GOES BACK TO THE NAVY.
Kansas City Boy Re-Enlists -- Is Now
First Class Quartermaster.
One of the youngest first class quartermasters in the United States naval service is J. I. Freese, a Kansas City, Kas., boy, who re-enlisted for the second time in the navy recruiting station in the federal building yesterday and was temporarily detailed for clerical work here. Freese is 21 years old, but has now reached about the top rung of a sailorman's ambition. In fact, an enlisted man has reached about the limit of his eligibility when he is a quartermaster of the first class and has little more to hope for in times of peace.
The naval experiences of Freese appear large for a boy of his years, but in talking of them he does not let you forget for instant that he joined the jack tars in 1902 instead of yesterday. He was set at that time to do a year at Newport. Then he took a training cruise on board the Essex and was transferred to the Maine for a three-months journey in Southern Europe.
When Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans was ordered to make a Pacific fleet out of the Atlantic fleet, Freese was a quartermaster on board the Connecticut. At San Francisco he was changed to the Maine again, and the Maine and Alabama were detached and sent around the world ahead of the fleet, touching at Honolulu, Guam, Colombo and Port Said. Last November the two ships arrived home at Portsmouth, N. H., where Freese was mustered out of service.
"I like the navy and I am going to stick to it," said the young quartermaster yesterday. "It's the only life for me, although there is lots of grind and hard work attached to the job."
B. J. Freese, the boy's father, is a railroad foreman of the West Bottoms, living on North Fourth street, Kansas City, Kas.
