RE: Happy Armistice Day

Posted on: November 11, 2024 at 07:58:25 CT

Two of my Great Uncles were infantry soldiers in the 356th Inf. Reg., 35th Div. The Division was deployed in the Meuse-Argonne offensive and got chewed up badly. One Uncle, a rifleman got almost half of his foot blown off by an artillery shell in his first battle. The other Uncle, a BAR gunner was never wounded in spite of advancing with the regiment into the frontline trenches for three battles. The first Uncle recuperated in a French hospital before getting shipped home. After the Armistice the second Uncle was selected to join a composite regiment to represent the Division and march in the allied victory parades. He stayed in Europe for several months after the war's end and he got to visit every capitol city. In the fall of 1919 the composite division returned home and marched in a victory parade in Washington D.C. He didn't get discharged until September, 1919. He returned to his farm in northwest Missouri and died in his sleep at 98. The St. Joe paper published a feature story about his life that included him planting corn. I think he was 96 or 97 at the time. His rows were not very straight and we used to laugh when we passed this particular field.