Franklin II Letters from Fort Terry, 1916

For the first entry, I am attaching three letters written by my grandfather, Franklin B. Bristol II, to his older brother Howard in July 1916.  During this time, he was 15 years old and was attending army camp at Fort Terry.  The full letters can be viewed by clicking on the links below.

 

 

FB II Letter, July 9, 1916

 

FB II Letter, July 13, 1916

FB II Letter, July 15, 1916

 

I recall Papa telling me about this experience many years later, when he was in his 80s.  He said that the camp was located on Long Island, New York and had been used to train boys that were too young to participate in World War I.  He gave me the impression that it had been a positive experience for him and he had actually gotten to meet Teddy Roosevelt.  Although the letters unfortunately do not mention this event, I was able to find it described (July 25) in the attached New York Times article.

Roosevelt at Fort Terry Article, 1916

I also found a great booklet about this military training camp online.  The camp was run for five weeks beginning on July 6, 1916 and was for boys aged 15 through 18.  Fort Terry was located on Plum Island which is just east of Long Island.  Although the program was considered very successful and was therefore going to be continued the following year, the US entered the war the next spring, in April 1917, so it was probably discontinued.  Then, because the war ended in November 1918, when Papa was only 17 years old, he was probably too young to have been drafted.

 Fort Terry Booklet, 1916