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| | PVT. ALFRED D. JOELS
Serial No. 2,986,504
552 S. Manning St., Hillsdale, Mich
Inducted Tune 25th at Camp Custer.
He was one of the untrained fifty recruits who were hurried with the Battery to France. He attended the Machine Gun School at Camp Coetquidan, and was a reserve machine gunner on Corporal Whalen’s Vengeance Nine.
He performed the varied duties of a private and during one week, when pressed for men, he was on guard duty. Joels stood guard three days in succession. Returning to the barracks one morning, after being relieved of his duties, he thought he would take to his bunk to get some sleep. On this particular morning Colonel McKell made an unexpected appearance at the barracks looking for shirkers. The Colonel was an anti-sleep apostle and accosted Joels with, “What are you doing?” Though just relieved of a strenuous detail, Joels answered, “I am looking for work.” This so astounded the Colonel that he told Captain Hayes to take his name, remarking that he would see that he got it.
Joels qualified in this speech his willingness to beat the record, as this was a spirit quite unusual among the soldiers.
He was full of wit, of a satirical type.
From the entrainment for the front he occupied a post on kitchen police.
Even though shells were coming thick, he could not resist indulging his wit and humor by telling his usual pithy stories for the amusement of the Mess Sergeant and his assistants.
At Pont-a-Mousson he was a Provost Guard under Sergeant Reddaway.
His was a happy-go-lucky nature. Will we ever forget his story-telling proclivities? |