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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – World War I isn’t taught properly in our history classes. We lack proper perspective.
Back then, America was naive.
We had a very small standing army, about 10,000 men. Our top general John Pershing was sent to France before we joined the fighting. He watched trench warfare through a telescope from a distant hill. German soldiers would scurry out of their trench, they’d be repelled by the French. Some of the soldiers would make it to the trench in front of them – gaining about 50 yards of ground. The rest would be killed in action. The French would counter-attack, many of their soldiers would be killed pushing the German’s back.
General Pershing asked a French commander what the strategy was. How could such a war be won? The French reply was to keep enough of our soldiers arrive until the Americans get here.
General Pershing’s report to President Woodrow Wilson was that under no circumstances should American soldiers be sent to such a war. But German U-boats were sinking our ships in the Atlantic. The public mood was changing. And our naivete was that American boys were superior – raised in the great outdoors, in a land of plenty and in a nation of freedom. In the summer of 1917 American boys enlisted. Many believed they’d be home to attend college that fall; or the war would be over before they got there.
American soldiers were in battle for a year-and-a-half; 116,000 of our soldiers died. If the American public had known the length and the numbers of the dead, we would not have fought.
Only the wealthiest American families could have their dead soldiers embaumed and returned to the United States for burial. Most of the Americans are interned in the military cemeteries of Europe.
Our soldiers were given metal discs with their serial numbers on them – a prelude to military dog tags. Many of the metal discs were also damaged beyond recognition. 1,100 of our World War 1 soldiers were never identified.
One such soldier was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. The Army’s old guard stands watch over the tomb. The inscription on it reads, “Here lies, in honored glory, an American soldier known but to God.”
There is a grave of an unknown soldier in Wausau. It’s at the Pine Grove Cemetery on Grand Avenue. Today at 1pm the Daughters of the American Revolution have organized a memorial service at the grave site.
I thought you might want to attend.
Chris Conley
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