By Pete Krawitz
As discussed during our March business meeting, I recently had the privilege of meeting with Arni Thomson and Brian Dodd, from Ballard Elks Lodge 827. Brian and Arni are working on a very ambitious project in hopes to pay tribute to some of the 4.7 million U.S. service members that served in WWI. Arni and Brian are embarking on a journey to catalog the names and burial sites of any known WWI veterans. Don’t we have a government agency for that? Well, I was surprised to learn that there isn’t an official list of U.S. service members who lost their lives in WWI. Additionally, finding said service information from the U.S. National Personnel Records agency is extremely difficult, if not impossible. A large amount of WWI veteran records were lost in the 1973 fire at the U.S. National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
November 11, 2018, will mark the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I (WWI). As many of you know, Ballard-Eagleson Post 3063 was named to honor local UW alum, Lt. James Eagleson, of the US Army’s 69th Coast Artillery Corps. Nearly 5 million Americans served in WWI with approximately, 116,516 never making it home. Lt Eagleson was one of those 116,516. He died of Pneumonia on his journey back from France. Sadly, just as many service members succumbed to disease during and shortly after the war (~63,114) compared to actual combat (~53,402). It’s sad to think that some of these names have been forgotten in many hometowns across America. This is where Brian and Arni have stepped in.
So far, Arni and Brian have walked through Ft. Lawton Cemetery and photographed 135 headstones identifying WWI veterans, and they have created an alphabetized database with date of birth, date of death, branch of service and designation of WWI service. They have also embarked on similar activities at private and public cemeteries in Alaska.
There are a few other cemeteries in the Seattle Area that Arni and Brian would like to survey. This is a big undertaking. As such, they have reached out to Post 3063 to see if we would be interested in assisting with this project. Ultimately, Brian and Arni would like to add to the database and eventually provide it to the WWI Centennial Commission. They hope that the idea will catch on and other VFW posts will join in and help spread the word.
I’m very inspired by what Arni and Brian are trying to do and would very much like to assist them in any way we can. Perhaps we can even consider a joint project with Boy Scout Troop 80? We will be talking about this project some more during our April business meeting. If you have any interest in this project and would like to lead or assist in some way, please come on out to the meeting on Thursday, April 5 at 7 p.m. Alternatively, please send me an e-mail to [email protected].
Yours in Comradeship