It is not my intention in these reminiscences to give a history of the war of Greater Romania. A better source of details is a book by Constantin Kiritescu, published in three volumes in 1921, by Casa Scoalelor. What I will do is to limit myself to those episodes in which I participated.

         On October7th, 1915, In was nineteen years. Old when Prince Carol came to me with an offer: "If you enlist as a volunteer, come to my regiment of  "Hunters" of which I am its Commander in Chief.? 

         A day later, dressed in the Hunter's uniform of the ?Queen Elizabeth? No.2 Regiment, I joined Company One commanded by Carol. Without losing any time, he ordered Sergeant Chiritza to train me in everything that he had already trained recruits of the prior year. Chiritza treated me as any other soldier. He taught me to stand straight, head up, chin pulled in, to draw in the stomach and keep my heels together and toes apart to form a "V". I learned the parade step, how to turn to the right and left. Somehow what was most difficult for me was to turn around from the left. His greatest contribution was to teach me how to execute an order. I had to start by saying: "Yes Sir, sergeant, I understood. I have to go to the store and bring you a packet of cigarettes."

         The first time I came back empty handed, he not having given me any money. He repeated the order. I went back to the store (not too far) and came back with a packet of cigarettes that I paid for out of my own allowance. This order was repeated twice a day and after two weeks Sgt. Chiritza brought me in front of Prince Carol praising me as a good soldier.

         At lunchtime while I was in my barracks Prince Carol sent me an invitation to go and have lunch with him in the officers mess hall. In the middle of the table there was a bowl where anyone who spoke of work would drop a fixed sum. With the money collected they bought one or two bottles of champagne! The meals were very good and Prince Carol often held a lively conversation with his officers. He was greatly amused by stories or indecent jokes recounted by Captain Nicolceanu who later would become Prefect de Police of Bucharest. I kept silent. I was the youngest in my class and did not know any indecent stories, nor did I enjoy them. 

         I had an advantage making me different from the others in my company. I was a "teterist" (a young man with a reduced term of service). This title was given to all high school graduates and I received this title with honors for being ranked first in my graduation examination. What had helped me was the thirty minute speech I delivered on the "History of Aviation,? a topic I selected from a list of ten. I had read almost everything I could about the progress of aviation and I spoke without any notes in a declaratory tone. What produced a sensation was my prophetic peroration. In rhetoric class I had learned that a good speech should end with a dramatic closing message. I said that in a far away future, mankind will become poor as the soil would lose its natural resources and our salvation would be to board a large aircraft and fly to another planet (that was in1915). The President of the Commission, Professor Titeica, came up to the podium and congratulated me. He asked where I got the idea of my closing line and laughed when I said I found it in my head.