oned and
non-commissioned officers the same as any combatant branch of the
service.

The Negro Service of Supply men acquired a great reputation in the
various activities to which they were assigned, especially for
efficiency and celerity in unloading ships and handling the vast cargoes
of materials and supplies of every sort at the base ports. They were a
marvel to the French and astonished not a few of the officers of our own
army. They sang and joked at their work. The military authorities had
bands to entertain them and stimulate them to greater efforts when some
particularly urgent task was to be done. Contests and friendly rivalries
were also introduced to speed up the work.

The contests were grouped under the general heading of "A Race to
Berlin" and were conducted principally among the stevedores. Prizes,
decorations and banners were offered as an incentive to effort in the
contests. The name, however, was more productive of results than
anything else. The men felt that it really was a race to Berlin and that
they were the runners up of the boys at the front.

Ceremonies accompanying the awards were quite elaborate and impressive.
The victors were feasted and serenaded. Many a stevedore is wearing a
medal won in one of these conquests of which he is as proud, and justly
so, as though it were a Croix de Guerre or a Distinguished Service
Cross. Many a unit is as proud of its banner as though it were won in
battle.

Thousands of Service of Supply men remained with the American Army of
Occupation after the war; that is, they occupied the same relative
position as during hostilities--behind the lines. The Army of Occupation
required food and supplies, and the duty of getting them into Germany
devolved largely upon the American Negro.

Large numbers of them were stationed at Toul, Verdun, Epernay, St.
Mihiel, Fismes and the Argonne, where millions of dollars worth of
stores of all kinds were salvaged and guarded by them. So many were left
behind and so important was their work, that the Negro Y.M.C.A. sent
fifteen additional canteen workers to France weeks after the signing of
the armistice, as the stay of the Service of Supply men was to be
indefinitely prolonged.

The Rev. D.L. Ferguson, of Louisville, Ky., who for more than a year was
stationed at St. Nazaire as a Y.M.C.A. worker, and became a great
favorite with the men, says that during the war they took great pride in
their companies, their camps, and a