News: Major R.P. Howell... (1918)

HOWELL

Posted By: Melissa Mayhew Grandt (email)
Date: 5/14/2009 at 05:17:21

Iowa City Citizen, Iowa City (Johnson Co.), Iowa, 18 October 1918.

MAJOR R.P. HOWELL ARRIVES IN FRANCE
Major R.P. Howell of Iowa City has arrived in France according to information received here yesterday. About three weeks ago Major Howell, who has been in the judge advocate department, and recently at Camp Pike, received orders from the commanding general to report at once at Hoboken and doubtless sailed soon after that time.

It is not known whether he has been transferred to some other arm of the service or not. He confided to friends before leaving Iowa City last spring that one object in accepting a commission in the judge advocate department was to be in the best possible position to get a transfer to a more active branch of the service. He hoped to get into the cavalry but whether his ambition in this line has been gratified it is not known. Major Howell had nearly thirty years experience in the Iowa national guards and was ranking colonel in the state when he accepted the major's commission in the judge advocate department. For several years he has been trying to get into active service in the army.