WWI DISPATCH November 2022

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November 2022

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Daniel Dayton, Chairman and CEO of the Doughboy Foundation (left) and General Barry McCaffrey. USA (Ret) give honors while Taps is played during the Bells of Peace event November 11, 2022 at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC.

Bells of Peace sound at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC on November 11, 2022

Bells of Peace rang out at the National World War I Memorial on Washington, DC on Friday, November 11, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. EST in honor of the heroism and sacrifice of the 4.7 million American sons and daughters who served in WWI.  Over 2 million deployed “Over There”. 204,000 Americans returned home wounded and 116,516 did not come home at all. The Doughboy Foundation hosted the 2022 Bells of Peace commemoration at the Memorial in Washington, D.C. The ceremony included a wreath dedication, remarks by special guest General Barry McCaffrey, the Doughboy Foundation’s Bells of Peace tolling, and “Echoing Taps” by Taps For Veterans, where multiple buglers played taps from different corners of the WWI Memorial.  Click here to learn more, and watch a recording of the 2022 Bells of Peace ceremony.


Sculptor for National World War I Memorial is interviewed ahead of Veterans Day

Sabin Howard working on sculpture in Englewood, NJ studio

For three years, in a cavernous studio in Englewood, New Jersey, sculptor Sabin Howard and a handful of assistants have been working on “A Soldier’s Journey,” the monumental sculpture for the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC. This epic bronze tableau, 58 feet long and 10 feet high, with 38 figures, will be the largest freestanding high relief bronze in the western hemisphere when it is installed in 2024. Jim Beckerman of the NorthJersey.com web site recently visited the studio. Click here to read the entire interview, and learn how Sabin's archetypal model for the bronze is another Washington landmark familiar to all Americans.

Bronze portion of sculpture

Zita Ballinger Fletcher of the HistoryNet.com web site also interviewed Howard about his methods and inspiration last month, and the artist shared with the publication "some never-seen images" (like the one above) of the earlier sections of the sculpture that are now cast in bronze at the Pangolin Editions sculpture foundry in the UK. Click here to read the entire article, and learn how the creation of the monumental sculpture "has been an incredibly educating experience in humanity" for the sculptor.


The Daily Taps Program: Remember Someone Close To You Who Answered Our Nation’s Call.

Daily Taps Bugler

Every day without fail, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, Taps sounds at the National World War I Memorial honoring those who perished in the "war that changed the world" and all who have served in the armed forces of the United States. As a joint effort between the Doughboy Foundation, the National Park Service, and the World War I Centennial Commission, this ceremony keeps faith with the American Doughboy and pays tribute to all our service members and veterans. The Daily Taps program now provides a unique opportunity to dedicate a livestreamed sounding of Taps in honor of a special person of your choice while supporting the important work of the Doughboy Foundation. Click here to read more, and learn how you can choose a specific day to honor someone, or even establish this honor for them in perpetuity.


Orange County, NY remembers 40 locals who died in pivotal World War I battle

Orange County NY event

Dr. Jeffrey Sammons, a professor of history at New York University (NYU), was the guest speaker at the event honoring 40 Orange County, NY residents who died in battle more than 100 years ago on the same day during World War I. The 40 Orange County residents served in Companies E and L of the 107th Regiment of the 27th Division and were killed in action during the Battle of the Hindenburg Line in Northern France. Click here to read more, and find out how Orange County "will always remember our fallen heroes.”


Ohio Program Pays Tribute To WWI Deaths In Service

LaRue Ohio event

The Central Ohio Military Museum hosts a free monthly Veterans luncheon. The October 2022 program featured Paul LaRue, member of the Ohio WWI Centennial Committee. LaRue’s program focused on the return of the bodies of WWI Service Members who lost their lives in Europe. Click here to read the entire article, and learn how families after WWI had difficult decisions to make regarding the remains of their relatives who died overseas during the global conflict.


NYC Barber, 75, Pleads Guilty in 1976 Killing of World War I Veteran

WWI vet body exhumed

A 75-year-old New York City man pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 1976 killing of a World War I veteran whose dismembered remains were found in 2019. The guilty plea in the death of WWI vet George Seitz represented the first successful use of genetic genealogy by any of the city’s prosecutors. Click here to read the entire article, and learn how the disappearance of Seitz, a World War I veteran who was then 81 years old, remained a mystery for decades until a tipster led police to a backyard where dismembered body parts were buried under concrete--a very New York, New York story.


Veterans Support Civilian’s Search For Great-Grandfather’s Service Record

John Faulkner

A chance encounter with a photo of a stranger in a World War I U.S. Navy uniform was the door to a rabbit hole for researcher Joe Felice. The journey down that pathway led Felice to the man who turned out to be his great grandfather: John Faulkner, the man in the Navy uniform. But there was no family knowledge of Faulkner ever serving. Click here to read the whole story, and learn how Felice's journey through the labyrinth of WWI service records, which was aided by a number of military veterans along the way, finally led him to an unexpected discovery.


Harvard University Magazine:
We Remember World War I

Thomas Cabot

To honor the nation’s veterans, Harvard Magazine has republished Adam Goodheart’s remarkable collection of stories about the Great War, “We Remember World War I,” which appeared in the November-December issue of 1993, together with contributing editor Jim Harrison’s engaging photographic portraits. Click here to read the whole article, and learn how in 1993, among Harvard Graduates, "the war is still quite alive in the lives we lead today, for in a certain sense it was the beginning of the modern world."


UA Little Rock Researcher Uncovers History of WWI American Indian Nurses

Constance Madden

One University of Arkansas at Little Rock researcher has made it her mission to uncover the history of American Indian women who served as Army nurses during World War I. Erin Fehr, assistant director and archivist of the Sequoyah National Research Center, partnered with the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission to create a website commemorating the approximately 12,000 American Indians who served in the military during World War I. During her research, Fehr came across an article that described two of the 14 American Indian women who served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. “I realized no one has written about any of the others,” Fehr said. “I am bound and determined to find these women. " Click here to read more, and learn how her ongoing research has revealed that the American Indian nurses "have fascinating stories to share."


Flying the Liberty Plane brings historic DH4 aircraft to PBS stations nationwide

Flying the Liberty Plane flyer

"It’s been a long time coming," writes author, moviemaker, and aviator Dorian Walker, "but we have finished our film The Liberty Plane on America’s first Warbird." The new film, airing on PBS TV stations nationwide starting in the Fall of 2022, was "inspired by both the timeframe, our own DH4, and Peter Jackson’s, They Shall Not Grow Old, We have attempted to take audiences back to World War I." Click here to read more, learn how "the story of America’s first warbird, the DH-4 Liberty Plane, we found as largely unknown, yet so many innovations evolved from it," and find out where and when you can see this documentary of WWI aviation history.


When America Became Global Power:
We Have the Right Christmas Present for You!

When America Became Global Power: We Have The Right Christmas Present For You!

The two-volume book In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War chronicles and explains the historical events of the Great War through photos taken by the author one hundred years later, between 2014 and 2021 in each and every theatre of this global conflict, 57 countries in all. With festive season approaching, are you still looking for the right present for your loved ones? Click here to learn more about an ideal offer for you that the whole family would enjoy on Christmas Eve, with a significant discount!


Exhibit Spotlights Stories Of African American WWI Soldiers From Virginia

WWI African American soldier from Virginia

There’s a new World War I exhibit in Fairfax, and it’s offering visitors an up-close experience with history. The “True Sons of Freedom” traveling exhibition from the Library of Virginia is now on display at the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center. It commemorates Black soldiers from Virginia who served in World War I, fighting for freedoms they were denied at home. Click here to read more, and find out how to view this exhibit running through December 3.


Purple Heart & Service Medals Awarded to World War I Veteran In Sayre, PA

WWI medals awarded Sayre, PA

It may have taken 104 years, but one Army veteran from Sayre, PA has finally received the service medals he deserved. Federal and State officials joined at the VFW Post 1536 in Sayre, PA November 10 to award Private Raymond Jay Varner the Purple Heart and World War One Victory Medal for his service. “It’s great. He had it coming, but he never said much about it,” Robert Varner, son of Raymond, said, adding “Growing up, I always wondered what the dents were in his body, and he told me.” Click here to read more, and learn how Raymond Jay Varner was was the one man out of twelve in his company to survive the battle in which he was shot.


Heroic Legacy Of The Harlem Hellfighters

Harlem Hellfighter legacy

A few years ago, Gina McVey of Elk Grove, CA discovered a piece of world history in her family’s past. It all started with a chance encounter at a car dealer. “There was a gentleman in military uniform and we were both sitting in the waiting room. So, as we’re sitting there I told him, ‘Thank you for your service,’” McVey said. In the conversation that followed, McVey mentioned that her own grandfather had fought in World War I, and left her family “a French medal” he had won. She said the man perked up and asked if the medal could possibly be one called the Croix de Guerre. When she confirmed it was, she said the man replied, “Do you know what you have? You have history.” Click here to read more, and learn how Gina’s grandfather Lawrence Leslie McVey was one of the few African American men to ever receive the medal. 


WWI Veteran’s Gravestone Corrected

Winton Paul Burtner

Chaz Haywood first saw a photograph of Winton Paul Burtner (left) in a framed portrait at his wife’s family home. Haywood asked his wife, “Who’s that fella?” Ginny Haywood responded that the man was her great-uncle, who was killed in June 1918 at the Battle of Belleau Wood in France during World War I. It wasn’t until Haywood started digging around online and pulled up a photograph of Burtner’s gravestone, located at Arlington National Cemetery, that he noticed something strange — the marker was labeled Maryland instead of Virginia. And the name was spelled wrong. Click here to read more, and learn how diligent work on the part of family and friends ensured that “Someone who dies for their country should have everything correct on their marker as accurate as possible.”


Photographic Treasure: Exhibit Features WWI Photos from Newly-found Negatives

WWI Photo Negatives found

Molly Millie Anderson noticed the plain black box at an Omaha auction. Anderson, a history buff, opened the box and found numerous negatives inside. She held one up to a light and spotted a date: 1917. “This is pretty cool, but there’s no way these are any good,” she thought.  Anderson still bid for the box and won it. She bought a light board and began looking at the negatives. Click here to read the entire article, and learn more about what Anderson found: a photographic record captured by Rudolph “Doc” Henry Cook, who served in World War I, in pristine shape. 


Family of South Carolina WWI Soldier Gets His Purple Heart – A Century Later

Family gets Purple Heart

Sgt. Henry Dokes was a member of the 371st Infantry Regiment, made up of Southern Black men mostly from South Carolina drafted into the U.S. Army. Dokes was shot in the face in the same battle where Cpl. Freddie Stowers was killed. Stowers would be recognized with the Medal of Honor decades later, in 1991. But despite his visible wounds and a disability designation from the VA, Dokes never received a Purple Heart. But on November 5, that changed. Click here to read more, and learn how Dokes' grandson and great grandson were given the military medal Henry Dokes earned more than a century ago. 


“Today’s War Writers Owed a Debt Not Only to the Service of WWI Soldiers but also to the Unprecedented Way They Wrote About War.”

Beyond Their Limits of Longing: Contemporary Writers and Veterans on the Lingering Stories of WWI

Writes author Jennifer Orth-Veillon: "My just-released book, Beyond Their Limits of Longing: Contemporary Writers and Veterans on the Lingering Stories of WWI, is informed and inspired by “The WWrite Blog. Exploring WWI’s Influence on Contemporary Writing and Scholarship,” a blog I had the honor of curating for the Official United States World War One Centennial Commission’s website from 2016-2019. The blog featured posts almost every week by emerging and established writers from all genres who volunteered to reflect upon the place of WWI memory in the United States and in the world. While my work with the blog and the commission finished in 2019, my passion for modernizing the WWI narrative motivated me to create a book because, though a blog is wonderful in some many respects, I wanted to both consolidate and polish a selection of the timeless posts in an easily accessible collection." Click here to read Orth-Veillon's entire thoughtful essay, and learn more about her new book, including where to buy it.


NCSC Reveals Newest Exhibit:
World War I Espionage In The USA

German spy

A new digital exhibit unveiled by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) highlights a lesser-known aspect of World War I (WWI) – the sabotage and espionage campaign carried out in the United States by Imperial Germany. The “Evolution of Espionage in America” exhibit spotlights this secret war on the American home front, which began long before the United States entered WWI. Click here to read more about the exhibit, and learn how “While many of these stories have long been forgotten, they hold valuable lessons as we confront today’s challenges.


Tradition Lives On At Hindenburg Line Dinner

Pvt. Michael Valente

"…gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy during the operations against the Hindenburg line, east of Ronssoy, France, 29 September 1918,” begins the Medal of Honor citation for Pvt. Michael Valente, but he would describe it more plainly. “I was pissed that my men were getting killed,” he would reply when his grandson, Ralph Madalena, asked him about that fateful day on the Western Front. Rushing on a German machine gun nest, Valente and a comrade killed or captured the entire crew, before turning their attention toward another position, and doing it again. Valente would be wounded shortly thereafter, but lived on until 1976. The notion of legacy was a conspicuous theme on the night of October 22, as the Veterans of the Seventh Regiment hosted a commemorative “Hindenburg Line” dinner at the Park Avenue Armory. Click here to read more about Pvt. Valente, the Veterans of the Seventh Regiment , and why the “Hindenburg Line” dinner takes place.


Meaux’s Museum of the Great War,
World War I Reenactors, and Brie

Meaux reenactors

Despite its significance in 20th-century history and its role in transforming the United States into a world power, the First World War sights, cemeteries and museums of France typically hold little interest for American travelers. Yet several are at Paris’s doorsteps. The Suresnes American Cemetery and the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial are both in the suburbs while the Musée de la Grande Guerre (Museum of the Great War) in Meaux is just 25 miles east along a meander in the Marne River. Click here to read more about the Meaux museum, and the tremendous collection of objects from the First World War that has been amassed over more than 40 years. And about brie...


The Armchair Historian: World War I From The American Perspective

The Armchair Historian

The Armchair Historian LLC specializes in producing educational and entertaining animated history videos, primarily 20th-century military history. Writes founder Griffin Johnsen: "I started this channel in June of 2016, but our first video came out in November of 2017. I was 18 at the time and did all of the research, animations, editing, and some of the art myself. As our channel grew I brought on more and more experts to improve our animation, scriptwriting, and illustrations. Now we are a team of around 70, and create videos on YouTube, run our streaming service “Armchair History TV,” and design historical strategy games with our new studio “Armchair History Interactive.” Now The Armchair Historian has a new animated video: WW1 From The American Perspective. Click here to learn more about The Armchair Historian, WW1 From The American Perspective, and where you can find the video.


New Book Highlights The Incredible Legacy Of Syracuse University WWI Veteran William Shemin ’1924

The Ivy League Hero

A new book, “The Ivy Hero: The Brave Life of Sergeant William Shemin” (City Point Press, 2022), authored by Sara Shemin Cass and her cousin, Dan Burstein, shares William’s story—from his earliest years on the Lower East Side to his military service and time at Syracuse University, to the 15-year fight of his daughter Elsie Shemin-Roth ’51 for William to be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He is the only known graduate of Syracuse University to have received the distinction. Click here to read more about Sergeant William Shemin, his extraordinary bravery during a long-fought battle in 1918 near Bazoches, France, and the ultimately successful campaign by his family for the the Medal of Honor that he was denied due to his Jewish faith.


Doughboy MIA for November 2022

DOughboy MIA Generic image

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

This month we are featuring something different for our MIA of the Month: an ‘Unknown’ buried in France.

 The remains we are focused on here were originally discovered in early-1938 by members of the British Imperial War Graves Commission. How they had come into the information is unknown. The remains were recovered by US personnel in April 1938 from an isolated grave in an open field on Cravancon Farm outside the commune of Chaudun in the Aisne Department. 

Chaudun in the Aisne Department

The man was most likely a 2nd Division soldier killed in the July 1918 offensive fought there. Interestingly however, the area where he was discovered is actually well within the area of operations of the French 1st Moroccan Division, who were on the left of the 2nd during the fighting.

The remains were taken to the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery where they were to await identification. However, when the effects found with the remains were mailed to the Administrative Officer at the Corps of Engineers – the closest thing to Graves Registration still in France at the time – they were lost in transit and never found. This meant that material evidence that might have been used for identification was gone, leaving only medical evidence. The extent that that medical evidence was compared to MIA files for soldiers lost in that area during that time period is unknown, as all the paperwork dealing with those remains recovered and buried as Unknown has been lost and thus far we at Doughboy MIA have been unable to locate it.

So it was that in May 1938 it was determined the remains could not be identified and an ‘Unknown’ number was assigned them; in this case the man became U-4228 and a file for him was begun. He was transferred in June 1938 to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery where he was permanently interred in Block H, Row 44, Grave 33.

The point here is to illustrate a bit of what we are up against when we tackle a case. While we may never be able to identify who U-4228 is, we at least owe it to him to try and do so, as well as to the others who remain lost to that war.

How about giving us a hand? Make your tax-deductible donation to our non-profit organization today. Doing so helps ensure these men are never forgotten. Simply go to www.doughboymia.org and give what you can, with our thanks. Every dime goes to our mission.

Can you spare just ten dollars? Give 'Ten For Them' to Doughboy MIA and help us make a full accounting of the 4,423 American service personnel still listed as missing in action from WW1. Make your tax deductible donation now, with our thanks.

Remember: A man is only missing if he is forgotten.


Merchandise from the Official
Doughboy Foundation WWI Store

WWI Poppy Lapel Pin

Poppy Lapel Pin

Back in stock!!

  • Exclusive Commemorative WW1 Poppy Lapel Pin
  • Soft enamel color design
  • Approx. 1.5 inch in dia.
  • Standard military clasp

Proceeds from the sale of these pins will help complete the new National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC.

This and many other items are available as Official Merchandise of the Doughboy Foundation.



Raymond Buma

A Story of Service from the Stories of Service section of ww1cc.org

Raymond Buma

Submitted by: Shelley J. Buma {Great Niece}

Raymond Buma born around 1896. Raymond Buma served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1918.

Story of Service

Raymond Buma was born November 15, 1896 in Ijst, Friesland, the Netherlands. At the age of 10 he came to Whitinsville, MA with his parents, Minne and Theresa, and 9 siblings.

Buma was 20 years old and 5 months when he first registered with this US Army on April 4, 1917.

After months of training, Buma sailed at 6:30pm from Hoboken, NJ on May 10, 1918 and headed to France on board the SS Duca D'Aosta. Prior to departure, he was granted permission to visit New York City, which would turn out to be his first and only visit to the great city.

He was a corporal in the 4th Infantry Division, 7th Brigade, Machine Gun Battalion 39th Infantry Regiment. He was killed in action during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. He received the Distinguished Service for “extraordinary heroism” near Cuisy, France on September 26, 1918.

Read Raymond Buma's entire Story of Service here.

Submit your family's Story of Service here.


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