According to the official record, the last American combat
fatality in WWI occurred at 10:59 a.m. the morning of November 11th,
100 years ago. With fixed bayonet, the soldier ran at a German machine gun team
that repeatedly called out for him to stop his charge. He did not, and so he
was killed.
Any number of media outlets today will report the nearly
mystical time stamp ending the war-ending war of wars, that of 11:00 a.m. on
the 11th day of the 11th month.
Peace negotiations began five weeks earlier at the request
of Germany. During that period combat continued along the Western Front. The
ongoing battles claimed 500,000 additional casualties. Half-a-million men,
killed or wounded during the peace talks.
When the agreement was finally set, a 5 a.m. order with the
terms went out via radios and telephones, signifying peace was at hand. In the
6 hours that followed, 2,738 soldiers were killed and 8,206 wounded as
scheduled attacks continued according to plans.
That number killed is greater than Allied deaths on D-Day
in 1944.
The 92nd Division, an African-American unit,
charged the German line as ordered at 10:30 a.m. that final morning. Seventeen
men were killed and 302 were either wounded or declared missing.
On both sides, before the armistice became official,
artillery gunners continued firing rounds, all the better to avoid transporting
heavy shells back home. Some harmlessly fell short, some brutally targeted enemy
positions.
With each battle, with each war, someone will be the last
to die. In the final minute before an end, even sometimes after the
proclamation of peace.
Around 15,000 US combat troops are in Afghanistan today.
This ongoing war since 2001 claimed another American, this time the mayor of a
small town in Utah who was serving his fourth tour as part of the Army National
Guard.
Of course, I cannot predict the future—his death, the
last? Peace, and our troops out of harm’s way? Two years? Five? Ten? Twenty?
One more death? And one more? And one more?
Regardless, truly, I am sorry for his family. I am sorry
for his friends. I am sorry for his community. I am sorry for his unit.
One more.
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