Saluting the Survivors : World War I Veterans Are Honored During Medal Ceremony in Long Beach

They are some of the nation’s oldest veterans, soldiers from a war that most Americans are too young to remember. More than 4 million strong when they marched off to fight “the war to end all wars,” fewer than 1% of them are still alive.

But when two dozen World War I veterans--median age, 95--gathered in Long Beach on Wednesday for a Veterans Day ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Great War’s end, the decades that have passed seemed to fall away from their faces.

As a 94-year-old former Army bugler named Fred Hummer blew “To the Colors,” and the aged guests of honor--some standing, some in wheelchairs--raised their hands in dignified salutes to the flag, they showed emotion common to many veterans regardless of age: pride of service, love of country and nostalgia for what was both the greatest and most terrible experience of their lives.

“Sometimes I’ll forget what happened yesterday, but I’ll always remember the war,” said Bill Trevethen, 96, of Torrance, who landed in France with the U.S. Army 2nd Division on Christmas Day in 1917. “I’m proud of my service.”

“I remember it very well,” said Fred Roberts, 97, who lives with his daughter in Temple City. “I was a machine-gunner with Company B, 151st Machine Gun Battalion of the 42nd Division, U.S. Army. I went into the trenches in March, 1918, on the Champagne Front, and then in July, 1918, I was in the Second Battle of the Marne. I was wounded on July 28. . . . Yes, I’m proud of what I did. We did what had to be done.”

In the ceremony, held at the Long Beach Veterans Administration Medical Center and attended by hundreds of family members and veterans of all ages, each of the World War I veterans received a commemorative medal marking the Nov. 11, 1918, armistice that ended World War I.

The medals, replicas of the “Victory Medals” awarded to servicemen after the war, were provided free by the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation of Chicago as part of a national program to recognize World War I veterans. About 9,000 of the medals have been awarded so far, foundation spokesman Burt Minor said. Any living World War I veteran is eligible for the commemorative medal.

Not all of the World War I veterans at the ceremony saw overseas combat duty. And not all were men.

Agnes W. Berrill Steinle of Temple City, who will be 100 this month, was a Navy yeoman in World War I, working on military code and signal books in Washington, D.C. She is one of about 1 million living American female veterans--out of about 27 million U.S. veterans--and was the only female World War I veteran at the ceremony.

“We’re very proud of her,” her son, Edward Steinle, said. “She’s quite a lady.”

Equally proud were the family members of Borah Chapman of Pasadena who, at 101, was the oldest veteran in the group. Chapman, an African-American, served in a segregated infantry unit at Ft. Sheridan, Ill. Family members recalled stories “Grandpa” had told them about helping stave off a flu epidemic at the fort by prescribing whiskey for his comrades. They proudly displayed a copy of his 75-year-old discharge papers.

About 4.3 million Americans served in the military during World War I. About 126,000 of them lost their lives, in combat or from disease--a costly but relatively small toll compared to the 1.7 million Russians, 1.3 million Frenchmen and 900,000 Englishmen who died in the war. Germany and its allies--Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria--lost 3.3 million men.

The Veterans Administration estimates that between 30,000 and 40,000 American World War I veterans are still alive. But their numbers are dwindling.

According to Lewis Stout, community relations officer at the VA Medical center, during the six weeks of planning for Wednesday’s Long Beach ceremony, at least three of the 30 veterans who were scheduled to attend died.

The loss of old comrades was a theme many of the World War I veterans spoke of.

“They’re all gone now, all my old friends,” said Hummer of Fountain Valley. “The only one left from my old unit is a guy in New Jersey. We talk every now and then. Pretty soon, though, we’ll all be gone.”

Other World War I veterans receiving commemorative medals at the ceremony were Harold Laws Beckley, Moses Besbeck, Raymond Dewey Casher, William Gerhardt, Tony Glumace, Horart LaMar, Donald S. Poler, Benito Rillorta, Walter Sanders and Dennis Whatley, all formerly of the U.S. Army. Also, Donald W. Chesley, Burchard Iler and Harold Maschke--all former U.S. Marines--and Perry Countryman, Henry DeSimas, J. Festus Gillman, Harold Hilf, John Kretchmer and Gonah Schreckengasts, all of the U.S. Navy.

Any World War I veteran who would like to receive the commemorative medal can call (800) 827-1000.