February, .1923
THE WESTERN AMERICAN
tervals between graves under the regu-
lations finally issued was made six feet
six inches instead of three feet, as form
erly.
At the beginning, even to straighten
out the records was an enormous task
in itself; and this was only well begun
when the order arrived from Washington
to transport 45,000 of our soldier dead
' to the homeland. Colonel H. F. Rethers,
as commanding officer of the Service,
brought to his task a kindly and sympa
thetic heart, and he won the absolute
confidence of his men and inspired them
to a full realization of the sacredness of
the undertaking. He issued positive or
ders that no bodies were to be shipped
to the United States unless identifica
tion was certain. As he explained it, he
was not concerned chiefly with the count
of the number of bodies sent home, but
he was tremendously concerned that
those that were sent on their long jour
ney in flag-draped caskets should be
positively identified.
We hear today that of the 76,796
American soldiers who have been buried
in American cemeteries since the war,
only 1,874 are now classed as “unknown.”
In the year past hundreds of identifica
tions have been made, and the work is
yet going on. This work impressed me
as being particularly important, and to
the best of my knowledge it is being
carried on in the most earnest and ten
der manner by the men of the G. R. S.
When one thinks of what an Unknown
Soldier means he will understand why it
is that the identification of these bodies
appears so important and is regarded as
a sacred work. When a soldier is listed
as “missing” his mother or wife or other
members of his family have no definite
knowledge as to whether he is alive or
dead; whether he was killed in battle or
is a wanderer who has lost his memory;
and his grave—if there is one—may be
that of an Unknown Soldier, or it may
never have been found at all. To a
mother it is a constant heartache not to
know where her boy is. She has not
even the solace of knowing that he died
a hero’s death in battle. He is just
“missing.”
At present the Quartermaster General
of the Army has a list of 2,401 men
“unlocated” or “missing”—a list which
includes 1,874 of the unknown dead.
Think of it—2,401 families in this coun
try have no idea what has become of
their boy or where he is. Their suppo
sition, naturally, is that he is dead, and
it is more than likely correct; but, if so,
they do not know where his body lies.
Thus it is that every time a body is
identified, the anxiety of one of the gold-
star families is allayed to some extent.
At last they know something definite;
that their loved one was killed in ac-
tion, that he sleeps on a battlefield in
peace.
Officers of the G. R. S. tell many
stories of this particular phase of the
work,’ arid of how thankful these moth-
ers at home are to receive word that
identification has been made. That little
grain of comfort means so much that the
G. R. S. is bending every effort to the
task of identifying the unknown dead.
Another great task the Service has
been busy at since the beginning of the
work already has been mentioned—the
effort to find unlocated graves. After
each of the great American offensives
of 1918 there were many battlefield
burials Many of these were made under
fire, and often at night. Sometimes rude
graves were dug; sometimes it was a
shell hole that served the purpose. Those
were tense times, and but few moments
of the arduous day could be spared for
the dead. After the burial a record al
ways was made of it, generally by the
chaplain of the regiment or by the com
pany commander, and the location of the
new grave was marked on a map Or
chart.
Many things, however, might happen
to this record. Most of the directions
were incorrect, particularly if made at
night. The man who carried it might
have been killed, or the company records
blown up (as was the case in my own
company). In any event, the war went
on; the line pressed onward; and when
Nature had eradicated the surface marks
of the burial it became exceedingly dif
ficult to know where these graves were
left. In addition to such difficulties as
these in the way of locating forgotten
graves, there were those boys who were
killed in tangled thickets, with no bud
dies near. Their bodies never were found
and buried until Nature hid them from
view with a covering of fallen leaves.
This task of finding unlocated graves
is being gone into thoroughly now. So
far as that is concerned, the G. R. S.
never has ceased to search for them at
any time. In spite of, the vast amount
of other work that the Service accom
plished during thè year 1922, it succeed
ed in recovering 108 missing bodies—
and more are being found each week.
It is hard to tell exactly how many of
these forgotten graves there are scat
tered over the battlefields of France, but
it is safe to guess that there are no less
than a thousand. I make no pretense of
saying that this figure is anywhere near
correct, for it is mere supposition—no-
boddy really knows.
As might be imagined, most of these
are supposed to be somewhere on the
Meuse-Argonne battlefield. Of course,
not all of them will ever be found; many
a buddy will rest in his forgotten grave
or trench or shell hole—a hero none the
But if the work of the G. R. S.
goes on as it is functioning now, a good
ly number eventually will be discovered;
the bodies mostly will be identified; and
then more mothers’ hearts will be
mightily relieved. Knowing this, with
this for the incentive back of their work,
it is little wonder that the men of the
Graves Registration Service have been
making every effort to accomplish all
that is humanly possible.
You have heard me tell about their
patience in a search that failed. Now
hear of another attempt that followed
and was better rewarded. The very
next day an old Frenchman came to the
camp and said that he thought he had
discovered the grave of an American in
the woods. The French peasants always j
are looking for graves; dur Government
pays them twenty francs if they really
discover the burial spot of on of our
soldiers—this on condition that the dis
coverers do not touch it in any way, but
let men from the G. R. S., trained to the
work, attend to the exhuming and the
examination.
Most of the peasants’ reported discov-
eries, I might add, generally prove to
be unfounded, Or when the body is un-
earthed it is found to be that of a French
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