Corpun file 25338 at www.corpun.com

The Evening Missourian, Columbia, Missouri, 21 October 1918, p.4

Paddling Helps to Teach Drill Rules

Home Guard Members Get Lesson on Hike North of Town.

Five Fail in Test

On Guard Duty, They Permit Corporal to Take Their Rifles.

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Five members of the Columbia Home Guard learned, probably for life yesterday on the company's hike to the oil well five and a half miles north west of town, that a soldier on guard must not give up his rifle even to an officer, according to Lieutenant I.C. Adams.

Seven members of the company were detailed to guard the camp when the old well was reached. The commanding officer decided to test the guards' knowledge of military rules so he sent a corporal around to each of them to ask to inspect their guns.

Five of the seven guards handed their guns over to the corporal and he kept them, thus leaving the guards on duty without weapons. A relief was sent out to take their places and when those who had been guarding came in, the officer asked for their guns. When they told how they had parted with them, they were court-martialed.

A trial was held and the offenders were sentenced to be shot at sunrise this morning. Upon the strong plea of one of the guilty ones that sunrise was too early to get up to be shot, the sentence was changed to a paddling, which was administered immediately.

The day was spent in learning extended order drill. Dinner and supper were prepared in camp.

The Home Guard company has rented the old armory at Tenth and Broadway for the winter. The company now numbers about eighty members. Practically all of them have uniforms. A recent attempt to recruit enough men to form another company failed.