Recounting a college ambulance unit’s plunge from campus life to the front lines, this memoir follows young volunteers as they join the war effort, endure rough camp life, and forge strong bonds in a time of upheaval.
From the moment of deployment and the first stark nights in Allentown, the narrative tracks daily routines, humor, discipline, and the grit that carried a group of Yale-connected volunteers through early training, medical duties, and the unpredictable realities of war. The book blends personal voices with broader context, painting a vivid picture of camaraderie, leadership, and the challenges of war service during a formative era.
- Field experiences and the rhythm of camp life, including drills, sanitation, inoculations, and improvisation under pressure.
- Character sketches and anecdotes of officers, peers, and the practical jokes that sustained morale.
- Accounts of frontier duties, duties in rear areas, and interactions with French allies and local communities.
- Framing of a soldiers’ perspective on the war, the sense of purpose, and glimpses of larger battles through personal memory.
Ideal for readers of military memoirs and WWI history who want a ground-level view of how ordinary students turned soldiers shaped a defining chapter of the war.
Record of S. S. U. 585