He was sent to Camp Gordon near
Atlanta, Ga., and reached there the night of November 16, 1917. His
diary runs:
"I was placed in the 21st training battalion. Then I was called the
first morning of my army life to police up in the yard all the old
cigarette butts and I thought that was pretty hard as I didn't smoke.
But I did it just the same."
His history tells in one sentence, of months of his experience in
training with the "awkward squad" and of his regimental assignment:
"I stayed there and done squads right and squads left until the first of
February, 1918, and then I was sent to Company G, 328 Inf. 82nd Div."
This was the "All America" Division, made up of selected men from every
state in the Union and in its ranks were the descendants of men who came
from every nation that composed the Allies that were fighting Germany.
In his notes Alvin records temptations that came to him while at Camp
Gordon:
"Well they gave me a gun and, oh my! that old gun was just full of
grease, and I had to clean that old gun for inspection. So I had a hard
time to get that old gun clean, and oh, those were trying hours for a
boy like me trying to live for God and do his blessed will. ... Then the
Lord would help me to bear my hard tasks.
"So there I was. I was the homesickest boy you ever seen.
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