GRADUATE APPEALS FOR MORE AMBULANCE: DRIVERS

The Harvard Crimson
October 21, 1915

Inspector of American Ambulances Tells of Excellent Work Now Being Done in Field.

A. P. Andrew Ph.D. '00, General Inspector of American Ambulance Field Service in France, in a letter written from Lycee Pasteur, Neuilly-sur-Seine, to the Alumni Bulletin, describes the work of Harvard men in the French ambulance service, and the pressing need for motor ambulance drivers in his division. He says:

"I should like through your columns to appeal to men of Harvard, on behalf of the field service of the American Ambulance in France. We have, at present, considerably more than 100 motor ambulances given and driven by Americans, who love and admire France, and who want, in this way, to express their friendship for France and to assist in preserving for the world the lives and genius of her people. These cars are grouped in sections of 20 or 30 each, which are officially attached to the several French armies and are in service at the front. The drivers of these cars are volunteers, for the most part graduates of American universities, and I can say without exaggeration that, with scarcely an exception, they are what we should all be glad to have regarded as typical American gentlemen, the flower of American youth."

"In the section of Alsace which France has recovered from Germany, the American Ambulance field service has now the only automobile ambulances, and they are performing a service which no other automobile ambulances could perform. Because of the lightness and power of our little cars and because we are willing to use them up in this service and replace them without restrictions, our ambulances are running over steep mountain passes in Alsace, which the French motor ambulances are unable to cross and over which wounded soldiers were formerly carried in hard-rimmed, springless wagons or on mule back. Two of the men in this section, Dudley Hale '14 and Graham Carey '14, both Harvard men, have already received the "Croix de Guerre" for special acts of valor."

"Within the next few weeks we shall need for our field service about 20 additional volunteers who are good motor car drivers. We should like to have such men enlist for a longer period, but we will accept enlistments for four months. The American Ambulance will furnish the automobiles and repairs, the French army furnishes food and lodging. The men must, themselves, provide for their own transportation to and from France, their own uniforms and their incidental expenses, which need not amount to more than $10 or $15 per month, and the aggregate expenditure for four months, including transportation both ways, uniform, and incidentals, can be very comfortably met by $300, or even by a somewhat smaller sum.

"We need men right away, and I earnestly hope that 20 dependable men will respond to this call and will communicate as soon as possible with Mr. William R. Hereford, 14 Wall street, New York City, who looks after the enlistments in America.

September 30, 1915."