John was the baby of the family. He wasn't the only soldier; Charlie had served with Blackjack Pershing, when he chased Pancho Villa back over the Mexican border in 1916.

Competition among the boys was intense, and both Reed and Harl were a little too old for playing soldier; Reed was running a hatchery, and Harl was a dealer for Standard Oil of Ohio, operating a bulk plant and delivering gasoline to farmers, fleet owners, and other large consumers (something his great grand-daughter's husband does now). John, however, decided that he couldn't let Charlie be the only hero in the family, so when Blackjack was named head of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, he joined up about the same time Charley was discharged.

Rapid Promotion

John did well. He did darned well. Advancement is fast in wartime, and John became a corporal, then a sergeant, then was promoted from soldier to officer, becoming a lieutenant. They jeered at 90-day wonders in WWII, officers that didn't know their head from a hole in the ground, but John had risen through the ranks, even if he did it quickly, and he knew the tricks, and he didn't take any crap from anyone. I later talked to two different men, on separate occasions, who had served under John, and they said he was a good officer, one who argued with his superiors when given unreasonable orders, and got the orders changed to something that could be accomplished.

His men, on the other hand, were mostly draftees, and for many of them, they'd never had jobs, and they didn't like being told what to do. Some of them were cowards, some of them were merely soft, and some of them were ruffians and thugs.

Two Armistices

There was a false armistice on November 7, when a United Press story crossed the wire that the war was over. People in many US communities celebrated, only to be broken-hearted to learn that their loved ones were still in danger. There was no false armistice in France.

But finally, the word came down to the soldiers. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, the fighting was to cease. That was European time; the armistice actually arrived at 6 AM in Ohio and 5 AM in Indiana. Finally, everybody could relax.

It was at lunch on November 11 that John died. According to the telegram that the family later received, John was bent down over the campfire when a grenade slipped off his belt, and rolled into the fire, to explode and kill him.

Was It A Lie?

Charley thought it possible. Grenades were little more than a metal can of gunpowder, fitted with a fuse. A lot of soldiers died early in WWI trench warfare when the grenades hit the front of the trenches. In 1915, though, the Mills bomb was introduced. It had a lever that flew shy of the grenade while in the air, a time-delay mechanism to set off the grenade four seconds later, and the grenade body was easily-frangible metal that provided a lot of deadly shrapnel. An earlier grenade, rolling into a fire, would have exploded in no time at all. A Mills bomb would have taken a while to reach explosive temperatures.

A thug, a ruffian might be motivated to keep his fellow soldiers alive, because while the firing was going on, it was a matter of us versus them. Once the armistice was on, there was no need to keep someone around who had been a pain in the ass - and without any doubt, John would have been a pain in the ass.

Both the veterans I talked to, the ones that served under John, denied having seen what happened, but neither one doubted that John had been "fragged". People don't change, the one told me, when they put on a uniform. They don't become noble and honorable. If they were scum as civilians, they will be scum as soldiers - and if they think they can get away with something, they will try.

Some Gave All. Some Are Scum

Some gave all. Most gave some. And to those soldiers who put themselves in harm's way for the benefit of their country, their neighbors, and their friends, we owe a great debt.

But if you'll excuse me, I can't forget the 11th month, the 11th day, the 12th hour, when one soldier proved himself very much unworthy of the uniform.

We have parades that honor our military on Memorial Day, on the 4th of July, and on Armistice Day Veteran's Day. The most dangerous job in government, however, is that of garbage collector. Why are there no parades honoring those people, all of them volunteers, who also stand in harm's way to serve the rest of us?

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
American Expeditionary Forces - Armistice Day - Blackjack Pershing - fragging - grenades - Mills bomb - Pancho Villa - Standard Oil