Cpt. John Payne Kaye, 1891-1970
David.Gettman May 28th, 2008
I was with the 2nd Cavalry, Commanding Troop “E”, and later the 2nd Squadron as senior captain, and finally for a month I had the Regiment, less the 1st Squadron which remained in Coblenz, Germany (I think) on Army of Occupation duty after the Regiment returned to the US. I was at Fort Ethan Allen from November 1917 to May 1918, then went over to France on the good ship Caserta (an Italian boat which had been a horse transport until they cleaned out the manure and built three tier bunks out of odds and ends of lumber) which was our home for the two weeks it took to cross.
They tried to feed us Jack Rabbits, but some of the men made a midnight raid and threw them overboard. They stank to high heaven as they had come across the Pacific through the Panama Canal to New York from Australia on a cooler ship that wasn’t too efficient, not a refrigerator ship by any stretch of the imagination.
We finally landed at Brest and were promptly picked on as Military Police as we were the first Regular Army unit to land. For about two or three weeks we stayed down in the dock area and then built and moved to our new camp just out of town on the way to Pontanezen Barracks. We stayed there doing troop escort and Military Police duty until about mid-October then made a 40 and 8 ride up to San’ Dizier and then hiked and caught rides up to Dombasle, located about 15 or 20 miles from Verdun. Continue Reading »
