Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • November 23, 2011 territory and metaphorically, the Kaiser’s last ditch. More Americans were killed in this battle, also known as the Argonne Forest, than in any battle fought on U.S. soil. Thomas Connor, 23, was also killed in the assault on the tunnel. Jesse Douglass, 27, died of wounds sustained in the attack on the tunnel. Douglass has a memorial in Emmanuel Baptist Church and his mother had unveiled the War Memorial Shaft at Van Neste Square. Leonard De Brown, 22, died of a fatal concussion suffered in combat. George Denie, 27, died in a plane crash as part of the U.S. Army Air Service three months after the Armistice. Lindley De Garmo, 28, died in an air crash in England while training with the Royal Flying Corps before the United States entered the war in April 1917. William Kruskopf, 30, is simply listed as having died in service. Frank Patterson, 20, was killed by “friendly fire” when his sub chaser was struck by American gunfire off the coast of Long Island. The World War I sub chaser was a small wooden coastal patrol ship with a silhouette that resembled the profile of a German U-boat. Many sub chasers were built in small shipyards on the Hudson River as emergency guardians for the American coast. The fact that the sub chasers looked like U-boats in night or fog was unintentional and, in Paterson’s case, fatal. Patterson is listed as “missing in action,” since his body was never recovered. Floyd Stevens, 27, was a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University when he volunteered. He became Ridgewood’s first combat casualty when he was hit by shrapnel while driving an ambulance to rescue soldiers wounded in combat. Ulmont White, 20, died of Spanish flu while in military service. The flu, which became a pandemic due to troop movements, crowded housing, and spotty nutrition, is said to have killed more people than the hostilities. Charles Wolfhegel, 37, and a soldier in the Regular Army, was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for valor in combat. French General Phillippe Petain said Wolfhegel “gave a high example in performing one’s duty by continuing to advance in spite of his wounds and by giving encouragement to his men.” Daniel Yeomans, 26, received two U.S. service stars “for bravery under fire.” Jacob Yeomans, 20, Daniel’s cousin, died of wounds suffered at Bois d’Ormont. The project to rededicate a permanent monument to Ridgewood’s war dead of the First World War was discussed at a number of council sessions and received the whole-hearted support of the Ridgewood Council. Council members offered to donate money and asked if those who had served and survived could also have their names recorded. The decision was to keep to the original 14 names. Frank Buckles, the last American veteran of World War I, who died earlier this year, was an ambulance driver who rescued wounded soldiers from the front line areas. He was known as an enthusiastic joiner who belonged to a number of veterans’ groups, and advocated the sort of monuments Ridgewood recently dedicated on a national scale. The two most celebrated books about World War I – “All Quiet On The Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque and “A Farewell To Arms” by Ernest Hemingway -- were both written by authors who were rescue personnel, though both were wounded while serving in combat zones, twice in Remarque’s case. Both Remarque and Hemingway enlarged on their services a trifle: Remarque sometimes wore an upper-class monocle and told people he had been an officer. He hadn’t. Hemingway told people he had served with the Arditi, elite Italian shock troops. While he may have rescued some Arditi at great personal risk, he was never a combat soldier. Claude Choules, an Englishman, later an Australian, the last actual combat veteran, also died earlier this year. Choules had seen combat, and he wanted no part of flagwaving. “He always said that the old men make the decisions that send the young men to war,” he son recalled recently. World War I set that pattern among those who served. Most combat veterans got over their hatred of the enemy in a reasonable length of time, but maintained a life-long mistrust of the politicians on both sides. Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s leading fighter ace in World War I, was an ardent non-interventionist as both sides started to gear up for World War II. The same was true of Congressmen Hamilton Fish, who was decorated for leading African-American soldiers in France; and Senator Gillette of Iowa, a World War I veteran whose wife was Jewish and who was a strong friend of Israel. Ken Taylor, one of the American pilots who got off the ground at Pearl Harbor and shot down a couple of Japanese bombers, said: “I have no hated of the Japanese people, but I do against those who started the war.” He didn’t elaborate, but he helped an American-Japanese film crew produce “Tora, Tora, Tora,” the story that approximately told both sides, and despised “Pearl Harbor,” a Japan-bashing account, as worthless junk. George Gay, the lone survivor of Torpedo 8, the torpedo bomber squadron exterminated at the Battle of Midway and author of “Sole Survivor,” was elated when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. He saw FDR not as a hero, but a culprit for sending young Americans into battle with obsolete aircraft, if not for triggering a war America didn’t want or need. The patina of glory was slapped on afterward. Nothing can detract from the honorable military service in wartime, but those who have not served need to be careful when they overcompensate by seeing every overseas adventure as somehow having “saved democracy.” Real veterans don’t need that kind of hyperbole. They deserve respect for their courage and gratitude of their time and effort – not just another sale day at the malls or threeday weekend from the schools. That is what the veterans got at the Ridgewood ceremony and at ceremonies all over the area and the country. With the dedication of the new plaque, the young men from Ridgewood who served are finally home again. The bugle played “Taps,” and soldiers of all ages saluted as the single bronze plaque honoring 14 World War I servicemen was dedicated in Ridgewood on Veterans Day, 2011. We should all pause to remember World War I with profound respect for the men who died because of their service to their country and their loyalty to their buddies. They didn’t get the chance to live out their lives in a community that once again showed its respect for what can literally be called “their sacrifice.” The majority of the men listed on the plaque died in combat, but several others were killed in training, died of disease, and, in one case, died because of a misguided shell from an American ship. American Legion Post 53 and, in particular, Post Historian Christopher Stout and Post Commander Bob Paoli, took a leading role in gathering the donated funds and ordering the single plaque now mounted at Graydon Park. Originally called Armistice Day, Nov. 11 was set aside to honor the dead of The Great War. The day has since become known as Veterans Day to honor all service personnel, living and dead. About 125,000 Americans and 10 million European or Japanese servicemen died in World War I, followed by an estimated 21 million dead in the Russian Civil War that followed the Russian Revolution. Russia fell apart and was grafted back together by the Bolsheviks after a revolt that broke out in 1917 as a result of Russia’s war losses and demoralizing defeats by Germany. The separate peace between Germany and Russia temporarily liberated the Baltic states just as America was entering the war – a year after the Germans accepted a peace proposal mediated by Pope Benedict XXV, which the British and the French rejected because they hoped “the Yanks” were coming. Most historians from all countries involved agree that the two million healthy, high-morale American troops shipped to France prevented a German victory over the exhausted Western allies in 1918. The Allied victory, however, led to the collapse of the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Turkish empires and the emergence of new ethnic states whose conflicts led, among other things, to World War II. Those conflicts are still going on today. Christopher Stout, honored last week by the Ridgewood Village Council as Bergen County Legionnaire of the Year, researched the deaths of the 14 young Ridgewood men who were originally honored by individual plaques attached to the bases of 14 separate trees. Over the years, some plaques were stolen, some were engulfed by the trees – one broke a chainsaw when the tree was taken down – and a few were preserved. Two of the antiquated plaques are on display at the Ridgewood Public Library. Ridgewood’s World War I casualties included: Thomas Boyd, 24, who died of Spanish flu immediately after his service in the U.S. Army. John Cadmus, 27, one of three Ridgewood men killed in action during the assault on the Saint Quentin Tunnel. The tunnel, which was part of what Americans called the Hindenburg Line, was the fortified bulwark outside German World War I veterans are home again Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: I would like to sincerely thank all those who participated in the democratic process in our community on Nov.8. It’s clear that the efforts I have made over the last three years to bring a positive, non-partisan balance to the Wyckoff Township Committee resonated with many voters. I plan to continue to bring new ideas to our township committee as we all work to maintain the lowest possible municipal tax rate and to protect our town’s character. As we now finalize the process to create a park at Russell Farms, I would also like to thank the electorate for its overwhelming support for continuing our open space trust fund. I’m very proud of the campaign we conducted, presenting the facts and sticking to the issues. My immense gratitude goes out to the 40 volunteers who gave so freely of their time and cheerfully of their talents to help me over the last five months. What an amazing group of people! I would also like to thank the nearly 150 individuals who donated to my campaign. Their contributions were especially important because I accepted no funding or assistance from any district committee, county or state organizations, political action committees, or other office holders. This policy ensures my ongoing independence on Committeeman appreciates support the township committee. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Doug Christie on his election to the township committee. I look forward to working effectively with him. I would also like to wish Tom Madigan well and thank Tom for his service on the committee and his ongoing contributions to the many charitable causes he has supported over the years. Brian D. Scanlan Wyckoff