Willis Earl, 103; Was Teenager in U.S. Army in France in WWI
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Willis Earl, 103, who lied about his age to enlist in the Army and fought in World War I when he was 16, died Sept. 17 in Vancouver, Wash.
Earl later was a railroad worker who tried without success to be released from his job so he could enlist again in World War II.
By recent estimates, fewer than 500 World War I veterans remain in the United States.
Earl, a native of Oregon, was working in a Portland, Ore., rail yard when the U.S. entered World War I. He enlisted two months before his 17th birthday. After his parents found out, an uncle who was a lawyer told the young man’s commanding officer.
“The CO said, ‘This thing will be over in six months, and he’ll never get to France,’ ” Earl recalled. “In three months, I was in France.”
There, assigned to the Army’s 467th Aero Wing, he helped build an air base.
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