History of Other Wars
Learn about various wars beyond the Civil War.
Now, Fast Forward 50 Some Years… to Another War
April, 1917 the U.S. Congress declared a state of war existed between the United States and the German Empire. The year 2017 marked its centennial.
I'm here to set the record straight about one aspect of the First World War - the battlefield death of 1st Lt. Clarence Roy Green, my grandfather. This is a story of not just a Winterset, Iowa hometown hero, but an American hero.
I believe Winfred Robb writes an inaccurate account of Lt. Green's death in his 1919 book, The Price of Our Heritage. This is the version that most people read on-line when doing a search:
"... [Lt] Green was severly gassed and died soon after reaching the hospital. He was asleep in his dug-out and was so tired and exhausted that before he could be awakened, the gas had entered the room and he took one breath, He was carried to the Aid Station, put in the ambulance and sent immediately to the hospital, but the poison gas had done its work"
The Story of the 168th Infantry presents quite a different version on pages 223-224 of Vol. I:
" Lieutenant Clarence R. Green of Company A, too gave his life in his efforts to save his men. Rushing through the dark with his gas mask on, he made his way about the trenches, warning all of the danger, but finding his progress slow, and that he could not make himself plainly heard, he removed his mask from time to time until everyone in the post was aroused. The gas he inhaled in this way caused his death shortly after reaching the hospital the next morning."
A 9 November 1921 newspaper article in The Madisonian states:
"...The attack came in the early morning and while hastening the other men who were suffering to the hospital, Lieutenant Green choked and died in a few minutes..."
The newspaper article supports the account in The Story of the 168th Infantry of the lieutenant's death. Lt. Clarence R. Green was a war-time hero indeed.
Causes of WW1?
Check out my reading list below for ideas.
Vietnam Medics
Forward 50 years to another war… to 1964
I was about to graduate from the Monterey Defense Language Institute (former Army Language School) after six months of French study, and was eager to get my orders and head for, where else? Paris. My other MOS was Medical Corpsman (911), so perhaps I'd be stationed at a military hospital outside of Versailles. Oh là là!
A DLI classmate, Sam, and I were stunned when we read our orders - Report to MACV Saigon. Sam's assignment was in Saigon. Mine took me 40 miles south to My Tho, down in the Viet Cong infested Mekong Delta, to the 75th Advisory Team, III Corps.*
And so my year in Vietnam began, a year of billeting in the 'Seminary', in mud forts and village hamlets; eating village food; riding in Hueys, Lambrettas and sampans, and trips to Saigon.
It was during a three-day medical Civic Action mission, to Mo Cay, south of My Tho, when I got this VC flag. Late one night the Mo Cay compound received small arms fire, zipping & snapping over our heads, & a mortar shell exploded through the tile roof above us.
At daybreak ARVN soldiers spotted this flag flying from an eight-foot pole about 200 yards from the compound in a clearing of tall grass. Two Vietnamese soldiers crossed a narrow slough and brought it back to me.
* The 75th later became the 88th Adv Tm, then part of the 93d
Vietnam Photos
