Unknown soldier of World War I finally buried with his men

In early February 2022, undertaker Jean-Paul Féval unearthed the past while digging a new grave in a cemetery in a French village.

More than a century ago, during World War I, American and German forces fought across Fayval’s site in Villers-sur-Fer, France. Between July and August 1918, hundreds of thousands of troops from both sides fought across the region, and remnants of the war still surface today.

“Artifacts are always being discovered around here,” said Hubert “Bert” Calud, caretaker of the nearby Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Monument.

Oise-Aisne is one of 26 American military cemeteries around the world operated and maintained by the U.S. government’s American War Monuments Commission (ABMC). It began in 1918 as a temporary battlefield burial ground and was dedicated in 1937. More than 6,000 American service members who died in this area are buried here.

But the artifact isn’t the only thing Faval stumbles upon. Human remains were also found, along with a trench knife, coat buttons, a helmet and rifle bullets.

Féval immediately alerted French authorities and began a months-long process to uncover the story behind the bones.

In war, there can be a fine line between death and injury.

Three months after the fighting at Villers-sur-Fer occurred, about 100 miles to the east, Robert S. Marx, the eventual founder of DAV, witnessed this fact firsthand.

Marx became the commander of the Army’s 3rd Battalion, 357th Infantry Regiment during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. All officers of the regiment at the rank of lieutenant and above had been killed when the lieutenant was sent to take command of his troops.

On November 10, 1918, he was ordered to attack the French town of Barons.

“The barrage was intense, and the shells began to fall close to our battalion groups with amazing accuracy,” he later wrote. “The range seemed to be increasing, so we kept moving forward. That’s when the shell hit us almost in the middle. We didn’t hear it coming, and without us realizing it, or hearing it. It looked like I had bumped into someone. All I knew was that I had been hit on the head.”

He nearly died in the explosion, but continued to lead his troops in battle, in and out of consciousness. He was eventually removed from the battlefield and taken to a field hospital for treatment.

The next morning, the surgeon, Captain JP Wall, informed him that the war was over. Germany had signed an armistice. Marx was one of the last American casualties of the war.

He returns to his hometown of Cincinnati and resumes his pre-military life.

However, many who served in the American Expeditionary Force returned home to face a new battle in search of the lifelong care they needed. That is why Marx founded the World War II Disabled American Veterans as an organization “of us, by us, and for us.” More than a century later, that promise to disabled veterans remains the cornerstone of his DAV.

DAV Interim POW/MIA Committee Chairman Marty Pennock said that promise also applies to those who cannot return home. More than 80,000 U.S. military personnel remain missing in overseas conflicts.

“All members of the DAV, from the national commander down, fully accept the obligation to never leave behind a fallen comrade, no matter how much time passes,” Pennock said.

The mission of locating, recovering, and repatriating military personnel from World War II and recent conflicts rests with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Office. The agency’s director, Kelly McKeague, spoke at the 2023 DAV National Conference, telling attendees that the agency’s mission reflects DAV’s promise.

“Our mission, more than our national mission, is a sacred duty, because these are our comrades who gave their last full effort. And they did it for the country we all love. , it’s a moral obligation,” McKeag said.

ABMC is responsible for missing persons from World War I.

Charles Zhu, the commission’s secretary, also spoke at DAV’s national convention, saying overseas cemetery ABMC has a responsibility to ensure the memory of American military personnel around the world is protected.

“[These sites] “This is solid proof of the power of American service and sacrifice,” Zhou said. “And yes, it also reminds our communities, our people, and humanity of the goodness of the American soul.”

Féval’s discovery quickly attracted the attention of the National Directorate for Combatants and Victims, the French government agency responsible for identifying and burying war dead. If the remains were likely to be those of one of their soldiers, they would own it and be responsible. But the equipment found buried with the bodies appeared to belong to the U.S. government, so he called Caloud and asked him to attend the initial exhumation of the site.

The discovery of what were likely the remains of American soldiers was unprecedented in this part of France. Michael Knapp, ABMC’s director of historical services, said by the time the United States entered World War I, it had become more of a mobile war than trench combat. Because the United States had not dealt with trench cave-ins or other mass casualty situations, the remains of the Americans were probably exactly what Fabal found: one or two people buried in battlefield graves. It’s probably the same as a soldier.

On February 9, 2022, the day after Faval’s discovery, the first set of ruins and artifacts was removed from the ground and placed in a wooden box. Carrode draped the makeshift coffin in an American flag and took it to the field office of France’s local police force, the National Gendarmerie, for safekeeping until authorities decided on next steps. Military police lined up and saluted as Mr Calhoud, a native of Oise-Aisne, and his team carried the remains into the building pallbearer-style.

“I treated him like one of my own,” said Calode, a former Marine Corps sergeant major.

Perhaps more of this unknown soldier will be discovered. Two weeks later, Calud worked with French authorities to excavate the remaining graves at the battlefield site, along with French World War I expert and archaeologist Yves Desfosses.

A second excavation uncovered metal parts of the stretcher, illegible identification tags, and more bone fragments.

Photos of the artifacts were sent to Knapp’s team for identification. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt was required as to the nationality of the body before a proper burial could take place.

Knapp and his team believed the remains were of American origin because every artifact, from trench knives to ammunition, belonged to the U.S. government.

“There’s no doubt about that,” he said.

His team also cross-referenced the memoirs and artifacts of the Rev. Francis P. Duffy, a highly decorated Army chaplain with the famed “Rainbow Division.” Duffy said that several dead members of the 165th Regiment, 42nd Division were buried along the wall of the Villers-sur-Fer cemetery, where these very bodies were found.

French and British authorities also agreed with these findings. There was no way to determine the soldier’s identity, but the body was American.

Carrode’s focus shifted to planning a funeral at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery. This is the first burial at the cemetery since 1932, and the first burial of a World War I unknown in an American cemetery overseas since 1988.

On June 7, 2023, this unknown American soldier received a lavish funeral and was buried alongside his fellow soldiers.

“I felt really happy that he was with his people,” Karode said.

During the funeral, then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville presented the mayor of Villers-sur-Fer with an American flag draped over the soldier’s casket as a thank-you gift. Local undertaker Faval passed away before the funeral service, but Kalud said none of this would have happened without him.

“Mr. Faval could have easily said, ‘This trench knife is really nice,’ and pushed the rest of the knives back into the dirt,” Kalud said. “So I’m grateful to him.”