Headquarters Second Training Camp, Fort Sheridan, Illinois, August 23, 1917.
��TO THE CANDIDATES OF THE SECOND TRAINING CAMP:
You have been selected from some twenty thousand applicants because your qualifications indicate that you can become efficient officers in the armies of the United States.
The success of the First Training Camp was due to the spirit that moved its members to apply themselves from the start to the work in hand. You will have with you as instructors officers of the Regular Army and officers who have just completed their course of training in the First Training Camps. Their whole object w^ill be to give you the best instruction, practical and theoretical, that is possible within the three months' time allotted. The success of their w^ork will depend on your hearty co-operation, which means close attention to study and drill and strict compliance with all the regulations of the camp.
Most of the candidates w^ho come here have already achieved success in civil life — success in military life is achieved by the same means, namely, w^ork and study. You know the methods, and the very fact that you have come here shows your intention to apply them.
The two qualities in men which brought about the greatest returns in the last encampment were patience and team-w^ork. Patience enables us to examine with care the requirements of any problem, and team-w^ork brings the united efforts of all who achieve success. Cheerfulness, good humor, and the habit of looking at the bright side of things will be of great assistance. The man w^ho can retain his cheerfulness under the most trying circumstances is the man who w^ins in the end.
Remember, you are in a w^ay going back to school, and the comradeship w^hich you w^ill find among your fellow candidates in the various companies will be an incentive to effort. The friendships you w^ill form here will be lasting, and one of the greatest results that w^ill come under your observation will be the many good qualities you w^ill discover among your comrades during these three months which you little suspected when you first met them.
Remember, this is the world's greatest problem, and everything you do each day here contributes to the final results as much as if you were in the trenches in Flanders.
J. A. RYAN, Colonel of Cavalry.
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