Letters from Soldiers: World War I Letter From John Willhite

The Worth County Tribune published letters from local servicepeople during World War I. Here is one such letter from John Willhite.

Fort Riley (KS) Base, Hospital, Sec. I, Dec. 23rd, 1917.

Dear Delph:

Will just drop you a few lines to let you know I’m having a h___ of a time.

Doing just as I please and getting all any two ordinary men should eat.

I was transferred from Section K to Section I, or Isolation, last Wednesday. I have charge of the laundry for this section and believe we have a bunch of it. Friday, I sent out 1,170 pieces and I have 1,298 pieces checked and ready for the laundry tomorrow besides quite a “batch” that hasn’t been through the sterilizer yet.

I am living in a tent with a board floor. Half of this tent is occupied by my bed, table, foot locker, and surplus clothing; the other half is where I keep the clean laundry stored.

Cold? Well, no! I have one of the most modern stoves, in fact, it hasn’t been patented yet. I have a lantern for light and when I go to bed at night, I place the lantern inside a medium sized box and turn the open side toward my bed. I then turn the light down low. Like the parlor lamp at a “sparking party,” and I have steady heat all night. Besides that I have access to as many blankets as I want to use and taking it all combined, I have a snug little “bachelor’s home.” All that disturbs me is the pitiful wails of some of the meningitis patients when having their spine punctured.

We are having splendid winter weather here and are hoping it will last for some time.

I got a package from home the other day, containing fried chicken and rabbit. Gee, with what I get from home, what they feed us here and the candy that certain young lady friends send me, I fear that I’ll have to get some larger trousers. The blamed buttons are not sewed on any too good anyway.

I suppose the young fellows around there are busy looking after their questionnaires about now.

Delph, your page of “Letters from the boys” is the best thing a newspaper ever did, for I certainly enjoy reading them and I’m sure other people do also,

Well, I’ll light a Pall Mall now, while I think of something else.

Oh, yes, if you don’t mind, I’ll take this means of thanking my friends in Worth County for their gifts and remembrances which they have sent me, for I simply cannot find time to write each one separately, but anything I receive is fully appreciated.

Well, I guess I’ve used about enough of Uncle Sam’s paper, so I’ll close. Give my best regards to Elsye and A.M.’S folks, also to your father.

Very truly yours,

John W. Willhite

Reply to In Flanders Fields

By John Mitchell
Oh! sleep in peace where poppies grow;
The torch your falling hands let go
Was caught by us, again held high,
A beacon light in Flanders sky
That dims the stars to those below.
You are our dead, you held the foe,
And ere the poppies cease to blow,
We'll prove our faith in you who lie
In Flanders Fields.

Oh! rest in peace, we quickly go
To you who bravely died, and know
In other fields was heard the cry,
For freedom's cause, of you who lie,
So still asleep where poppies grow,
In Flanders Fields.

As in rumbling sound, to and fro,
The lightning flashes, sky aglow,
The mighty hosts appear, and high
Above the din of battle cry,
Scarce heard amidst the guns below,
Are fearless hearts who fight the foe,
And guard the place where poppies grow.
Oh! sleep in peace, all you who lie
In Flanders Fields.

And still the poppies gently blow,
Between the crosses, row on row.
The larks, still bravely soaring high,
Are singing now their lullaby
To you who sleep where poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.
–Submitted by Icle Young

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
–Submitted by Icle Young

Last American World War I Vet was Bethany Native

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today issued a statement on the final ceremony to honor the last-surviving American World War I veteran Frank Buckles, who passed away February 27^th at the age of 110. Buckles, a Bethany, Missouri native will lie in honor at Arlington National Cemetery, followed by a private burial service with full military honors. Born in 1901, he enlisted in the United States Army in 1917, telling officials he was older in order to be eligible to serve. McCaskill said that today’s ceremony reaffirms the need to honor the veterans of World War I by giving both Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial and Washington, D.C.’s World War I memorial national memorial status.

“As we pay our final respects to Mr. Buckles at our country’s most sacred ground, we not only honor his legacy of courage and determination, but an entire generation of men and women who proudly fought for the freedoms we cherish today,” McCaskill said. “Mr. Buckles was able to keep the memory of the Great War living for so long, but now that he’s gone we need to make sure that the sacrifices of this extraordinary generation will be memorialized for all generations to come.”

McCaskill has been working to dedicate the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City as a national place of honor for World War I veterans. Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to dedicate the Liberty Memorial of Kansas City as the “National World War I Museum and Memorial”. It would also designate the District of Columbia War Memorial as the “District of Columbia and National World War I Memorial.” The legislation, Senate Bill 523, is pending in the Senate.