 |
| | 1ST CL. PVT. JALMAR AHO
Serial No. 2,983,607
Negaunee, Mich.
Inducted June 25, 1918.
Of large frame and about six feet in height, he was one of the many six-footers we had in our Battery. Previous to coming into the army he followed the vocation of a miner and had worked in the woods.
At Coetquidan the Captain appointed him a member of one of the gun crews. Very unusual for a very large man, he was quick and agile, which peculiarly fitted him for this sort of duty.
Also was our first casualty in action, happily a minor one. It occurred in a dugout in the Puvenelle Woods while we were in reserve gun positions absorbing our first actual experience of the hostile area. The gun crew, after sighting and registering their guns at 7,000 meters reserve, a heavy rain storm came up. As there was nothing to do for the moment, the men naturally rested whenever they could and had been allowed to go into the dugouts for protection. An air- shaft ran up the center and at the base was a can of chloride of lime, which the rain had reached. This caused a peculiar odor and an over anxious buck private yelled “gas.” Everyone reached for his gas mask, which some had laid to one side for the moment. Private Aho reached hurriedly for his mask, lost his balance and fell out of the bunk, striking the floor, the mask injuring his eye. He went to the infirmary to have his optic dressed and went about looking as though he did not see the cause for merriment which greeted him. Any incident when the men were very tired acted as a vent for the feelings.
On the same occasion Disotell made things seem anxious by calling for his gas mask, which he could not find. At the same time he was inhaling the air by calling for it so lustily.
Aho was tireless and energetic, taking to his duties with enthusiasm throughout all of our fighting period.
He had a vein of cheerfulness about him under discouraging circumstances, a quality hard to cultivate, but with him it was natural.
He was eternally joking with the men and a comrade in all that the word implies. |