Nation Overseas

On July 15, 1918, Sandburg’s regiment, the 38th Infantry, successfully held a position 200 yards from the Marne River. The two flanks of the 38th Infantry moved toward the river—squeezing the German attackers between them—and exposing the regiment and the enemy to heavy shelling by the 3rd Division Artillery. With this brave stand, the 38th Infantry earned its nickname “Rock of the Marne.”

Theodore Banks served in a segregated pioneer infantry regiment with African American enlisted men and white officers. Pioneer infantry regiments worked under the direction of engineers building roads, bridges, gun emplacements and camps, but they could fight as infantry when necessary. Banks joined the Army in 1918, served in France with his regiment, and received the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry.

For the Myers brothers, World War I was a family affair. All three were Soldiers, but they were assigned to different divisions. George was an infantryman in the 2nd Division with its distinctive Indianhead insignia. Frank, an artilleryman, wore the blue and white stripes of the 3rd Division. Paul served as a military police officer in the 80th Division, which had three stylized mountains in its insignia symbolizing the division’s nickname of “Blue Ridge.”

Captain Kittredge served in the 26th “Yankee Division.” Killed by shellfire in the Argonne Forest in France as his regiment attacked into Belleau Wood on October 23, 1918,  he is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne, France. Kittredge Park in Lowell, Mass., is named in his honor.

In 1917, when the superintendent of schools offered a high school diploma to any student who joined the Army, 17-year-old Triplet accepted the offer. He joined the Missouri National Guard and served in France where he was gassed and shot in the shoulder. After being honorably discharged in 1919, he was admitted to West Point in 1920. He stayed in the Army after graduation, served in combat during World War II, and retired as a colonel in 1954.