevelt, dont la vie publique
et privee fut tou jours
un admirable exemple de
courage liberalement prodigue au service des plus
nobles causes, est
le
un des hommes d'Etat qui ont
plus eflBcacement contribue au rapprochement
de toutes
les forces
champ de
bataille
morales de I'humanite sur
le
ou va se decider I'avenir de
la
conscience humaine.
Tout de
suite
il
a proteste
contre I'agression qui a dechalne la guerre et qui,
par
la violation
de
la neutralite
[189]
de
la Belgique,
a
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
donne, de prime abord, la mesure de rimmoralite
de I'agresseur.
"Si Tancien combattant de
comme
lui-meme,
il
du
venu
selon sa coutume,
et,
au
que des obstacles plus
c'est
peril,
n'est pas
prendre sa place
le desirait,
au milieu du combat
plus fort
Cuba
puissants que sa volonte I'ont retenu aux Etats-
Unis ou
les
d'ailleurs
il
ne cesse de
moyens en son pouvoir,
servir,
par tous
cause a laquelle
il
de tout cceur ses plus cheres affections.
a
sacrifie
II
nous a donne
taires,
la
ses quatre
fils,
tous engages volon-
tous animes de la plus belle emulation
d'heroisme et inspires des hautes pensees dont
la tradition paternelle
L'un d'eux,
une
le
plus jeune, deja cite a I'ordre pour
tomber au champ
.
.
"Puisse
illustre leur foyer natal.
d'incomparables
serie
blesse.
a
prouesses,
d'honneur.
Un
vient
autre
de
est
.
la
grande
ame du
trouver dans cette epreuve
president Roosevelt
la consolation et le
reconfort que voudrait lui apporter notre amitie
fraternelle!
II sait,
il
a souvent
dit,
mieux que
personne, combien la beaute du sacrifice libre-
1190]
:
THE LAST PATROL
ment consenti
est feconde en bienfaits
pour
les
generations qui viendront, apres nous, recueillir
les fruits
de nos
efforts et
de nos souffranees.
qui furent les heros d'une juste cause et
les
Ceux
mar-
tyrs d'un ideal ne eessent pas d'etre presents a
la
memoire des
par une incessante
siecles et d'agir
resurrection qui multiplie a I'infini la vertu de
leurs actes.
Ainsi vivra parmi nous le capitaine
Quentin Roosevelt, aime des
freres
d'armes qui
furent les temoins de ses exploits, honore des
mages doux
avec
a
fierte,
entoure de I'amour de la France qui
recueilli ses reliques sacrees et
sement sur sa tombe
It
is
hom-
et tendres de sa patrie qui le pleure
fitting to
glorieuse.
qui veillera pieu-
—G. D."
close this chapter with these
four personal letters
Paris July 23rd, 1918
—
My
dear Colonel Roosevelt:
Perhaps you will like to know of a tribute paid
you and your son Quentin.
Beside my other work here, I have been going
to the Neuilly hospital every morning for two
[191]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
hours to distribute American newspapers to the
wounded just arrived from the front.
rible and touching sight.
The wards
so full that
all
a ter-
is
abeady
the halls are lined with
men on
wounds
dressed.
stretchers waiting to
They
It
are
have
their
are splendidly brave and uncomplaining
and pathetically eager
day morning
I
home news. Yesteraway all my New York
for
had given
papers and had only the Paris edition of the
York Herald
found a
At the end
left.
man
New
of a long hall I
apparently asleep.
His head was
hanging over the edge of the stretcher and I put
a pillow under
opened
it
to ease his position.
his eyes I asked
it" as the question
ain't
much
through
me
I
is
have,
put among them.
—
lady "
he
he
"Oh!
it
— "just
replied
hips and somewhere in the back."
Then he saw the paper and
gave it to him and lighted a
"Gee! but
When
him "where he had gotten
that's swell"
lowed the head
cigarette.
and then as
lines of the
got the President's son !"
his eyes
paper
lit
up.
He
I
said
his eyes fol-
—"Hell
!
they
There was no question
between us of who was or had been President, no
[192]
THE LAST PATROL
need to question his or
strips
find,
my
patriotism.
—War,
I
the unessential from our lives and
speech.
Very
sincerely yours,
Laura Kelton Owens.
A
deeply appreciated personal letter came from
Baltimore:
November
My
19th.
dear Colonel and Mrs. Roosevelt:
This
is
a very old lady writing you, but I
sure I have that which will be of interest, as
feel
it is
an incident relating to the dear boy who sleeps
on Flanders
We
were in a camp up in the White Mountain
region,
tory,
tell
had
just been celebrating a reported vic-
and as a veteran
of the sixties
it fell
to
me to
my experiences, as a northern woman,
south. We had had a great camp celebra-
some
in the
tion
Field.
and
of
just finished the national
anthem, when
some one stepped up on the platform and
told us
Quentin Roosevelt had made the "supreme sacrifice."
There was an instant hush, as though
[
193
]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
every heart there was
from the back of the
bearing a big
Thee."
flag,
when out
stepped a young woman
lifted in prayer,
hall
singing
"My
All joined in singing
silently
Country
it
'Tis of
through, then
with bowed heads passed out into the
own
night, each to his
quarters.
Words cannot convey
to
you the solemnity
of
the tribute to the brave young soldier.
There
were some of us who recalled him as a
laddie
in the streets of
who
Washington.
little
There were none
failed in the tribute, or forgot the sad hearts
at Oyster Bay.
Most
A
and lovingly,
Mrs. L. B. Lair.
loyally, sympathetically
letter
from Captain Philip Roosevelt, Opera-
tions OflBcer of the First Pursuit Group, closed
thus:
**.
.
.
and manner
of his death, I
would rather
have died as Quentin did than any other way.
It
was a
critical
day
in the war.
Quentin was
taking part in a military mission of an importance
[194]
THE LAST PATROL
which could not be exaggerated, protecting a
photographic airplane fifteen kilometers in the
enemy
lines.
This mission was successful and the
photographs established beyond a doubt that the
enemy must attack within twenty-four hours
for
one could see the seventy sevens being placed in
position in open fields
and
far
back of the
lines the
reinforcements already marching up to
holes which were to be
Quentin
loss
no
and
lost his life,
less
made
in the
enemy
makes
it
fill
the
ranks.
his personal
hard to bear to know that he died at
a supreme moment, but
it
does leave behind a
tremendous inspiration for the
rest of us."
The Reverend John B. Stoudt
of
Northampton,
Pa., wrote:
"My brother Lieut.
Frederick
M. Stoudt
served
abroad during the war in the Motor Transport
Corps, and was stationed most of the time at
Verneil, France, at the Reconstruction
Park 772,
where he had charge of a department in the Sheet
Towards the end
Metal and Welding Shop.
the war he had upwards of two hundred
prisoners working in his department.
[
195
]
of
German
He
tells
of
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
a young
German
quite intelligent,
oflScer,
and who would
delighted in discussing the war,
ask
many
who
questions about America and our enter-
ing into the war.
"This young
officer told
my brother the followupon the
ing in substance, concerning the effect
Germans at the falling of your son Quentin. That
when he fell the fact was heralded throughout
the German army, and throughout the Central
powers. That photos of his grave and his wrecked
plane were published and exhibited profusedly far
and wide. That the German authorities believed
it
to be good propaganda, with which to hearten
both the soldiers and the people at home.
that
it
had the opposite
result.
that
it
effect
and produced as
were concerned a negative
far as they
That no sooner had Quentin
was whispered from ear to
to trench.
That
in it
America was
in the
ear,
effect or
fallen
fighting.
war only
but
from trench
one could see how
America everybody was
But
in free
That though
for a short time, the
son of an American President, engaged in one of
the most dangerous lines of service, was lying
[
196
]
THE LAST PATROL
back of the German
while their country
lines,
had been at war three years and that neither the
Kaiser, nor
any
scratched.
That
it
much
were ever so
of his sons
gave the
as
soldiers a vision of
the democracy of America, and helped to deepen
the feeling that they, the
common
only cannon fodder for the Kaiser.
real to
them the
difference
were
soldiers,
That
it
made
between autocracy and
democracy, of which they had heard so much.
That
this feeling spread like wild fire,
not only
throughout the army, but also among the people
at home.
That those elements
in
Germany
were opposed to the war seized upon
larged
the suggestion.
clared that in the
This young
it
oflicer
judgment of many
that
and enthis
de-
was
the largest single factor in the breaking of the
morale of the German Army."
[197]
^ CHAPTER
OFFICIAL
IV
JUDGMENT
AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
France, July 27th, 1918.
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt,
Oyster Bay, Long Island,
New York.
My
dear Colonel:
Since
my
cablegram of July 17th, I have de-
layed writing you in the hope that
learn that, through
some good
we might
still
fortune, your son
Quentin had managed to land safely inside the
German
lines.
Now
the telegram from the In-
Red Cross at Berne, stating that
German Red Cross confirms the newspaper
ternational
the
re-
ports of his death, has taken even this hope away.
Quentin died as he had lived and served, nobly
[198]
OFFICIAL
and
unselfishly;
JUDGMENT
in the full strength
of his youth, fighting the
You may
in his
well be
supreme
enemy
proud of your
and vigor
in clean
gift to
sacrifice.
I realize that time alone can heal the
know
yet I
combat.
the nation
wound,
that at such a time the stumbling
words of understanding from one's friends help,
and I want to express to you and to Quentin's
mother
my
deepest sympathy
and
friendship.
Perhaps I can come as near to realizing wh&,t
such a loss means as anyone.
Enclosed
is
Air Service.
official
vice,
a copy of his
The
official
record in the
brevity and curtness of the
words paint clearly the picture of
which was an honor to
his ser-
all of us.
Believe me,
Sincerely yours,
John
[199]
J.
Pershing.
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
GENERAL HEADQUARTERS
AMEBICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES
July 26, 1918.
MEMORANDUM
eral,
FOR:
The Adjutant Gen-
A. E. F.
SUBJECT:
Official
Record of
1st
Lieutenant
Quentin Roosevelt, Air Service.
Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt landed Liver-
1.
pool August Sth 1917, assigned Issoudun August
assigned School Aerial
17tli,
March
1st 1918, to
duty Officer in charge Train-
ing Field seven Issoudun
May
Orly
Gunnery Cazaux
March
24th, to duty
31st Chartres June 11th Toul June
13th Colombey-les-Belles June 21st, assigned to
95th Aero Squadron Toul June 24th, duty Chartres
June 25th Toul July 6th Touquin July 13th,
reported missing July 17th, confirmation by Ger-
man Red
22nd.
Cross of death in aerial combat July
Confirmed by International Red Cross
from Berne, Switzerland, July
lows:
[200]
24,
1918 as
fol-
JUDGMENT
OFFICIAL
"International
Red
Red
Cross wires that
German
Cross confirms newspaper reports Quentin
Roosevelt's death in aerial combat further details
lacking
—King Godson."
his
whole
career in the Air Service both as a cadet
and as
2. Lt.
a flying
Quentin
officer
Roosevelt
was a model
during
of the best type of
He was most
young American manhood.
teous in his conduct, clean in his private
devoted in his duty.
As an
Officer
cour-
life
and
he had the
best interests of the service always at heart, per-
formed
his
duty no matter what
it
was, whether
agreeable or not, always to the best of his ability
and without question or remark.
3.
After completion of his training as a pilot
he was selected on account of
his efficiency as
an instructor and had charge
one of the most
important flying instruction
desire
front.
for
of
fields.
His great
and hope was to be allowed to get to the
This
was
opportunity
not
practicable
a comparatively long time on account of
his expert services being
more needed as an
structor.
[201]
in-
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
4.
When
the order assigning him to duty with
came on June 24th he lost no
reporting and arrived just in time to take
the last great enemy offensive where the
a squadron finally
time in
part in
combat work by
his
squadron was most stren-
uous and aided materially in the success of the
battle.
5.
Lieutenant Roosevelt had already brought
down one enemy plane and had aided the squadron in a number of fights against large enemy air
formations where the American units dispersed
the
enemy and brought down a number
of their
His work during these combats was
aircraft.
exceptionally good, his endeavor being the success of the
squadron rather than to get individual
airplanes to his personnel credit.
6.
His
loss
was deeply
felt
by
his flying
rades in the squadron as well as by
and
soldiers with
whom
all
com-
oflScers
he had ever come into
contact.
Van Horn,
R. O.
Colonel,
Air
Service,
Asst. Chief of
[202]
Air
Service.
OFFICIAL
JUDGMENT
AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.
France, August 23rd, 1918.
Oyster Bay, L.
New
My
I.
York.
dear Colonel Roosevelt:
Believing that you and Mrs. Roosevelt would
want complete information as to where your son
rests, I
requested that there be prepared an
report,
accompanied by photographs.
just reached
me and
I
am
enclosing
official
These have
them
to you.
The manner in which Quentin's comrades have
marked and sheltered his grave shows how much
they loved him, and this must offer you and Mrs.
Roosevelt some consolation in the great sacrifice
you have made.
Again expressing
this splendid
young
my
regret over
soldier,
and
the loss of
my sympathy
with you, Mrs. Roosevelt and the family, I am,
my
dear Colonel Roosevelt,
Sincerely yours,
John
[203]
J.
Pershing.
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Washington,
le
Sept. 21, 1918.
AMBASSADE
De La
Republique Frangaise
Aux
Etats-Unis.
My
dear Colonel:
All those
who have
among
lost
us, in
whatever walk of
life,
a son in the present war, receive
as a memorial to be preserved in the family, an
engraved statement, testifying to the fact that
their child
The
gave
his life for the great cause.
President of the French Republic hopes
permit him to consider that a similar
you
will
loss
has brought you even nearer to our hearts
than ever before, and he has instructed
me
to
transmit to you and to Mrs. Roosevelt the same
token as
is
received
by the
bereft fathers
and
mothers of France.
In accordance with the directions of President
Poincare, I forward you at the same time as this
note, a case containing that document,
close herewith
a
letter
and
I en-
to you from President
Poincare.
[204]
JUDGMENT
OFFICIAL
As
this
for
me, I need not say what I
duty;
I
knew Quentin
feel in fulfilling
as a child,
could easily discover in the child the
he would be.
as in his
Believe me,
man
that
Millions of long lives will have
been forgotten when his
among us
and one
my
own
memory
will still
be fresh
country.
dear Colonel,
Most
sincerely yours,
JUSSERAND.
Presidence
de la
Republique
Paris 3rd Sept. 1918.
My
dear President Roosevelt:
Do you kindly allow me to send you,
of
in
memory
your gallant son Quentin, the same diploma
as to the parents of the French officers
diers
who
died for freedom ?
Mr. Jusserand, to
and
sol-
I charge our friend,
deliver you, with this letter,
that token of admiration.
Believe me, sincerely yours,
R. POINCARE.
[205]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Q. G. A.,
le
5 Septembre 1918
DEGOUTTE
General
Commandant
la
a Monsieur
PrSsident
le
le
VI° Armee Frangaise
ROOSEVELT
Monsieur le President,
Sur
le
entre la
territoire reconquis
par la VI° Armee
Marne et I'Aisne, avec I'aide des
vaillantes
troupes des Etats-Unis, nous avons voulu donner
aux braves, morts glorieusement pour
la defense
des Droits de THumanite, une sepulture qui per-
mettra aux families qui
les
pleurent de reconnaitre
de leur dernier repos, et a ceux qui recueil-
le lieu
leront le fruit de leur heroisme, de venir, dans les
annees qui suivront la paix victorieuse, leur apporter le tribut de leur reconnaissance profonde-
ment emue.
Parmi les
plus glorieuses tombes, ou se feront
ces pieux pelerinages, sera celle de votre
Lieutenant Aviateur Quentin Roosevelt,
quement frappe en
de protection au-dessus de
de Ris,
14 Juillet,
le
jour
[206]
meme
la
oil la
le
hero'i-
plein vol, en effectuant
patrouille
le
fils,
une
Foret
France
JUDGMENT
OFFICIAL
celebrait
I'anniversaire
de
la
conquete de ses
Liberies.
EUe
se trouve pres de la
pendant de
la
Commune
Ferme de Reddy,
de Coulonges
de-
—Je vous
envoie la photographie qui en a ete prise.
deposer personnellement une
tenu a y
J'ai
couronne pour rendre
hommage a
la
memoire du
jeune heros.
En
vous adressant ce pieux souvenir, permettez-
moi. Monsieur le President, de vous exprimer de
tout coeur la part que je prends au deuil cruel qui
vous frappe.
Le Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt
quement tombe en
de
I'ideal
commun
terre frangaise
pour
est
le
heroi-
triomphe
de nos deux Pays, dont
la vieille
amitie devient de jour en jour plus etroite en se
scellant
sur les
du sang
si
champs
^ de
noblement
verse, cote
bataille.
a cote,
t\
Degoutte.
Le GijNERAL PETAIN
Monsieur le President,
J'apprends
la
^^ "^"^"^^ ^^^^
mort glorieuse de votre
capitaine aviateur Roosevelt,
[207]
tombe au
fils,
le
front de
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
France en combattant pour
cause de la
la
li-
berie.
Si voire douleur
menl, vous
que voire
le
fils
batlant sous
pent avoir quelque adoucisse-
Irouverez cerlainement dans ce fait
a Irouve une morl heroique en comles plis
du drapeau Americain que
comme
France enliere salue
le
symbole de
la
la
victoire cerlaine.
Veuillez agreer,
les
sinceres
el
Monsieur
vives
President,
le
avec
condoleances de I'Armee
Frangaise, I'assurance de toute
ma
sympalhie.
Ch. Petain.
SG
GRAND QUARTIER GENERAL
Des
ARMEES FRANCAISES DE
L'EST
ETAT-MAJOR
Du Personnel
(Decorations)
Bureau
ORDRE No
12,027
"D."
(EXTRAIT)
Apres approbation du General Commandant en
Chef
les
Forces expeditionnaires Americaines en
[208]
:
OFFICIAL
JUDGMENT
Marechal de France, Commandant en
France,
le
Chef
Armees Frangaises de
les
I'Est, cite
a I'Ordre
de L'ArmSe.
Lieutenant Pilote Quentin Roosevelt, a I'Escadrille
Americaine 95
"Excellent pilote de chasse, possedant
belles qualites
les
plus
de courage et de devouement, Le
10 Juillet 1918, apres un combat contre 5 avions
A
ennemis, a abattu un de ses adversaires,
ete
tue-glorieusement au cours d'lm combat aerien.
le
14 Juillet 1918."
Au
le 29 Novembre 1918
Le Marechal De France,
Commandant en Chef les Armees Frangaises de L'Est,
Quartier General,
Pour Extrait Conforme:
Le Lieutenant-Colonel,
Chef du Bureau du Personnel
(Signature illegible)
From
"The
Petain.
the Naval Institute of July, 1919:
only French war craft
citizen other
than of France,
[209]
is
named
after a
the torpedo-boat
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
destroyer Quentin Roosevelt,
named
recently as a
mark
of respect to the late ex-president
son.
The
destroyer
is
and
his
the former Russian Buiki,
which has been taken over by French naval authorities
and renamed.
September.
She was rechristened
The Quentin
Roosevelt
last
was turned
over by the Russians to the French because their
navy was at that time short
unable to
man
her."
of
men and
Institute.
[2101
they were
CHAPTER V
"THE JUDGMENT OF HIS PEERS"
HDQRS. FIRST PURSUIT GROUP
—AMERICAN
AIR SERVICE
E. F,
December
Dear Colonel Roosevelt:
On going through our files
21, 1918.
preparatory to de-
Group Head-
mobilization of the First Pursuit
quarters, the enclosure (a report locating
Quen-
grave) was discovered, having been caught
tin's
with some other papers and
filed
away by mis-
As the information requested was
take.
given
officially in
another
letter, it is
later
not neces-
sary for us to forward the enclosed indorsement,
and
I thought that perhaps
terested in having
it,
as
it
is
you might be
signed
by one
in-
of
Quentin's great friends, Lieut. Hamilton Coolidge,
who, as you know, was subsequently killed in
the Verdun Sector on October 27th.
It
is
needless for
me
to say that Quentin's loss
[211]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
was mourned by everybody
was one
of the
most popular
zation, being liked
I
know
than he did.
He
He
Group.
oflScers in
by everyone,
no one who
of
in the
the organi-
oflficers
and men.
really enjoyed life
more
always entered into the
spirit
of everything, whether
it
was work or pleasure.
The day he was killed, he was in charge of an
entertainment we were giving to assist in celebrating the French National Holiday, July 14th,
and at the rehearsal given the night
the
life
of the party, inspiring
his enthusiasm.
and
before,
That night he came to
I shall always
remember
bed and describing to
me in his
was
everybody with
my
his sitting
room,
on
my
inimitable manner,
the programme that he had laid out.
He and
Captain Coolidge reported to the First
Pursuit Group
when we were
in the
Toul Sector,
and both explained that they had been boyhood
friends for the past eight years
get into the
and wished to
same Squadron. There was a vacancy
two Squadrons so the Commanding Officer
assigned Quentin to the 95th and Lt. Coolidge,
in
as he was then, to the 94th.
[212]
Both became Flight
Commanders in their respective Squadrons. Capt.
Coolidge
to
me
very deeply, and often spoke
felt his loss
The day Capt. Coolidge was
about him.
killed,
October 27th, he stopped in
as he
was leaving on
then of Quentin.
my
his last patrol,
I recall
now
office just
and spoke
his saying that
he
wished Quentin could have survived to have been
with him at St Mihiel-Verdun offensive, in which
this
Group had been
so successful.
Coolidge, as
you know, had become an Ace, and had eight
official
enemy
airplanes to his credit.
most under the shadow
of the Armistice as
were, his loss was deeply felt
Very
Killed, alit
by everyone.
sincerely yours,
Henry
L,
Lyster
Captain, Air Service U. S. A.
^""^^ ^®'
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt:
It
seems almost incomprehensible that Quen-
tin is really gone.
minds
quiet
^^^^
me
of him.
At every turn something
re-
This afternoon I walked in a
wood where Q. and
I walked
and chatted
together only a few days before his death.
[213]
I
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
could almost hear his voice but
awful empty feeling inside.
complete person
—not
some
in
teresting
and lovable
knew had
ever
am
a mere friend who
many
trying to write a
since his
way
in every
is
an
is
in-
was
in-
No
one I
from so many
of people.
sketch of Quentin
little
coming to France,
—he
way.
friends
and conditions
different types
I
so
there
Quent was such a
particular
teresting
still
in the
hope that I
you some things about him
which you would never have learned from his
may be
able to
letters.
This
as
it is
in the
tell
will
not be finished for a while yet,
necessary to write in between times and
to express what I feel
quate;
Also,
midst of distractions.
still
I shall
makes
do
my
you to know about some
it
my
ability
hopelessly inade-
best, as I
do so want
of the things that
boy
has done here.
Quentin's daring has
on
all of us.
after
left
a profound impression
remember once
I
at Issoudun,
when
making a bad landing and narrowly missing
a ditch, he told
ing feeling,"
me
that he had a "horrible sink-
but when
it
came to facing live Boches
[214]
number
superior
in
far
inside their lines,
and
each armed with two deadly machine guns, the
"sinking feeling" did not figure at
pilots find
a "miss
firing
Too many-
all.
motor" or "leaking water
connection" an excuse for avoiding proximity
Boche
to
planes.
presence of
Quentin, however, found the
enemy planes an excuse for temporarily
own
apparatus.
made a deep
impression
overlooking the inferiority of his
His aggressive
spirit
has
throughout our Air Service, and I find in Quentin's death, I
won't say a vindication of Mr. Roose-
velt's attitude
War programme, but
towards our
a factor which gives his words redoubled
One heard
occasionally, about
a year ago, these
words, "Yes, the Roosevelt boys are
across,
jobs."
but you can be sure
force.
they'll
all
going
be given
staff
Strangely enough several of the people
who made
similar remarks
have found that they
are temperamentally better suited to be instructors at the Aviation Schools, rather
than mere
pilots at the front.
I
am
enclosing a letter from one of Quentin's
former mechanics.
It arrived
[215]
a few days after
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
and
his death
those boys
is
felt
way every one
typical of the
of
toward him.
I feel that I share with
you and Mr. Roose-
velt the thrill of pride that
was given us by the
circumstances of Quentin's splendid victory, and
of his even
more splendid death, and
my
to accept
I ask
you
deepest sympathy at so sacred a
Affectionately yours,
Hamilton Coolidge.
HAMILTON COOLIDGE's SKETCH
On
the trip across Quentin busied himself most
of the time in
the
becoming better acquainted with
officers of his
previously
detachment,
knew but
slightly.
many of whom he
He was thoroughly
enthusiastic about the job ahead; his enthusiasm
was fundamental, and seemed to me
that of
many
of his
acquired theirs in the
distinct
from
comrades who apparently
much
talking
and specula-
tion that accompanied the after dinner smoke.
Even
dent
his
it,
to black
worst spells of homesickness did not
though
his natural cheerfulness
gloom on that tedious
[216]
trip.
changed
^
Often we walked together in the evenings on
the unHghted decks, and always the conversation
developed into reminiscences of the events so
fresh in our minds.
himself.
.
.
Never was he sorry
.
Almost never did he speak
gers ahead of him,
and then only
way.
Once
I ever
come back?" but
in
in
for
of the dan-
a most casual
a great while he wondered "Shall
wonder how long
it will
far
more often
it
was "I
be before we come back."
His attitude seemed to be
fatalistic.
He went on
the principle that he was on an adventure in
which a
definite object
was to be obtained.
When
that object was obtained he was coming back. If
some accident befel him in the course of it, that
was something he could not foresee then why
—
worry.?
Quentin did not begrudge the fact that
war was going to demand
would place him
only
thing
his best efforts, that it
in great personal danger.
he begrudged
was the inordinate
amount of precious time that it would occupy.
Upon
tin
arriving in France
was sent
The
.
.
.
on August 14th, Quen-
directly to Issoudun to take charge
of transportation,
and
for a while supplies also.
[217]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
The camp then consisted of little more than a
half dozen army tents, and Cord Meyer was
about the only one of his old friends then with
him. All I knew of Quentin during the next two
months came from his comrades who occasionally
had business in Paris. Somehow Transportation
and supplies didn't seem to be within the
field of
Quentin*s previous experiences, but everyone spoke
of
how
well
He
he was doing.
successfully con-
ducted several trench trains of supplies from a
sea-port
town and some of the supplies he obtained
occasioned
other
them.
considerable
men had been
comment because the
unsuccessful in obtaining
I later learned that
Quentin never needed
previous experience to handle a job successfully.
His versatility was unlimited.
in the air service
Probably no
officer
has had more different jobs than
Quentin in the same length of time, and made a
real success of each.
Yet
all the time he was
doing these jobs, not because he liked them but
because he saw that they were inevitable before
flying could really begin.
cared about.
Flying was what he
One day a Frenchman landed
[218]
at
!
"THE JUDGMENT OF HIS PEERS'*
the
field in
a Caudion.
After lunch Quentin was
looking over the machine.
a Caudion before,
He had
in fact for over
never driven
two months he
had not flown at all. Neither of those facts disturbed him in the least; he wanted to fly. Two
mechanics cranked the engine and a minute later
Quentin was
him and
circling the field in
controlled in a different
any plane he had hitherto been
It
a machine new to
was during
manner than
in
this period that
Cord Meyer became such good
Quentin and
friends.
frequently took motor cycle trips together.
They
Both
had some bad smashes, but that seemed only the
rather amusing accompaniment of their good
times together.
It
was then,
came acquainted with the
too, that
delightful
they be-
Normant
family at Romorantin.
On
new
October 15th, when the school opened a
administration took hold.
From then on
the plan of things and even the personnel, was
constantly changing for a while.
had some job on
away
his hands.
in charge of
Quentin always
One week he went
The nest
a trucking detail.
[219]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
saw him
was
in
command
called to Paris
for supplies.
of
on questions
seemed as
if
little
Often he
of accountabilities
His duties were so
that for a while he had
really
a Squadron.
many and
chance to
his superiors used
him
hard job which required tactful handling.
of
one case in particular in
cadets at the school in
its
varied
fly.
It
for
any
I think
The
this connection.
early days
had under-
gone some very trying disappointments in regard
to their commissions
and
their pay; they were a
Quentin was put in
demoralized crowd of boys.
charge of them.
his entire
ties.
He
For several weeks he devoted
time to straightening out their
had no chance to
his shoulders
and the
fly
strain
difficul-
with this work on
began to
tell.
Com-
ing back from a cross country trip I found
him
and strongly urged him to go to bed.
He
sick
said that
he couldn't leave
his
work and went
when he really became sick.
There were several of us down with grippe at the
same time, while Quentin had pneumonia. Under
Miss Givenwilson's personal care most of us had
right ahead.
That
is
soon recovered, but Quentin's sickness had reached
[220]
a stage where nothing but a complete rest and
change could do him good.
that he went,
remember
I
if
rate he stayed there but
was to Bordeaux
It
two days,
after
returned to Paris.
He
those two days
had snowed and
it
said
it
At any
correctly.
which he
was because during
if
was
there
going to be bad weather in Southern France he
might as well stay in Paris.
that what really brought
know, however,
I
him back
was
to Paris
the persistent devotion to family which was always
so
marked
in him.
Field Seven
at Issoudun.
is
It
where formation flying
is
where Quentin
ing through his acrobatic flying
It
Paris, to
taught
made
his
He was sent there after rush-
mark at the School.
from
really
is
upon returning
be the OflScer in charge of
flying.
was the one job he had a chance to hold long
enough to organize thoroughly.
While anxious to
go to the front Quentin realized the
desire for
down
to
there.
Meyer
some time
make the
to
come and
to be there with
a while, before Cord
[221]
that
therefore settled
best he could out of his
He was happy
for
futility of
left.
work
Cord
In thinking
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
over those days I always think of Quentin at
That is when I knew him best. It
when he had his most permanent job and when
he did his best work. It is when he won the
devotion of all the mechanics in a way that gave
Field Seven.
is
a fine lesson to the "over military" type of
who
tries to
ness of
officer
impress his authority by an abrupt-
manner and speech assumed
for the occa-
sion.
Every morning prompt at seven o'clock a
gaudily painted plane could be seen circling the
camp, sometimes ducking
in
and out
of
ing clouds, at others diving, twisting
low hang-
and
rolling
in
an extravagant demonstration of nice handling.
It
was Quentin
in his beloved
"Dock Yack"
plane
trying out the weather before sending his pupils
off
on
patrol.
and the
shield
In addition to the star cockades
and wing
insignia
upon the top
wing, Quentin had employed a jack-of-all-trades
mechanic to paint upon both sides of the fuselage
a representation of
"Doc Yack"
depicted in the Goldberg cartoons.
in his auto, as
Quentin was
extremely pleased with this plane, both as to
appearance and flying
qualities.
[222]
All the time during flying hours
upon the
and the
field
he was out
wearing a grimy long leather coat
bonheur"
traditional silk stocking "porte
as his only
He seemed
head gear.
moving about.
Patrols took off
to be always
and returned
with more and more precision as time went on.
Planes were ready on time; they were lined carefully to white chalk lines,
oil
and the accumulated
and dust seemed to disappear from
and undercarriages.
their sides
Often I happened to be
near when Quentin was criticizing a student
" What were
you doing a quarter
the formation
when
flyer.
of a mile behind
passed over Vatan?", or
it
perhaps "Yes Williams I realize that the Chateauroux hospital possesses a peculiar fascination
for
you
(the nurses) but
two hundred
ness,
and
feet
you know that acrobatics
from the ground
incidentally weren't
is
poor busi-
you supposed
to be
in the formation a thousand metres above ? "
In-
variably a puzzled, usually sheepish expression
appeared on the face of the victim as he
dered
how
and then
structor
his instructor
realized that
knew
first
won-
of all these things,
he was not the type of
who watches proceedings from a
[223]
chair
in-
on
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Had any
the ground.
carefully
of the
men on
patrol looked
above at times they might have seen a
small Nieuport
inquisitively
circling
overhead.
Indeed the ubiquitousness of their instructor
ways puzzled the students,
ground when they
returned,
flight
and
left
for
al-
was he not on the
and then
also
when they
yet was there any incident of their
around the country which he did not know
An
about ?
instructor
who
flew himself,
who
fre-
quently took a student's place in formation, must
be a
man who
figured
took an interest in his work, they
—and the quality
the reputation of the
adjusted
At
duty
itself
of the flying
field
and hence
gradually but surely
accordingly.
Field Seven there was a supply Officer whose
it
was to secure the many spare parts that
are essential in the maintenance of airplanes.
There was a construction
officer
who
supervised
the building of barracks, the driving of wells,
the installation of electric light plants and machine
tools in the shop.
efforts
Sometimes
in spite of all their
the spare parts were unavailable, the build-
ing material could not be
had
[224]
for love or
money.
"Requisitions had been in for two weeks, but
At supper someone
Quentin?" and another
had happened."
nothing
would ask "Where
would answer
camp on
"Oh
is
he has gone over to the main
and the subject would
his motorcycle,"
be dismissed.
Next morning, however, the needed
parts or material would suddenly
Once
appear upon a truck.
member when a
the camp. The
long awaited
and mysteriously
in particular I re-
dynamo
arrived at
had become inadequate
old one
The new one
after being carefully cleaned and assembled by
willing mechanics stood ready to supply the much
as the
demands upon
it
increased.
needed current as soon as a suitable foundation
should be built for
it
to rest upon.
"But
there's
not a bit of cement in the supply room;
have to wait
until they send it
plained the construction
we'll
from Paris," com-
officer.
That night
it
was dark and drizzly so nobody noticed when
Quentin
disappeared
men
about nine o'clock
with
About an hour later
two
the truck returned with twenty bags of cement
of his
inside.
in a truck.
" Where did you get the cement ? " some-
[225]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
one asked.
"Stole
And
reply.
let it
was
official title
was Quentin's laconic
it,"
be remembered that Quentin's
"Oflficer in
charge of Flying at
Field Seven."
Then
tin,
many
there were
rainy days
We used the room in
couldn't work.
when we
which Quen-
the Doctor and the Captain (C. O. of the
lived as a sitting
room;
field)
usually the four of us
but occasionally several more would wander
in.
The Captain was a Southerner and enjoyed crap
games
bed
—so
it
rolling the dice
vately
after
it
dice
we
all
was.
We
on Quentin's
sat
and exchanging
Pri-
francs.
took our cue from the Captain
about two games you couldn't
tell
—but
whether
was he or Quentin who was the veteran "crap-
shooter."
He
put his whole heart into every-
thing he did whether
ing pilots for war.
current
it
was
When
game he was
rolling dice or develop-
he did not play
sitting in the
in the
box wood arm
chair reading or writing letters with a concentration that
me.
No
and the
was always a source
of
wonder to
how much noise the phonograph
gamblers made he never " batted an eye."
matter
[226]
It
seemed to make not the
He
him.
ing,
slightest difference to
always managed to keep up his read-
but I could never discover whether or not
One minute I would
the "Rhymes of Ironquill," or
he had a system about
it.
him reading
Dunsany the next
would be Bos well's Life
find
—
of Johnson.
He
in his pocket,
it
nearly always carried a book
which reminds
me
of Archie at
I think Quentin always kept several
Groton.
books going at the same time and read whichever
one happened to be handy.
He
seemed to
like
queer and obscure things, but probably they were
"queer and obscure" only to me!
spent time reading them
it
Anyway
if
he
was only because he had
already read every standard and
known
author.
After an idle day a dinner in town at the "cafe
de I'Aviation" usually followed
the
"Gappy"
admit
it)
(he hated the
and Doc
—often
or other friend at the
The
following
are
—sometimes with
name but wouldn't
with some Frenchmen
main camp.
extracts
Coolidge's letters to his family:
[227]
from Lieutenant
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
"Q. seems to
figure in almost everything
permission to try the
amus-
Last Tuesday I got
ing that happens to me.
monoplane again.
little
Thinking to make a big impression (because
monoplane commands attention wherever
I
As
headed straight
I
drew near
for here,
it
our outlying
this
goes)
field.
I spotted Q. in his gaudily deco-
rated plane, circling around a toy balloon
over the
field,
so of course I sailed
up to say
up
hello.
Just as I got close, however, he turned his attention from the toy balloon flipped over on his
back and came diving down on
That
me
possibility hadn't occurred to
must never
manoeuvre
known
in attack.
me, but one
refuse a combat, so I hastened to
Well
position.
for
that the
mono
is
it
is
commonly
far superior here to
all
the other planes in speed, climb and manoeuvre
ability,
little
but as
devil
demanding
it
it
was only
and as
it is
my
second trip in the
a very sensitive appareik
skilful handling, I didn't
dare to whisk
around in the slap-dash manner that would
have saved the
situation,
was ignominiously defeated
[228]
and consequently I
in the fight.
Now
my
chances of revenge are poor because another
wrecked the Httle plane.
pilot has since
hard
It
is
life.
"Yesterday Q. and I once more attacked the
Major on the subject
of getting out to the front.
Well, a rather discouraging circumstance renders
it
useless just
now, so there's obviously nothing
to do but wait in patience."
July 11, 1918
Quentin and I were not assigned to the same
squadron.
We
are in the
same group, conse-
quently operate from the same base and see each
me tell you of the splenmain he sprang today. While on
with some eight or nine of his comrades
other frequently.
Let
did cowp de
patrol
over the
in
lines,
the formation became broken up
some quick manceuvering.
himself alone.
utes he
saw three planes
and hastened to
behind them.
Q. suddenly found
After circling around a few min-
It
in formation not far
rejoin them, falling into place
seemed a
little
queer that his
leader should be going so far within the
lines,
away
but he thought no more about
[229]
it
enemy
until the
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
made a sudden
leader
upon
rudder
his
—a
turn exposing to
large black cross
full
view
" Wrong
!
again" said Q. to himself, but his brain kept right
on working.
man who
Sneaking close up behind the rear
him or supposed him
to be one of his friends, Q. took careful aim and
let him have a stream of bullets from his machine gun.
The plane wavered a second, then
either did not see
toppled over and
spinning in a spiral like a
fell
Q. reversed and headed for
winged stone.
at full speed pursued
whom
little
he gradually
by two bewildered
left
further behind as his
Nieuport roared along.
glance revealed his victim
fall
of
home
Huns
A
still
quick backward
spinning after a
some nine or ten thousand
disappeared in a cloud bank.
feet;
he then
Isn't that
one of
the most remarkable true tales you have ever
heard
.5^
It's
doubtful
—too far inside their
Captain
if
this
Boche
is
confirmed
lines.
Coolidge became one of America's
leading aces; he was killed on October 27, 1918,
by a
direct hit
from an
anti-aircraft
[230]
gun
whilst
*'THE
JUDGMENT OF
diving through a
terrific
HIS PEERS"
barrage to the rescue of
two observation planes which were being
tacked by
The
six
at-
German machines.
following
is
the letter Coolidge mentions as
having arrived a few days after Quentin's
last
fight:
On
Dear
Lieut. Roosevelt:
I've just read
with the
Active Service
^""^^ ^^' i^^^-
about your victorious tangle
Huns and my
only regret
is
that I
can not, or rather could not be there to witness
it.
Nevertheless I want to congratulate you and
wish you
all
Everyone
sorts of luck.
of the fel-
lows in the 37th are tickled to death.
There's no use telling you that
cause
No
we
do.
Everything
is
we miss you,
going on the same.
doubt you already know that Lieut. Davis
has gone to the front.
I've got a
doubt).
me
And
to offer
new
this
you
flivver (exciting
about
is
my
all.
news
this,
no
So again allow
heartiest congratulations.
[231
]
:
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Hoping that
you'll get 'steen more, I
ever,
c;-
i
Smcerely yours
Priv. 1st
remain as
"
'^d^go
CI D. A. Di
Fiore S7th Aero
Squadron Amer. Forces France
O. K. Censored by: A. K. Lowell, Lt. U. S. A.
A. S. S. C.
—Yes
Lt. Coolidge
for
you and
Best of luck.
A. K. L.
the boys are
back
here.
all
Mr. W. H. Crawford, President
College,
gave
this
of Allegheny
account of a meeting with
Quentin
"Our truck broke down, and
I
the mess, but Lieut. Roosevelt
in the hut,
view.
It
and we had a most
was too
came
late for
to see
me
interesting inter-
was a wretchedly sloppy
night, the lieu-
tenant's rain coat was pretty well spattered with
mud, but he was bright, eager and full of life.
"As we went out into the rain to his sidecar
said to him: 'Lieutenant there are large
of
I
numbers
Americans who are very proud of the way the
four sons of Theodore Roosevelt are acquitting
themselves in this war.'
I never shall forget
[232]
how
up
his face lighted
know
it's
rather
as he
up
made
reply: 'Well
to us to practice
what
you
father
preaches.'
"On
Lieut.
his
sides I
all
heard only good things about
Quentin Roosevelt and the devotion of
men
to him.
I
winter months the
was told that often during the
men would remain out
storm and train under him, and do
as they did not under
The
to
any other
it
in the
cheerfully,
officer."
following are extracts from letters written
their
relatives
the A. E. F.
or
friends
who had come
by members
in
of
contact with
Quentin:
From A.
J.
Whaley:
"Young Roosevelt is as modest as a schoolgirl,
but as game as they make them in aviation. Keep
tabs on this game young chap."
From Lieutenant John
"As you know by
Quentin Roosevelt
F. Wheelock:
this time,
our hopes that
was only a prisoner were
[233]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
blasted and
it is
quite certain he
bad, because he was a peach.
scrap
with
it
died in a great
German
appears, and was buried in
soil
military honors."
full
From Banner
Shull:
"Quentin Roosevelt
We
He
Too
gone.
is
is
in charge
on these
He
boys would do anything for him.
sees that his
men
trips.
always
are taken care of before he
thinks of himself."
From Sergeant
"All those
bum
We
gone now.
C. A. Gardiner, Jr.:
deals that I spoke of are
have a
real
plum
man commanding
We
now, one of Colonel Roosevelt's sons.
us
have
only had him a short while but would do more for
him than
You
get
all
the time
we knew the
other man.
—don't you—the minute stuff?"
me
From Corporal Aleck Barlow:
"It hit
me
pretty hard as I
knew him
used to look after his plane for him
when he was our
instructor.
[234]
well
quite a
He was
one
and
little
of the
best and finest
fellow
and
men
thing like him.
he ever ran for
If
wonder
I
full of life.
he
is
I
Just a young
knew.
I ever
if
his
dad
would vote
office again.
for
any-
is
him
if
All the boys in the
37th thought a great deal of him and hated to see
him go
From
to the front.
a
writing to
member
He was
of
sure a prince."
Quentin's
first
"outfit,"
some one whose son was "missing":
"I guess you
feel
about the same way we
all
when we heard of Lieut. Roosevelt's death.
He came over with this squadron, that is the old
29th now the 400th and everybody thought there
was nobody like him, and last winter in Issoudun
I helped him get his motor cycle started many
times when it was so cold. He was a wonderful
did
fellow
and afraid
of nothing."
From Mr. R. M. Washburn:
"Yesterday, while an Italian was cutting
hair in a barber shop, he told
me
my
that he had
served overseas with him, saying, in his
own
words: 'He was afraid of nothing with his aero-
[235]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
plane; a great operator; was one of us,
fight, play,
I ever saw.'
box,
"
—do
"I had a great week,
Formation
formation.
the goodest kid
anything;
From Lieutenant Geo.
and could
B. Bailey:
this last one, flying in
flying
in
is
charge
Lieut. Quentin Roosevelt, the son of our
T. R., and he
mighty
is
a chip
and popular
fine
From Arthur Weirich
"Look
off
of
famous
the old block, and a
fellow."
—Air Service:
at Quentin Roosevelt, one of the finest,
cleanest, bravest
and yet he
is
—a
boys in France
one of the first men to get
thing in the world waiting for
good
it.
him back
flyer;
Everyin the
United States."
From an
"I
am
aviator in the A. E. F. to his parents:
with a fine bunch of boys; one especially
—Quentin Roosevelt—
and he keeps
is
a wonderfully fine chap,
his father's picture
[236]
up
in his tent at
"
all
times
—told
us
it
gives
him great courage
to
look at his father's face."
From Guy Bonney,
1st Battalion, 1st
Gas Regi-
ment, September 30, 1918:
who was
"Lt. Quentin Roosevelt, the aviator
killed in the
Chateau Thierry and the son of the
former President, was I believe their most talked
about and worshiped aviator.
he received
They had
all
on
of his instruction
his old aeroplane,
had painted to
It being
by
itself
this field.
'Doc Yak,' which he
his fancy with this
cature, in a hangar
because
and
it
famous
cari-
was an object
They told us to crawl in
we would have something
to remember him by, which we did. Then, when I
made the remark that I had been camped for a
of admiration
by
and be seated
in
all.
it
so
length of time up there within a quarter of a mile
of his grave, they certainly did
commence
to ask questions about
it.
I
saw
when the Germans had a cross
and inscribed in German placed over
burial place
theirs
crowd around and
They called Roosevelt
his
of
it.
'the enlisted man's friend.'
[237]
:
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
From an
oflBcer of
"A young
is
the A. E. F.
Lieutenant in our Flying Corps
who
me about
He said that
at present staying here, talked to
Quentin, and his work at the school.
Quentin was a sort of chief among the instructors,
that he was a strict disciplinarian but was loved
by everybody, and that he was
of the greatest
who were learning to fly. He
a moment reflecting, and then, half
use to the fellows
stopped for
to himself, he muttered
From Miss
I.
M
'He was a prince!'"
Given wilson
of the
Red
Cross,
stationed at Issoudun:
"Though my heart aches
cannot but
feel
at the loss of
I
a joy and pride at having known
such a boy.
He
since he has
been over here.
has done such excellent work
what could be expected
He knew how
him
to handle
of
him
He showed
just
through
life.
all
men, understood them,
and was beloved by them.
He was
so valuable
as the officer in charge of training at Field Seven,
that he was sent to the Front with great reluc-
tance by the commanding officer here."
[238]
JUDGMENT OF
•'THE
This
is
HIS PEERS"
by Mr. H. A.
part of a letter written
Maxwell, of Maiden, Massachusetts, to Quentin's
father:
"As a
Y man
for the
officers
with
pioneer
one of the
first
camp, he was
whom
became
I
acquainted, and his splendid co-operation as an
officer in
make a
charge of transportation enabled
record in building
my
first
me
to
He, with
hut.
a detail of men, went to Chattereaux, twentyseven kilometers distant, and got the
that
came
to
He
camp.
also
first
assisted
piano
me
in
organizing two debating clubs, and while he was
the
Commanding
personal
field,
men
Squadron
will
his
be long
For a short time they were quar-
and
them on a hike
I recall his taking
On
one afternoon.
a large
with the
influence
remembered.
antined,
Officer at the 36th
his return
under a
tree,
he made a halt in
and gave them a good
heart-to-heart talk.
In handing him
had opportunity
my
for
letters to
many
I recall his putting his
little
hand on
be censored, I
chats with him.
my
shoulder one
day and saying, *Y man, how could we get along
without you/
I replied,
*Ah, go on;
[239]
you are
'
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
just like your daddy.'
*Yes, I know,' he said,
'but I've got a great daddy,'
I appreciated this
frank and tender reference to his father, as
am
too,
I,
one.
"One day he stopped me
prior to its completion,
in front of the
and said
in his
hut
way, with
'Why do you call that a
What a great home for
palace.
which you are famihar,
hut?
I call
the boys
it
a
!
"His kind consideration
for
others was very marked.
known your
son,
and
I
I assure
the interest
am
of
glad to have
you that your
splen-
did spirit and your sacrifice for this great struggle to
make
the world better
tion to every true
American
is
a source of inspira-
citizen."
Quentin's family received several touching
ters
let-
from French parents:
Madame:
Bizons par Cuzaguet Htes Pyrenees
20 Octobre 1918
Nous venons, moi et mon
conduit de 48 hemes pour
mari, d'avoir un sauf
aller voir
notre pay
reconqui, et c'est avec le coeur serree que nous
avons revue notre petit
villages.
[240]
Helas, de notre
interieure tout a ete enleve;
les
croi,
done,
ne nous reste que
La maison
yeux pour pleure.
souffer, elle
il
n'a pas trop
a ete un peut repaire, et Ton peut, je
maintenant se metre a
Madame,
le
me
notre maison, car je
I'abrie.
Je
me
de venir vous
plaisir
suis fait
porte un bouquet sur la
fait
offrire
un devoir de
tombe de votre cher
enfant, le capitaine Quentin, qui a ete enterre
a cote de notre
De
villages.
chez moi
minutes pour votre enfant.
comme
il
le
lui
II
il
y a 10
a ete
fait
meritait une jolie tombe, et de tous.
C'est pauvre soldats nous avons toujour represente
les parents.
Aussitot qu'il arrive un regiment Americains
tous von sur la
vous
Madame
tombe de votre cher
je viens
vous
cette
maudite guerre
notre maison
offrir
jour ou vous pouvez venir car
il
Nous
restons a Coulonges
Madame, mon profond
1.
respect
Felicie Fourquet.
refugiees a Bizons.
a
Madame
et
Monsieur Roosevelt.
[241
]
le
esperons assez
en Tardenois, Aisne, rue du Poinson N°
Agree,
A
faut espere que
finira bientot,
de misere et de mine.
enfant.
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
11 Quai de Conti
Paris le 17 JuUlet 1918
Madame,
Permettez a
la
mere d'un obscur fantassin
Francais de vingt ans de venir vous dire qu'elle
partage votre douleur, mele ses larmes aux votres,
et vous remercie de toute son
en
la
ame de votre sacrifice
personne de votre cher enfant Quentin.
Madeleine Dornec.
The
following letters from Quentin's comrades
need no introduction or explanation:
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt:
A
a
mother doesn't need to be told the kind of
man
that her boy
make you
what
Lovington, 111.
Easter Sunday
his
is,
and yet perhaps
it
would
just a bit happier should I tell
friends thot
lad he was.
I'd
of
you
him, what a regular
have written sooner but was a
prisoner since July 5th
and
just arrived
home a
while ago.
Quentin and I roomed together at Toul when
came up to the front. One comes to know
ones room mate, down deep inside. There are
he
first
[242]
so
many
things that
little
don't need to
tell
you
show
his measure.
I
of his flying, his bravery;
words seem inadequate, and others have already
I can only say that he
tried that.
man and an
a
excellent flyer,
was a brave
man one
liked to
have with him when the odds were on the other
side,
and hope
poorly.
At
you'll
night,
if
understand what I say so
were asleep or he thot
I
that I was, he'd tip toe to his cot, would be just
as quiet as possible, he did a thousand little considerate things that
do not seem important, yet
which really mean much.
If I
with a partner, just the two, I
were going out
know no one
I'd
rather have had than he.
He
lived
and stepped over the
little river
as
a brave gallant soldier and gentleman, in the
way
he'd have chosen.
We
all
loved him, the
days we had at the front were among the happiest we'll ever
know.
for his family, that I
solation that
ished,
we
all
The
lad's only regret
know, and there
is
the con-
when the present existence is
shall see him again on the other
of the little divide.
[243]
was
fin-
side
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
If I
may
to call
way
help in any
please do not hesitate
upon me.
Smcerely
Carlyle Rhodes.
On
My
dear Mrs. Roosevelt:
Having
lived in the
Active Service
"^
»
same camp with your son
Quentin Roosevelt, I can not refrain from
you that I know he was
men.
enlisted
Of
you to be
told
but
it
by one who
an intimate observer of
by the
especially loved
course, he
his brother officers,
had
telling
the respect of
may be
gratifying to
for four
months was
his life that
he was gen-
uinely popular with the boys.
Only
last night
a cook in one of the squadrons
at this "field" told
me
ping in for breakfast.
in effect
An
earlier schedule
and as he had been "night
had kept him up rather
mess.
He
He
it
got
of Lieut. Roosevelt drop-
dropped
late,
in for
and whatever
was
which
he missed the regular
a cup of
else
flying,"
was
coffee.
Surely
available.
!
Then
he sat down and as he ate he "visited" with the
[244]
whole kitchen
to quote
my
force, "just like
a regular fellow"
cook friend exactly.
This sort of thing was typical with him.
themselves the
many were
men
called
him "Teddy" and
the remarks that I overheard about
him, by the rank and
file, full
of honest admira-
They knew he was courageous and an
tion.
telligent
hard worker, but best of
that he had a real interest in
him
Among
for
all
they
infelt
them and they loved
it.
While not an intimate of
out of our
little
Hut
his,
he
ivas in
quite a good deal and I
to like his sturdy person
and
came
and bright personality.
Believe me, Mrs. Roosevelt, I honor you as
the mother of such a son.
Yours
respectfully,
Wm. H. Forbes
Y. M. C. A.
Censored by:
Robert G. Fittnan
1st Lt.
A. S. Sig. R. C.
[245]
Sec.
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
AMERICAN AVIATION DETACHMENT
AVIATION FRANCAISE, PAR.
B. C.
G. D. E.
AM. PARIS
Deae Colonel and Mrs. Roosevelt:
my
I wish to express
in the
very sincere sympathy
death of your son, Quentin.
soudun with him
for six
The
last
moon
more than ordinary
I left the field before he landed,
had no chance to congratulate him on
it
as
it
was typical
—
as light heartedly
of the
young
and
his per-
formance, but I thought you would like to
of
Is-
time I saw
acrobatics against the
at night, a feat which requires
courage.
was at
months, and Hke every-
one liked him immensely.
him he was doing
I
officer I
courageous as any
know
knew
man
I
have ever known.
I
know he
died as he always flew
—^gamely, for
he certainly was game in every way.
in the
manner
to "get it,"
if
all
of us in this
it is
in contact with the
our turn to go
enemy.
He
died
game would want
This
—at the front
is
the best
way
of all to go.
Let
me
express once
more
[246]
my
sympathy.
The
Air Service lost a splendid officer in the death of
your son.
Very sincerely yours,
Merian
C. Cooper.
HEADQUARTERS, 86TH AERO SQUADRON
CAZAUX, BASE SECTION NO. 2
From
:
A. E. F.
Enlisted Members of 36th Aero Squadron SC.
To: Hon. Theodore Roosevelt and Family.
We the members of the 36th Aero Squadron SC.
TJ.
S.
Army
having served only recently under
your son, Lieut. Quentin Roosevelt, A.
who was
in
command
S. Sig.
R. C.
of the squadron, wish to
extend our sympathy and love to his father and
mother and family,
brother.
all
our
in the loss of their son
and
His example shall serve to inspire us in
trials,
and our one ambition
avenge his death, which we
shall
For and on behalf of
is
to help
always strive
the SQth
Aero
Squadron SC.
Joseph H. Graves,
1st Lt.
[247]
M. R.
C.
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
AERO SQUADRON,
400TH
AIK SERVICE PRODUCTION CENTER NO.
S.
C.
2, A. E. F.
August
FRANCE
1,
1918.
Oyster Bay, L.
I.,
N. Y.
Dear Colonel Roosevelt:
It
the
is
with mingled pride and sorrow that we,
members
of the 400th
Aero Squadron
(for-
merly the 29th Aero Squadron) write to you on
the subject of the sad but glorious death of your
son, Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt.
It
was our great
man and
when he
a
privilege to
soldier, for
know him
as a
a year past, since the time
joined our Squadron at Fort
York, early in July, 1917.
Wood,
New
During the pioneer
days of the construction of our immense aviation
camp, here
in France,
he was continuously with
our Squadron, for a period of several months, during which time he fulfilled the exacting duties of
Supply
Officer
and
of Officer in
Charge
of Trans-
portation.
When
front,
he
left
us a few weeks ago to go to the
having completed his flying training, we
[248]
:
were certain that he would place himself where
the fighting was fiercest, for
it
was
his nature to
do nothing by halves.
We
do not exaggerate when we assure you that
he had endeared himself to every
organization,
by
his
manly
He made
vailing amiability.
man, that he was our
Our admiration
we
us
and
feel,
in our
his pre-
to the last
friend.
for his glorious
our great grief for his
that
qualities
man
loss;
and
end
it is
rises
above
in this spirit
write this small but sincere tribute to his
memory.
The Enlisted Men op the
From:
400th Aero Squadron
•^*
Jacob Anderson
1st Sgt. 400th
Among
ties at
the
many
Aero Squadron
accounts of Quentin's activi-
Issoudun, the following appeared in the
Indianapolis Star
"An
incident in the short
life
of Lieut. Quentin
Roosevelt, the youngest son of former President
Theodore Roosevelt, that
recalls the
[249]
sturdy quali-
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
manhood
ties of
of his father
and
his insistent
and justice,
demand and
is related by Lieut. Linton A. Cox of this city,
who lately returned from overseas, after serving
as an aviator in the 94th Combat Squadron under
fearless fighting for right
Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker.
'"During the winter
of 1918,' said Lieut. Cox,
'when, as flying cadets under the
Lieut. Quentin Roosevelt,
we were
command
of
receiving train-
ing at Issoudun in the art of standing guard in
mud and
three feet of
were serving as saw and
hatchet carpenters, building shelters for the 1,200
cadets
who were
which to
it
waiting in vain for machines in
fly, affairs
suddenly reached a
crisis
when
was discovered that the quartermaster refused
to issue rubber boots to us, because the regular
printed
army
regulations
contained no
oflScial
mention or recognition of flying cadets.
"'Requisition after requisition for boots had
been refused by the captain in charge of the
quartermaster's depot, in spite of the fact that
the boys were wading around in worn-out shoes
in slush
and
mud
knee deep.
[250]
The supply
of rub-
ber boots was plentiful, but the captain was a
army red
stickler for
courage to exercise
"Lieut.
become
Cox
tape,
common
and did not have the
sense,
stated that so
if
he had any.'
many
cadets had
sick because of this needless exposure that
Lieut. Roosevelt decided to take matters into his
own
Going over to the quartermaster's
hands.
depot and
risking court-martial, he
the captain,
who was
of
Again he was refused.
boots be issued at once.
Upon
demanded
of superior rank, that the
being pressed for a satisfactory reason
why
the requisitions were not honored, the captain
ordered Lieut. Roosevelt out of the
He
oiSBce.
refused to go.
—
"'Who do you think you are what is your
name ? asked the captain, who was unacquainted
with Quentin. 'I'll tell you my name after you
'
have honored
this
requisition,
answered Lieut. Roosevelt.
change of words.
but not before,'
This led to a hot ex-
Suddenly Quentin, being un-
able longer to control his indignation, stepped
and
said, 'If you'll
and
insignia of
take
rank
I'll
off
your
take
[251]
off
Sam Brown
up
belt
mine, and we'll
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
see
you can put me out
if
of the office.
my men
to have those boots for
I
if
I'm going
have to be
court-martialed for a breach of military discipline.'
"Two
other officers
the scene
men were
who had been
by the loud
attracted to
voices intervened,
and the
separated, whereupon Quentin Roose-
velt
went to the major
and
refraining
in charge of the battalion
from any mention
how
controversy, related
of his recent
cadets by the score were
being incapacitated for service and were suffering
from pneumonia and influenza because requisitions
for boots
were not being honored.
The major
agreed with Quentin that such a situation was
absurd
and
that
immediate
relief
be
should
granted.
"Lieut. Roosevelt had hardly
office
left
the major's
when the quartermaster captain came
in
and stated that there was a certain aviation lieutenant in
'"Who
camp whom he wanted
is
*"I don't
court-martialed.
this lieutenant.'^'
asked the major.
know who he
replied the captain,
is,'
'but I can find out.'
"'I know who he
is,'
said the major.
[252]
'His
name
is
Quentin Roosevelt and there
gentleman nor more
is
no
efficient officer in this
finer
camp
any one deserves a
court-martial you are the man. From now on
and from what
you
for
I
know,
if
issue rubber boots to every cadet
them, army regulations be d
"The
—
who
applies
d.'
boots were immediately issued and the
cadets were loud in their praise of Lieut. Roosevelt.
"
This is just one instance of many,' said Lieut.
'
Cox, 'that served to endear Quentin Roosevelt to
the
men under
his
command.'"
Quentin was billeted
in the little
town
of
Mau-
perthuis during the last few weeks of his
life;
and inevitably struck up a friendship with the
townsfolk, old and young.
Lieutenant Donald Hudson wrote:
"In the
little
village
where Roosevelt lived
with his fellow aviators they have renamed the
Public Square 'Place Roosevelt,' and written
in big letters
on the granite fountain.
it
Quentin
Roosevelt was one of the most modest of young
[253]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
The few French villagers knew him, and
honored him because of himself, because of his
men.
Father, and because of his fighting brothers.
"Over
his billet
he had written the name of
Lieutenant Thomas, his roommate, then his own,
and then 'God
bless our
home.'"
Lieutenant A. B. Sherry, another friend and
fellow aviator, tells
"Q was
of
how
a great favorite with the inhabitants
Mauperthuis, for he was always chatting with
the old
men about
their affairs,
and ever ready
to listen to the troubles of their wives,
the mothers of the boys
An
away
account, whose author
and
of
at the front."
we have been un-
able to ascertain, reads as follows:
"Quentin, you know, was very young
he wasn't twenty-one.
life
and good
he might not have got
"We
were
all
little village of
He was
If
spirits.
—I know
just a kid, full of
he had been
less
peppy,
killed.
billeted out in cottages in this
Mauperthuis, the population of
[
254
]
which consisted of old
ladies, the
average age of
whom, judging from appearances, was ninetythree maybe a Httle more. Well, Quentin was
a great favorite, not only among the members of
—
the squadron, but with the old ladies.
French very well indeed, and with
He
this
spoke
and
his
cheery ways he got into their good books, or they
got into
his,
"They
whichever way
it
was.
him the
noble, or the honor-
able, or the distinguished, or
even the great Mees-
all
called
tair Roussefel',
and he received
very gracefully.
their greetings
Roosevelt was about the only
American name the French country people ever
had heard
figure,
until President
and to have a
them was something
Wilson became a world
real
Roosevelt amongst
for these old ladies to talk
about.
"Young Roosevelt would go about from house
and gossip with all the old ladies. The
to house
rest of us
sometimes thought they were a bit of
were trying to write a
a nuisance.
If I
for instance,
and one
long story to
tell in
of
them rushed
letter,
in with
a
her rapid, colloquial, quite
[255]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
incomprehensible French, I would
ing her to leave
me
But not
alone for a while.
He would
Roosevelt.
down
lay
ask-
feel like
his pen,
put his
paper aside, and chat about the weather or whatever the old lady wanted to chat about.
"It would be:
Madame
'Ah,
Labrosse, and
have you heard yet from the husband
daughter Blanche ? '
I
'
have received no
your
letter it is
two weeks, and
I
'
fear that
" 'On
of
But no, Meestair Roussef el',
the
would
Roosevelt
contrary,'
He
*one should not give up the hope.
say,
will ar-
rive soon.'
" 'Ah, Meestair Roussef el', I of
"The
first
you go into one
of these
uniform.
Usually
you make
him.
You
hope
French cottages
framed photograph of the head
if
it
thing that strikes your eye
it is
inquiries
will
be
well.'
when
is
the
of the family in
the uniform of 1871, and
you
will
be told
told, too, all
all
about
about the other
photographs in plush frames, and also the framed
medals and ribbons.
photograph albums
They turn
in
rural
[256]
their walls into
France.
A
room
—
JUDGMENT OF
''THE
HIS PEERS"
thus becomes a sort of family history in four big
who makes
make inquiries,
wide-open pages for one
inquiries
but most of us didn't
for the an-
swer would be only a flow of very rapid French
that nobody could understand
Where he
Roosevelt.
don't know.
Quentin
learned to speak French I
And he would make
inquiries,
and the old
and pour
out their stories.
"What
—except
the most polite
would smile sweetly
ladies
interested Quentin
more than
all
the
photographs, however, was the dancing brevet
that hangs above nearly every French mantelpiece.
It seems that as soon as
ficient in
medal or a brevet, which
One
you become pro-
anything over there you get either a
of the
is
a framed
most prized possessions
old ladies of Mauperthuis
is
certificate.
of each of the
a dancing brevet
which informs the reader that her son Henri,
or Claude or Jean or Paul or Emile, in
Domini 1883 or thereabouts has taken
lessons in dancing
cotillon
nasse.
and
anywhere from
is
so
Anno
many
competent to lead a
Versailles
to
Montpar-
Sometimes you find an old lady who has
[257]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
preserved her
own dancing
brevet, qualifying her
and the gavotte
to dance the minuet
—
for these
faded documents date from the days when the
new-fangled waltz was not mentioned in polite
company.
"'Ah, what
say.
til,
is
it
that I see?' Quentin would
*A dancing brevet, en
"And Madame would
lap
How
effet.
it is
gen-
hein.?'
and
smile,
press her
and
after a
hands on her
cross her
'
Je vous en prie' to ex-
own unworthiness
of such exalted favor,
she would explain that her Henri,
who
is
now on
the Verdun sector, was a dancer the most unique,
the most magnifique, the most charmant, and a
whole
lot of adjectives that I don't
know, having
no French-English dictionary about me.
"Roosevelt would go around thus from house
to house
him and
and the old
after
about him.
ladies
would beam upon
he was gone would exchange gossip
He had
told
them
so-and-so,
he
had done so-and-so, he had praised highly the
pictures of the
of the
baby
of one's niece,
most great Tedd-ee.
[258]
had the son
—
"I
shall
never forget
how
the news of Quen-
death was received in that
tin's
little village.
Of
who kept his billet had conmuch honored by the presence of
course, the old lady
sidered herself
the gentil Meestair Roussefel' beneath her roof.
She was one
of the oldest ladies in the village
her back was bent almost double, but she was
able to get around with a stick
and she never
missed her round of gossip until the day Quentin
was
for a
was
Then she shut
killed.
in
An
whole day.
When
herself
up
in her
house
she did come out, she
deep mourning and her face was very sad."
editorial
of
which Quentin's family was
unable to learn the authorship was published in
the Hartford
Cour ant.
known Quentin
The
writer
must have
intimately.
YOUNG Roosevelt's nature
"There was something very
Quentin Roosevelt.
run of boys.
He was
He was
interesting about
not one of the usual
individual from those
first
days when boys begin to do things for themselves.
[
259
]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Probably things looked to him different from what
they do to the ordinary boy.
"The
see
of
The
it.
him
much
ordinary boy sees the world very
as his parents
and the older members
of the family
regular conventional view takes hold
early.
The mind
standardized, but
that direction.
no healthy boy
of
is
quite
customary processes are
its
by
Little
in
he absorbs or
little
accepts the views of the generation into which he
is
born until these views are his own.
It
is
thus
that the judgments and work of the world go for-
ward
it
in
One might almost
an orderly way.
the natural way.
It
call
not the business of the
is
usual mind, any more than
it is
of the usual plant,
to originate.
The main
and plants
to transmit, to maintain the good
that
is
we have and
religious usages
tors,
carry
children.
It
This
is
of
most
civil
of us
is
and
to keep
hand them forward
to our
the ordinary and natural law.
so with the plants, and
human mind.
Our
forward.
have come to us from our ances-
and the main duty
these usages alive and
is
it
business of both minds
The
it
seed of wheat
[260]
is
is
so with the
expected to
produce wheat and nothing
The human mind
does.
else,
and
it
habitually
expected to carry for-
is
ward the ancient struggle against pauperism and
ignorance and
sin,
are born to do this
are often a
dencies
usually does.
now and then toward new
down
in
of
them are halter-broke and
If
most human minds did not
methodical and orderly way we
this
would never get anywhere.
The
made in
away by the
gains
one generation would be frittered
next,
attitudes; but
to the job of carrying things forward
about as they are.
work
it
frisky at times; they disclose ten-
end the mass
in the
settle
little
Most boys
work, and they do it. They
and
and we would be continuously fussing with
The continuous accumulation
the beginnings.
of
worth-while improvement would be checked, and
the
momentum
of gains
would be shattered into
fragments.
"Quentin Roosevelt was not
built
on these
usual lines, and apparently he was not designed
for this usual duty.
for
himself.
human
He
He
began very early to see
did not find
kind, either.
He
[261
much
to see in
would not have found
]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
much
in the ordinary
cially interesting,
sample
so
is
if
much
man
he had looked there.
in the writers of novels
We
itself.
can see this
and the writers
work
of plays,
and sauces
to put strong social spices
into their standardized
One
another that a study of
like
that sort soon exhausts
who have
that was new, or espe-
to freshen
This
it.
younger Roosevelt turned to the primitive and
unadulterated and untrained things.
of
him that he once managed
honey bees into a Washington
It
is
related
to get a hive of
street car in order
them home with him to the White House.
The ordinary boy learns very early that a bee is
to take
an uncertain companion.
Without doubt
this
Roosevelt youngster had received the same instruction
it
and the same warning.
The reason that
did not take was not because he was a bad boy,
or a naughty boy, or a foolish boy.
take because his
made him
own way
It did not
of looking at things
sure that there was a
method
along on safe terms even with bees.
about bees
ordinary
is
a sound general
rule.
human mind and human
[262]
of getting
The
It
fits
rule
the
sense like a
But
glove.
Qiientin Roosevelt's
were larger than the
rule,
through the rule with a
was the same with
all
fair
mind and sense
and he could walk
degree of safety.
It
the natural things that walk
or creep or crawl about the earth.
These were
the curious and companionable things with him.
One wonders
if
they understood him as well as
he understood them.
many
come
It
is
a
fair
assumption that
them did. Harm might easily have
him if they had not. This boy's look at
of
to
tliem was different from the look of the usual boy,
and upon some mysterious foundation
of a
mon
It
understanding they also knew
it.
com-
was
his
way with them, and his way was not the usual
way or the conventional way. It was his own
way original, self-confident, and as honest as
—
unclothed truth herself.
"That Quentin Roosevelt took to navigating
the clouds was nothing more than a normal unof his singular nature.
There
nothing stranger or more unlikely in
human
folding
is
history
and growth
than that
through the
air,
man
should be able to
and yet he
is
[263]
now doing
fly
this every
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
The
day.
thing naturally
tunately
They
mind takes
originating
many
carry so
—
exactly in
it is
minds are only half minds.
much
of the usual conventional
sooner or later they
feel sure
wrong with them, and
smashing earthward.
fall
that Quentin Roosevelt was not of
It took the fierce shock of actual
this sort.
to
Unfor-
its line.
of these
crust that something goes
We
to this sort of
knock him out.
We
do not believe that
nerve broke or quivered for one instant.
body were
be
hit,
different.
or
unshaken,
If his
machine broke, that would
helpless.
But the mind
and, so far as
ried rush, with the
is
his
his
Smitten physically or mechanically,
he of course was
for him.
if
war
of
The fates had it in
him went down intact,
was possible
calm outlook
in that hur-
of the soul that
unafraid.
"It was a great waste, aside from
considerations, because
all
human minds
personal
that spon-
taneously and inevitably see things for themselves,
outside of the clamps of convention,
and almost
in honest unconsciousness of such clamps, are too
infrequent not to be missed
[264]
when the human
life
goes
out of them.
Bacon quotes one
fathers as saying that old
men go
death comes to young men.
been
so,
all
It
of
the
to death,
and
is
so,
through this great war.
and has
Quentin
Roosevelt died in the bloom of his youth and
with untried powers.
for greater things
By
nature he was
made
than even the honorable death
of a righteous cause."
[265]
—
—
CHAPTER
VI
VERSES
There were many
Quentin,
and
this
verses written in
memory
of
book would be incomplete
without a short selection from them.
A GROUP OF POEMS
{To Quentin Roosevelt)
SPRING ON LONG ISLAND
You used to think that some day you would
Some dear and splendid space
hold
Of shining time to waste
Upon a spring-decked highway's beaten gold;
Hearing birds sing, and mute and marveling
Stoop to a harebell's grace
Free of wind-voices and their breathless urge.
To see a green vine fling
Its brave young sinews upward to the eaves;
Or watch brown brothers soar, and dip, and merge
Dun coats with madder nests among the leaves.
And there would be deep
And water from a brook
noons, and shares of bread.
Where you could bend and look
[266
1
—
———
—
VERSES
Down,
at gay clouds that shimmered overhead;
from
a pool would come the whispering
And
Of blue flags in a nook
The stream would quaver like an ancient crone
(Hid in its bubbling spring)
Weaving her magic in the sparkling air
The feet of water-dancers on the stone
Or brook-nymphs laughing through their dripping
.
hair
.
.
.
.
.
That road would wind like ribbon in the gleam
Of a white moon hung high
Out of your wing-won sky
And you a mote upon a silver seam
While hedgerow blossoms made a bordering
Of moon-lace frilling by.
—
And
a bird's voice,
like
a
violin.
Poignant, would lift and sing
Haunted by 'cello warblings of its mate;
There would be night scents, sweet and sharp and
thin,
Binding you wordless to that song elate
.
.
.
"never before have the violets blown"
Never before have the
Pmple
violets
blown
as exquisite;
Seeing they borrow
it
From a wide sky his pinions have torn;
[267]
——— —
—
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Yet must they stand all mute, unquestioning
Where glad green Joy is writ
Knowing they
Against
warm
fold a sleeper
who
forgets
pulses of dear violets
His part in vaunt and bacchanal of Spring.
Never before have the poppies
flared
Scarlet as radiant;
A pomp
as triumphant
Fire from the stars his wings have dared;
Nor may they glow with brave
And
insouciance
yet no Vision grant
Knowing
their share in valor
.
.
.
they unfold
Their silken banners for heroic mold
Their crimson badges for the breast of France.
Never before have the wind- voices breathed
In their dim whisperings
Echoes of wings.
Faint from far zones where suns hang unsheathed;
.
Nor
.
.
they tell but half; adventuresome
For further journeyings
shall
Knowing him wind's-brother-earth defying.
Gaunt winged, they call him to the flying
Shouting of star-trails and a sapphire dome
.
THE DARK LEAVES
Oh, Voyager, who swept the blazing gold
Of wheeling planets in immensity:
[268]
.
.
———— —————
VERSES
Whose wing-beats cleft the silences that hold
Their echo yet, in stark serenity:
For you, oh Wreathed let an altar's light
Flame holily, above the largess heaped
New corn and grapes that sudden in a night
!
—
Were
reaped.
.
.
.
Glad one the shining gifts you offered up
Youth's corn in silk, and Youth's longevity:
The sparkUng vintage of Youth's brimming cup
Youth's broken sword to spell divinity:
The hushing of Youth's laughter, peal on peal
The dreams of Youth that garlanded the days
The wings Youth clapped upon a sandal's heel
The cymbaled measure of Youth's choric ways.
.
!
.
.
Trailer of stars, a gleaner in the dusk
Dark Leaves from red austerity:
Gathers your Arum lilies from the husk
Of trampled wrack; ^your lyric purity
The chaunts you sang to baflBe cold and tire
(Reckon them priceless since Youth's pipe is mute)
Lifts the
—
The still warm ashes of your sacred fire
The glowing round of your scarce bitten
fruit.
you should lie a sleeper in high noon
Clothing yourself in wreathed dignity.?
Your hablimental trappings folded: soon
Strange,
Poppies
will
trumpt with
scarlet clarity:
[269]
.
.
.
—
—
— ——
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
these, his wings(Witness this plumage
Reckon the giving by the dreamless eyes
Are these not meet for altar-gifts these things ?
Seeing the Dark Leaves speak him Heavenwise
.
.
.
.
.
.
—
.
.
.)
AVENUE QUENTIN
There are no palm trees
Along the way
Holding
Their plumage against the blue.
Only
The
And
I
clean voices of the winds,
the footsteps of Youth,
Call to
him
In comradeship from the wide
Highway.
Echo with
crisp brittle resonance
i
*
Against the frozen rime
Of the sweep,
Where
frosted bitter-sweet scatters
Redly.
But
A
1
at night
slim
young shallop moon
sails
Boat-wise
Upon
=«
his old courses.
Pushes a
silver
prow through
Cloudrifts
The lapping gauzes
[270]
of morning.
!
!
!
———
!
—
VERSES
Hailing the veiled houses
Of
stars
.
.
.
Nebulous, hushed, and unanswering.
Here
Spring will come greenly.
With lush
grasses,
And violets stand
By the wayside
in little groups
Gazing up at you
of their deep eyes as
"He is yonder
Out
Where we
But
are bluest
to say
!"
Only in the spring time
So unassumingly,
By
if
is
one directed
small pages in purple smocks.
In July
The
field
armies in France
Leap
In serried ranks to
The
colors
Scarlet shoulder to scarlet shoulder.
The Avenue
Quentin's poppy-guards
Blazon you on with
Chivalry
Always
The answer
of
Youth
[271
]
—
——
—
!
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
To Youth !—
(Glad youth with his laughter
daring !)
And
The
call
Of one road to another
Of a slim shallop moon's
Who
May
far sailing.
reckon the strange ports she touches?
The way
Of her track through the cloud rifts
Through the lapping gauzes
Of morning.
Speaking shut houses
Of stars ...
For in July
.
.
—
The gleaming
.
zeniths of space
Hurl
Uncharted worlds to the colors
Flaming planet to flaming planet.
!
An Avenue
Quentin's meteor-hosts
Blazon you on
With chivalry
—^Lelia
YOUNG ROOSEVELT
Young Roosevelt
is
IS
DEAD
—
and I, whose son
young to go.
dead
Is just a little boy, too
Miller Pearce.
Read with bewildered eyes the tales recalled
Of pranks the little White House boy had played
[272]
!
—— —
VERSES
my own does every day
With bugs and beetles, teasing with his snake.
Or starthng all about him with his bees
Exasperating tricks that win our souls
Just such things as
—
!
Just such things none could think of but a boy.
From blurring page I turn to touch my own.
For somehow he, too, died in that far fall
Of one who typed America's "small boy."
From blurring page I turn to touch my own
To lift his face unto the lustrous stars
That symbohze the glory of a world
And once more dedicate my country's
son.
From blurring page a sterner nation turns
Because he typed the millions she has borne
Within her fertile womb since long ago
She mated with the freedom of the world.
From
May
All
blurring page graybeards with palsied hands
dream again
life
And
of
wondrous youth that
flings
into a single burning flame
lives its future in
a moment's deed.
Men who, perhaps, have lost the zest for life
May find it in a boy's keen zest for death.
When young
If
life
found
it
sweet to fight and die
only Liberty in peace might
—Êleanor
New
live.
Cochran Reed,
York,
[273]
in
The Times,
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
THE STAR OF GOLD
Quentin Roosevelt, France, July
14,
1918
With the American Army on the Vesle, Wednesday, August 7 (hy
On a wooden cross at the head of a grave at the edge of a
wood at Chamery, east of Fere-en-Tardenois, is this inscription:
A. P.).
—
"Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, buried by the Germans."
—Netcspaper
A
Viking of the air was he
sailed his fragile plane
Who
Through vast uncharted spaces blue.
As Norsemen sailed the main.
He met the foeman and he fought
Unflinching in the sky,
And
A
died as his brave sire would wish
soldier-son to die.
The Prussian airmen wrought
And laid him down to rest,
his
grave
His shroud the leather tunic wrapped
About
his gallant breast.
The guns a thunderous requiem
All day above him sound,
America in spirit mourns
Beside his lonely mound.
When
A
An
twilight over
veil of
No Man's Land
purple weaves.
escadrille of stars appears
[274]
item.
—
!
—
!
!
!
VERSES
Above the hangar's eaves
With one that speeds on wings
In ether fast and far;
The AlUed
'Tis
of light
aviators say
Quentin Roosevelt's
star.
Minna
Irving.
THE TOWN CALLED AFTER HIM
The town
to Quentin.
of Bismarck, Pa., has
changed
its
name
Vide Newspapers.
Quentin, young Quentin Roosevelt
Has a town called after him
Some way, as we read the word
It
How
makes the eyes grow dim.
brave they were,
Our boys who went
Children
who played
how young
they were
to die
in field
and
street
So short a time gone by.
Now
reach the stature of the stars
of us can say
Ah, none
How many
Heavenly places
Are named for such as they.
But romping
children here, through years
Secured from horrors grim,
Will speak the name of Quentin
In the town called after him.
Mary Stewart
[275]
Cutting.
—
!
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
TO QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
They sounded
taps,
young
And heaped memorial
soldier of the free.
flowers above your breast.
In France across the North Atlantic sea,
Where you
On
are lying quietly at rest.
bondage to your mortal foe
Foes laid you in a soldier's grave
Today above you Yankee bugles blow
French tears, French flowers, rain upon the brave.
soil in
You
fell.
your pranks and boyish wit
you grown to man's estate;
The shot that brought you down, the nation hit;
O'er all the land hearts leaped with grief and hate.
We'd laughed
And
at
all
scarce could think
—
'twas thus, brave heart, you'd choose to go;
But you
If come death must, you'd have him ride a cloud;
And when you went, 'twas gaily, that I know.
As well befits the gallant and the proud.
!
Above your breast the Yankee bugles blow;
French hands are twining wreaths across the sea;
And somewhere your brave heart is joyed to know
That all about your grave French soil is free.
—^Harry
[276]
D. Thompson.
VERSES
A MONSIEUR LE PRESIDENT THfiODORE
ROOSEVELT
HOMMAGE DE RESPECTUEUSE ADMIRATION d'uNE
ALSACIENNE DE FRANCE
Ne
pleurez pas I'oiseau qui s'est brise les ailes
Dans le rude combat des saintes liberies,
Dans I'enthousiasme fier des amities fideles,
Des serments renoues de nos fraternites.
Notre
sol
que son sang a rougi dans sa chute
Nous en est plus sacre, plus cher peut-etre encore,
Et nous avons senti, mieux, a cette minute
Se resserrer nos liens par le don de sa mort.
Ne
pleurez pas I'oiseau fauche par la mitraille
Dans
I'essor
radieux d'un reve eblouissant,
Qui, tout vibrant encore de I'ardente bataille,
A
pris vers I'infini libre
son vol puissant.
Votre fils est tombe dans une juste guerre,
Combattant vaillamment im infame oppresseur,
Dans I'heroique elan du sacrifice austere,
De
II
son pur ideal sublime defenseur.
est des
Ne
morts pour qui
pleurez pas celui qui
Que
le
fit
votre deuil soit fait de
Levez plus haut
le front, les
[
regret est I'offense,
tout son devoir.
fierte,
d'esperance,
yeux pour mieux
277
]
le voir.
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Car c*est lui, maintenant, le vrai chef de famille,
Toute sa jeiine gloire a rejailli sur vous;
Votre nom, c'est le sien qui sur vos t^tes brille,
Etoile au clair eclat, resplendissant et doux.
A
votre coeur, pourtant, la blessure est saignante.
Plus grand
le vide, helas, laisse
par
le
depart,
Obstinement, partout, une tombe vous haute.
Que par dessus la mer cherche votre regard.
Dans un sol envahi quelques jours prisonniere.
La voici libre enfin des ennemis chasses,
Et nos drapeaux, baignes dans sa sainte lumiere,
Comme un meme drapeau s'y tiendront enlaces.
Elle sera fleurie avec des fleurs de France,
de notre pays meurtri, mais delivre,
Heureuses de jeter, cri de reconnaissance,
Leur beaute, leurs parfums, sur ce terre sacr6.
Fleiurs
Et notre ame
fervente y veille tout entiere.
Car nous gardons, au fond du coeur, fidelement,
Dans
notre souvenir plein de recueillement,
Parmi nos plus chers morts, une place tres chere
Au mort que vous aimez, votre fils, notre frere.
—Charlotte Schnêgans, 14 septembre 1918.
[278]
—
!
!
——
VERSES
ON THE SCREEN
Within the darkened playhouse as I sat
in a mood of heavy discontent
Because existence was so difficult:
The things undone the money I had spent
Sunk
—
And
other
little,
petty, tiresome cares
Weighed on my mind, until I scarce would glance
At all the moving scenes before my eyes.
When
suddenly I looked
and
there
was France:
With her scarred and desolated fields,
Sad wastes, yet piteous poppies blossomed thereAnd row on rows of the unnumbered dead
France
!
—
And
And
crosses, crosses, crosses
everywhere
at the last, one solitary cross
Apart, aloof from earthly vanity
And on the cross stood Quentin Roosevelt's name:
Rare
sacrifice to crass
Then did
And
It
all
humanity
worth
and mean
I count myself as nothing
my
little
cares so poor
must have been a Great Photographer
let me see myself upon the screen
Who
—Elizabeth Jacobi.
[279]
!
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
THE ONGOING
" Loose me from fear and make me see aright
How each has hack what once he stayed to weep—
Homer his sight, David his little lad."
He
will
not come, the gallant flying boy.
Back to his field. Somewhere he wings his way
Where the Immortals keep; where Homer now
Has back his sight, David his little lad;
Where all those are we dully call the dead.
Who have gone greatly on some shining quest,
He takes his way. That which he quested for.
That larger freedom of a larger birth.
Captains him, flying into
He
has gone on where
Arise in light.
And
fields of
now
dawn.
the soldier-slain
Somewhere he takes
his place
leads his comrades in untrodden fields.
For never can these rest
Has ceased from travail
until our earth
—
^never
can these take
Scourge is slain.
And so they keep them sometimes near old ways
In the accustomed fields now flying low.
Their
fill
of sleep until the
—
Invisible,
they cheer the gallant host.
Bidding them be, as they, invincible.
Still
he leads on, the gallant flying boy
the "great good Dead" he steers his boundless
Among
course.
[
280
]
—— ——
!
VERSES
Now
where the soldier-poets pass
in light
Where Brooke and Seeger and the others keep
The singing Slain, the peerless fighting Dead
He
takes his brilliant way; or where those lately come
Our flying Great, Mitchel and all his men.
Wait him in large, warm-hearted welcoming.
He will come
Him take the
never back
upper
But we who watched
!
and
steer his boundless path
Firmly against the foe, we know that here
Death could not penetrate. Life only is
Where all is life, and so, before us, keeps
Always the vision of his faring on
To unpathed fields where his great comrades wait.
air
joyful, take him for
The brave Adventurer,
The gallant flying Boy
And,
their captaining
[281
—Mary Siegrist.
]
QUENTIN ROOSEVELT
Lord Dunsany,
in
a
"I was told
letter, said:
once before, quite recently, that Captain Quentin Roosevelt
had one
of
even sometimes up in the
my
return I can
make
offer the enclosed
It
air.
thing for an author to hear.
for that,
books with him,
was a touching
know what
I don't
but
I
would
like to
sonnet to you."
A DIRGE OF VICTORY
Lift not thy trumpet, Victory, to the sky.
Nor through battalions, nor by batteries blow.
But over hollows full of old wire go
Where among dregs of war the long-dead lie
With wasted iron that the guns passed by
When they went eastwards like a tide at flow:
There blow thy trumpet that the dead
Who waited for thy coming. Victory.
may know
It is not we that have deserved thy wreath:
They waited there among the towering weeds:
The deep mud burned under the thermites' breath
And
winter cracked the bones that no
man
heeds:
Hundreds
of nights flamed by: the seasons passed.
And thou
hast come to them at
last,
at last.
Dunsany,
Captain Royal Inniskilling
[282]
Fusiliers.
CHANQED Tp Coup.
From
the original cartoon by John T. McCutcheon, presented to Colonel Roosevelt
199
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•v
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, , ,
,
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^
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•}'
-^
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Quentin Roosevelt - Theodore Roosevelt

Transcription

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