ORGANIZATION AND EARLY TRAINING.
The Three Hundred Forty-Fourth Field Artillery was organized August 29th 1917, at
Camp Travis, Texas. One of the light regiments of the Ninetieth Division, National Army. To
Colonel A. U. Faulkner, F. A, Regular Army, was assigned the task of organizing a regiment
from totally green material. Seventy-one officers, whose military experience was limited to
training at the first officers’ camp at Leon Springs, Texas, were assigned to the regiment August
29th, also Lt. Colonel Samuel Frankenberger, F. A., Regular Army.
RECRUITS.
During the early days of September, twenty non-commissioned officers from the Regular
Army came to the regiment to form the back-bone of the enlisted personnel and to assist in
whipping into shape the recruits. About the first of October eight hundred recruits had reported
to the regiment and the process of clothing and equipping these, together with the making out of
their military papers was well under way. Thus, the machinery for turning raw recruits into
soldiers was being gotten into shape. On October 3rd, the men passed their first milestone as
soldiers – the first pay day. In the meanwhile, the schedule of training was in progress,
consisting of Customs of the Service, Gun Drill, Equitation and Care of Animals, and all the
things that go to make up good field artillerymen. Night schools were conducted for officers
under the guidance of Colonel Faulkner and Lt. Colonel Frankenberger, whereas, in the Division
numerous schools on all military subjects were organized, both for officers and enlisted men. By
the middle of October the third and last contingent of recruits was received and we were brought
up to full war strength. In November the epidemic which had already attacked other
cantonments infested Camp Travis – measles, mumps, and meningitis each in turn held its sway.
As a consequence, all organizations of the regiment were quarantined for a month and a half, and
the men could not leave the regimental area. The quarantine created a very annoying situation
and it was with a feeling of relief, when it was lifted in the middle of December. On December
15th, eleven officers, graduates of the Second Officers’ Training Camp, Camp Stanley, reported
for duty, and on December 26th, 1917, Major William E. Dunn was assigned to the regiment.
Major Dunn had gone to France with the 1st Division and served at the front. He was, therefore,
able to teach the officers many lessons concerning the way things were done in closed warfare.
During the holiday season, many members of the regiment were given passes to return for visits
to their homes.
REVIEWS.
During the early part of the year 1918 there was a siege of Division Reviews, in which
the regiment participated; the first before Governor Hobby of Texas, later General Trotter of the
British Army, ex-president William H. Taft, and Major General Ruckman, commanding the
Southern Department.
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