The Khaki Boys at Camp Sterling; Or, Training for the Big Fight in France
The Khaki Boys at Camp Sterling; Or, Training for the Big Fight in France
It is 1917, and America has entered the Great War. For young Jimmy Blaise, the call to serve is not duty alone but the greatest adventure imaginable. He persuades his quieter friend Roger Barlow to enlist alongside him, and together they begin their transformation from civilians into soldiers bound for Camp Sterling. The novel captures that precise historical moment when war still carried a shimmer of romance, before the trenches taught a harder lesson. Chase gives Jimmy his quick wit and Roger his steadier doubts, and watches their friendship deepen through drill sergeants, difficult training, and the mounting awareness of what awaits in France. The narrative crackles with youthful energy and optimism that lend this book its peculiar power. For modern readers, it offers an intimate window into how an earlier generation understood duty, sacrifice, and masculine friendship. It is very much a product of its time, yet it reveals the hopes and assumptions that sent boys overseas to fight.
