How splendidly the stevedores and others measured up to military standards and the great affection with which their officers regarded them, Rev. Dr. Ferguson makes apparent by quoting Colonel C.E.  Goodwin, who for over a year was in charge of the largest camp of Negro Service of Supply men in France.  In a letter to Rev. Dr. Ferguson he said: 

“It is with many keen thrusts of sorrow that I am obliged to leave this camp and the men who have made up this organization.  The men for whose uplift you are working have not only gained, but have truly earned a large place in my heart, and I will always cherish a loving memory of the men of this wonderful organization which I have had the honor and privilege to command.”

Lester A. Walton, who went abroad as a correspondent for the New York Age, thus commented on the stevedores and others of the same service: 

“I had the pleasure and honor to shake hands with hundreds of colored stevedores and engineers while in France.  The majority were from the South, where there is a friendly, warm sun many months of the year.  When I talked with them no sun of any kind had greeted them for weeks.  It was the rainy season when a clear sky is a rarity and a downpour of rain is a daily occurrence.  Yet, there was not one word of complaint heard, for they were ‘doing their bit’ as expected of real soldiers.  Naturally they expressed a desire to get home soon, but this was a wish I often heard made by a doughboy.

“Members of the ‘S.O.S.’ will not came back to America wearing the Distinguished Service Cross or the Croix de Guerre for exceptional gallantry under fire, but the history of the great world war would be incomplete and lacking in authenticity if writers failed to tell of the bloodless deeds of heroism performed by non-combatant members of the American Expeditionary Forces.”

During the summer of 1918, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, the poetess, went to France to write and also to help entertain the soldiers with talks and recitations.  While at one of the large camps in Southern France, the important work of the colored stevedore came to her notice and she was moved to write a poem which follows: 

Thestevedores

We are the Army Stevedores, lusty and virile and strong. 
We are given the hardest work of the war, and the hours are long. 
We handle the heavy boxes and shovel the dirty coal;
While soldiers and sailors work in the light, we burrow below like a mole. 
But somebody has to do this work or the soldiers could not fight! 
And whatever work is given a man is good if he does it right. 
We are the Army Stevedores, and we are volunteers. 
We did not wait for the draft to come, and put aside our fears. 
We flung them away to the winds of fate at the very first call of our land. 
And each of us offered a willing heart, and the strength of a brawny hand.