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6
CAMP ATHLETICS
THE CADUCEUS
WOMEN SOLDIERS
FOOTBALL AND CROSS COUNTRY
RUN FOR THANKSGIVING.
A football game between a picked
team from Camp Greene and a team
from some other training camp and a
cross country run from camp head
quarters to the Charlotte city hall are
being planned for Thanksgiving day
by Melvin W. Sheppard, camp athletic
director.
Football teams are being formed at
the base hospital, camp quartermas
ters, remount depot and among the
officers at the headquarters. Ehrly
practices have been held and the
teams will soon be rounded into shape.
Preliminary games will be played in
order to pick the eleven which will
represent the camp on Thanktsgiving
day.
There will be two sections to the
road run from the headquarters to
Charlotte on Thanksgiving morning, if
presentp Ians of Sheppard carry. There
will be a separate contest for white
men and colored men. Prizes will be
given for both sections.
BABY GOLF LINKS.
Preparation for athletic activities
about the camp includes the building
of a baby golf links at the base hos
pital and for use primarily by the
nurses. The ground back of the nurse’s
home will be used for laying out a
three hole course.
Boxing platforms have been builded
at the central K. of C. building and at
the Liberty Park and central Y. M. C.
A’s Boxing matches are planned lor
later in the year and preliminary work
is already under way.
Two tennis courts are being laid out
back of the Liberty Theatre tent and
at the suggestion of Athletic Director
Sheppard are being constructed so
that they may be converted into bas
ket courts later in the winter.
GOT A RISE.
Through the co-operation and cour
tesy of the Training Camp activities
organization. Athletic Director Shep
pard got a rise out of the colored men
of the 810th Pioneer Infantry on Wed
nesday night when he arranged lor
moving pictures to be shown of box
ing and bayonet drill abroad.
Bennie Leonard, McKoy, Kilbane
manly art while
and others gave examples of the man
ly art while James O’Donoan handled
the bayonevt in a masterful fashion
and much glee of the colored troops.
AN AMERICAN TOAST
Number 2.
Here’s to our Navy, transporting our
troops,
Here’s to brave Belgium who stood
the storm of war,
Here’s to the men who fought in the
battle of Verdun, and said to
the Hun,
“You shall not pass!”
Here’s to Italy who drove the Auss
trians back.
We can help our allies more by giving
aid to them.
And keep the Hun on the run.
Jesse Parker, Jr., age 10 years,
808 W. 12th St., Charlotte, N. C.
NINETEEN THOUSAND NOW
IN RANKS.
(Special to The Caduceus)
Washington, D. C., Oct. 25.—'Wo
men soldiers are playing no small
part in the success of America’s gi
gantic war program.
While they are not taking their
places as line troops, as did the wo
men who formed themselves into a
regiment to hght the Germans during
the early days of the Russian revo
lution, nevertheless they are enduring
the stress of military life in this
country and overseas and are helping
materially to win the war. These wo
men soldiers are members of the army
nurse corps.
When the United States joined the
forces allied against the central pow
ers, the personnel of the army nurse
corps, numbered just 373 women sol
diers. Bach of them, however, was a
veteran nurse. Many had seen service
in the Philippines, in Porto Rico, or
Hawaii, and without exception all
knew the serious nature of the work
ahead of them. About them as a
nucleus the corps has been expanded
to its present size, which is in the
neighborhood of 19,000.
The trained nurses of the country,
who were in a position, to responded to
the call to arms without hesitancy and
became its women soldiers. Not once
have the strict requirements for ad
mission been lowered. A candidate
has to be a graduate of a recognized
nurse training school and must have
had a specified amount of previous
training.
At no civilian hospital is the
wounded or sick American soldier
guaranteed such expert care as in an
arriiy hospital. In the former insti
tution girls in training to be nurses,
as well as fuly trained women do the
ward work. This is the accepted prac
tice and it is cited merely to show
on what an unparalleled high level, the
army medical department has been
planned and organized. In the army
hospitals overseas, only graduate
nurses tend sick or wounded soldiers.
At this point, it is interesting to
note how the tremendous expansion of
the army nurse corps was effected.
The American Red Cross Society was
asked to help in recruiting nurses for
the army nurse corps. The majority
of women soldiers now in service
were reached and enrolled by this
great humanitarian institution. But
once they are admitted into the army
nurse corps, of necessity all their con
nection with the American Red Cross
is severed, and they come directly
under the surgeon general of the
army, the superintendent of the corps,
Miss Dora E. Thompson, a woman
.grown gray in the service, who is in
reality their generalissimo, and the
commanding officer of the hospital or
unit to which they are assigned.
About ten thousand more women ‘
soldiers are now needed in the corps
to meet the needs of America’s fast
growing armies. There is no ques
tion that they will be forthcominu
fore long. The American Red Cross
today is exerting every effort to reach
women, not yet on the rolls, who are
properly equipped by training for this
hazardous and noble work. There is
honor aplenty for an American wo
man anywhere, by joining in the work
of this gallant band.
In order to stay any future short
age of nurses, as an adjunct to the
corps, recently there was organized an
army school of nursing. This offers
to American girls an opportunity to
take up the profession of niu'sin.g un
der the unquestioned direction of tho
army. Applications by the hundreds
have poured in to the surgeon general
for the school. At the present time
more than ten units of the school have
been opened at various cantonments
and the course of instruction has
been started.
In this connection, a number of or
ganizations such as the American
Red Cross and the woman’s commit
tee of the council of national defense
not long ago organized a campai,gn
to bring to the' attention of the young
womanhood of the country that it was
their duty to enter the nurse training
schools, both civilian and military, so
that a nurse shortage need never be
feared,
Thus, prospects for recruits for the
women soldiers’ corps appear bright
and no matter how lon.g the war may
last, it is certain, that this unit in
the army medical department will add
glory upon glory to its heroic record.
The term “Red Cross nurse” as it is
generally used today unwillingly has
been the cause of the holding back
of much public praise and knowledge
regarding our women soldiers. Of
course, they are Red Cross nurses un
der the terms of the Red Cross treaty
of Geneva which all nations signed.
They do Red Cross 'work. They ad
minister expert treatment to the
wounded and sick of the army not
only at bases but on the field.
They may be assigned to a mobile
operating unit or a field hospital and
be subjected to heavy shelling. Wliile
the matter of experiencing airplane
raids has become rather a common oc
currence to them in Prance. But that
phase of their life which is not gen
erally understood even by soldiers is
that they are an integral part of the
immense medical organization under
the surgeon general of the army. The
famous American Red Cross Society
has nothing to do with them, for they
are under military discipline and are
paid and housed under conditions not
so very dissimilar from those sur
rounding the men in the ranks—in
deed are a courageous, efficient unit of
the army.
MASONIC NOTES.
The building fund for the Masonic
Lod,ge and club room, which is to be
built near Liberty Park, is nearly all
raised, and it is hoped that construc
tion work may be begun in the near
future.
With the raising of the quarantine
in camp, the Kent Masonic Club will
resume their weekly meetings. It is
hoped that all Masons in camp will at
tend these meetings, when their du
ties allow.