y C. Our departure was an
occasion never to be forgotten.

As we glided out of the great harbor and saw first the Statue of
Liberty, then all trace of our native land disappear from sight, and
we realized that we were on our way to fight the most savage, inhuman
and despicable foe that has ever drawn a lance, a feeling of solemn
thoughtfulness came over most of the boys. Many of them were so
affected, as they knew a certain percentage of us must inevitably fall
in battle, that they went below to spend a few hours by themselves in
serious thought. I am not ashamed to say that I was one of those who
sought solace for my feelings in thoughtful solitude.

The vessel upon which we sailed was an Italian transport, by name, the
"King of Italy." It was accompanied by a French and a former German
liner and was convoyed by a destroyer and a cruiser. On the second day
out we picked up four more transports, making seven in all in our
fleet.

There were 1,500 American soldiers on our transport and approximately
the same on four of the other transports. Two of them, however,
carried more than 3,500 men, making a total of about 15,000 men on
that one fleet bound for duty overseas. Of the 1,500 men on the King
of Italy, 500 were white and 1,000 colored troops. No trouble was
caused by this mixture of races because of good management. The white
and colored boys were kept on different parts of the boat and all
guard duty was in the hands of the white troops.

For the first few hours after sailing, thoughts of home lingered in
the minds of most of the boys, but these were hastily banished when we
had our first life drill. This took place at 2 o'clock on our first
day out. The drill was a thorough one, and it soon became apparent to
most of the boys that even if we should be torpedoed by a submarine
while going across, our troops would have no difficulty in getting
away from the boat before it took its final plunge toward the bottom
of the sea. In the life drill, every man had his place. He was
assigned to a certain boat and could take no other. The lower decks
were emptied first, and then those above, one at a time. I was bunked
on the fifth deck, hence, as the liner had six decks, would have been
among the last to leave the ship, in case of disaster.

The object of the life drill, of course, was to make it possible to
empty the boat of troops quickly and in military order in the event
that the boat became a submarine victim. Every