World War 1’s Meuse-Argonne offensive began on Sept. 26, 1918, and halted with the announcement of the Armistice on Nov. 11. It was the largest in U.S. military operation in history with 1.2 million American soldiers. Deadliest, too, with more than 350,000 casualties on all sides and 26,277 U.S. deaths. Many of the troops were inexperienced which probably added to the casualties. The so-called Spanish Flu was raging at the time which swelled the ranks of the soldiers being treated at American Expeditionary Force hospitals.
My grandfather, Lt. Raymond Shay of Iowa City was
there serving with the Headquarters Troop, 88th Division, U.S. Army.
Late in the day on Nov.
11, 1918, my grandmother, Florence Green of Baltimore, was a U.S. Army nurse
serving at Evacuation Hospital 8 in France. She and other medical staffers
still were treating casualties of the Meuse-Argonne campaign and would be for
some time. Armistice Day (later Veterans Day) didn't yet have a name but here’s
the entry in her diary:
November 11: Am so happy tonight to think the war is really
over. I cannot believe it. Haven’t heard a gun since 11am. Great celebrating
everywhere. Can almost hear the city hall in Baltimore ringing, and what a
wonderful time for Paris.
The
next day was Nov. 12 and she was still in France. She finally arrived back in
the States March 10, 1919. She met my grandfather at Army General Hospital 21 (later
Fitzsimons Army Medical Center) in Aurora, Colo. Raymond and Florence were
married in 1922 and their first grandson, me, arrived on the planet on Dec. 18,
1950. Their son, my father Thomas, served overseas in the follow-up war to end
The War to End All Wars from 1942-46. My mother, Anna Hett, was trained as a
U.S. Navy nurse at Denver’s Mercy Hospital but the war ended before she could
be shipped overseas.
More wars followed.
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