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{
    "localId": "17343226",
    "label": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
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{
    "id": "17343226",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "collections": [
        "Verne E. Chaney Papers",
        "Subject Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972",
        "Spina, Frank E., 1887-1972",
        "Klemm, Karl D., 1880-",
        "Wooldridge, Glenwood F., 1893-1977",
        "Pershing, John J. (John Joseph), 1860-1948",
        "Thacher, John H., 1872-1960",
        "Miles, John L., 1878-1961",
        "Soldiers",
        "World War, 1914-1918",
        "Artillery"
    ],
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    "hasTranscription": false
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            "logicalDate": "1919-01-01",
            "year": 1919
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    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "8\none day they had boiled eggs for the men and many were not boiled soon\nenough they had chickens in them. Some one took his to the Steward and\nwanted some more and was refused and was given for an answer that he fed\n3600 chinees on his last trip and \"they didn't sqwak\" the Steward had stew\nand rotten eggs shoved in his face as a result. Conditions improved from\nthen on.\nOn the morning of June 3rd we were escorted by seaplanes and\ndirigibles, and entered the Thames River on the morning of the fourth. (one\nyear\nfrom the date of my enlistment.20 After laying over we disembarked on\nthe morning of the fifth and entrained for Winchester, leaving Tillbery\ndocks about 9 o'c.\nWe arrived in a rest camp near Winchester and were put up in billets\nthat were formerly used by the British troops. This camp was a model of\ncleanliness. We were fed up on cheese, bacon and bread, this being English\ncamp rations and as a result we were bound up for two weeks from eating\nso much cheese. After having spent 48 hours confinement in this place we\nentrained for Southhampton, a port on the channel. We spent the day\nloafing around the docks and watching the gulls and jellyfish. Out toward\nthe channel we could see half sunken ships that had evidently been towed in\nto save them. It was about eight o'c that night when we boarded a good\nlooking ship with lines that spelled speed. Her name was Viper and she\nlooked the part for she made twenty five knots an hour. It was not a large\nship for, only being a channel boat,she had no sleeping quarters, as the men\nTRUMAN\nwere packed on like sardines.21 We soon pulled out for France and we had\nARCRIVESE INATIONAL ADMIN RECORD\nCOVERAMENT\n20\nThat date would be June 4,1917. The United States Congress declared war on Germany April 6,\n1917.\n21\nChannel boats plied the English Channel moving people and goods to other ports on the channel.\nIf\nthe Viper could make twenty five knots (29 MPH) fully loaded, it was a fast boat indeed."
}