Headquarters Troop consists of 3 officers and 122 enlisted men. Its duties are many and varied. It must operate messes for the officers and men of divisian headquarters; it must provide ample sleeping accommodation for them; it must maintain the vicinity of headquarters in a proper state of police; it must have available at all times horses and motors so that officers may proceed without delay wherever their duties call them. The horses must be kept in perfect condition even when food is scarce and difficult to

To perform these duties, the personnel of Headquarters Troop consists of a number of drivers of motor cars and motorcycles, and men to keep them in proper repair at all times, mounted orderlies, wagoners, and horseshoers to care for the horses, orderlies for the Headquarters Officers, and enough men to perform the other duties incidental to the maintenance of division headquarters. These duties pass unnoticed by those who have never been in the army, and indeed are thought lightly of by many soldiers. But no organization needs men of a higher type than a division headquarters troop. The men must be intelligent, resourceful, persevering, and, above all, dependable. From them are wanted no excuses. It does not matter by what means they accomplish their task; but they must accomplish it. On their efficiency depends largely the smooth functioning of the division

Headquarters Troop, 79th Division, performed its duty well. Every man realized fully what was expected of him and willingly and cheerfully carried out

Headquarters Troop, 79th Division, was organized at Camp Meade, Md., on August 29, 1917. On that day the Troop officers, Captain Eugene S. Pleasonton, First Lieutenant Edward W. Madeira and Second Lieutenant Russell A. Freas, reported for duty. The first enlisted man of the Troop, Sergeant Charlie Elmore, the chauffeur for the Division Commander, reported on September 6th. From this time on, men transferred to the Troop as rapidly as those possessing the proper qualifications could be found.

The work of the Troop at Camp Meade was essentially the same as was later encountered in France. The relatively small extent of the camp, however, and the ideal cantonment conditions made it possible to perform the usual duties with fewer men; the full quota of 122 was not made up until just before the departure of the division for Europe. The care of a stable of horses, the maintenance of a guard, driving automobiles and motorcycles, and dispatch-bearing in the Camp made up the routine. The months passed at the Troop barracks in much the same way as in sections of the Camp. A protracted quarantine

The only change in the commissioned personnel of the Troop at Camp Meade occurred on December 12, 1917, when Captain Pleasonton was sent overseas to become a student at the Army General Staff College at Langres, France. Lieutenant Madeira assumed command of the Troop, as it was expected that Captain Pleasonton would resume the command after completing the course at Langres. But in May, when Captain Pleasonton returned from France, he was appointed Major and assigned as Adjutant of the 157th Infantry Brigade. Lieutenant Madeira was made Captain to fill the vacancy caused by Captain Pleasonton's promotion; Second Lieutenant Areas was made First Lieutenant; and Second Lieutenant Charles R. Ace, who had been on special duty with the Troop since the middle of December, was transferred to the Troop.

On July 6, 1918, Headquarters Troop left Camp Meade. The hike to Admiral station proceeded in the early afternoon, under full pack, on one of the hottest days of the year. The troop train -- we thought it was slow and uncomfortable, but we were to learn more about that --- pullled into Jersey City about midnight. We stayed on the train until early the next morning, when we took the ferry for the U. S. S. Leviathan, which was to take us to France.

That was in the days when it was forbidden to mention the names of transports, and it was not until after we were on board that we knew we were on the biggest ship afloat. The Leviathan had no convoy, her speed being her greatest asset, and the race across the Atlantic and through the submarine zone will live

After a three-mile hike from Brest on the morning of July 16th, the Troop reached Pontanezen Barracks, a rest camp -- we will remember it the rest of our lives. There we stayed until the afternoon of the l9th. There was another hike back to the railroad station, where we boarded the train for the training area.

Those days in the middle of July were when the British, the French, and the Americans feeling their real strength for the first time, made their noble resistance to the last German offensive. While we were on the train we received the first uncertain reports of the Allied attacks and the beginning of the German retreat. Our joy, great even at these uncertain reports, was unbounded when we realized the wonderful Allied successes.

From the start of this drive, the Troop was at a disadvantage. The training given at Prauthoy was inadequate for battle conditions and there was always so much to be done around Division Headquarters that there was not much time for training the Troop. Few of us had any idea of what we would be called upon to do, or the conditions under which we would do it. A dozen or so had had an opportunity to get to the front lines in the quiet period before the drive started; and they knew a little about the terrain over which the division advanced when the attack took

But new conditions were an old story to the Troop, and the drive had no sooner started than we began to size up the situation and get things done. The infantry advanced so fast, and there was so much traffic to break down wires, that it was impossible to maintain telephonic communications regularly with the front line troops, and most messages had to be sent by courier. Here the custom of the Troop to "get there somehow" stood it and the division in good stead. Riders mounted on the horses and motorcycles available, set themselves to keep communication with the front line. i One or two had narrow escapes from shellfire and snipers. One trooper had one horse blown to pieces just after he had dismounted, and another nicked by a bullet while he was riding. But all of uS came through, and, green though we were, proved malleable in keeping liaison.

In all, about forty men accompanied the advance echelon of Division Headquarters on this drive. This was inadequate, and meant that all had to do far more than men are supposed capable of doing. There were no sleeping accommodations. Many lay down in pup tents, in the mud, out in the rain; a few more fortunate were able to sleep in trucks. The Post of Command was moved three times, and this involved the labor of moving all the heavy paraphernalia. The Division P. C. was finally located on the 27th about 1,500 meters southeast of Montfaucon. When the order came on the 30th to throw packs on the Troop truck and start hiking back to the rear echelon of

The Troop had a three days' rest at Jouy-en-Argonne before Division Headquarters moved to Thillambois. The latter town was the Division P. C while the division was hiking from Sector 304, where it was relieved, to the Troyon Sector, which it held for three weeks. From Thillambois, Division Headquarters moved to Troyon on October 8th.

The stay in Troyon was one of comparative ease for the Troop after what it had been through during the few days the division stayed in the Argonne. Men who were ill and exhausted from the exposure and hardship they had undergone had a chance to recuperate. There were baths and a few civilians in the town to furnish a relief from the monotony of things military. Furthermore, the first rumors of the German request for an armistice had arrived, and it began to look as though the war would be over some time in the near future, a consideration which made the rigor of army routine more endurable.

On October 26th, Division Headquarters moved to Sieve, where it stayed for three days, during the division's hike from the Troyon Sector to the Grande Montagne Sector, just north of Verdun. From Dieue,

The experience gained in the Argonne proved invaluable to the Troop when the division, on November 3d, resumed offensive operations east of the Meuse River. An adequate force of men was brought to Vachereauville, and everything ran with perfect smoothness. Telephonic communication was almost perfect throughout this offensive, and when couriers went out they know the roads and the location of the posts of commands they were sent out to find. There were sleeping accommodations in the dugouts at Vachereauville for everybody. There was none of the exposure that had been experienced previously at Montfaucon.

But, though work went more smoothly, Vachereauville proved more exposed to enemy shell-fire. From October 31st until the day the war ended, it was subject to desultory shelling, both gas and high explosive On the night of November 4th and 5th, the place was drenched with gas and a number of men were exposed to high concentrations. The next morning several casualties were reported. That night replacements reported to take their places.

On November 8th, the P. C. was moved forward to a dugout, which had been German a few days before, at Molleville Farm. Here also there was considerable shelling, though not as much as at Vachereauville. The work continued to go smoothly, however, and there were no more casualties.

The war was over.