Rest In Peace, At Least for Now
Five weeks after leaving Camp Upton for further training in Jacksonville, Walter Wheeler was assigned to the 417th Motor Supply Train. By August 22nd he had been promoted to Corporal, and his unit boarded SS Lutetia, bound for France. Most likely, the voyage actually ended in England, where the troops marched to a second ship, which crossed the English Channel. They set foot in France on September 5th. Once the men and equipment had re-grouped, the 417th was ready for the Front, and the Supply Train headed for the Argonne Forest.
On September 26th, the war-changing Meuse-Argonne Offensive began, and the 417th was in the thick of the fray - but Cpl. Walter S. Wheeler was not. On that day, only three weeks after his unit had set foot in France, he died of bronchial pneumonia.
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To do its part in sustaining the Offensive, the 107th Ammunition Train worked around-the-clock, supplying not only "its own" 32nd Division, but also whichever troops were closest and most in need of ammunition. The weapons fire was intense. As the German troops slowly retreated, an additional threat was revealed. Enemy machine-gun nests remained hidden in the forest, quiet; they opened fire only as the advancing Americans passed by.
Just how and when Pvt. Charles A. Wagner was wounded I do not know, but he died of wounds on October 2nd. Obviously, Wagner and the other men in the Trains understood their extreme peril, but they found the resolve and courage to do their jobs nonetheless.
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Joseph Barry left Camp Joseph E. Johnston about three weeks before Walter Wheeler, as part of the 416th Motor Supply Train. On July 31st he sailed from Newport News, Virginia on SS Tenadores. A month later, he was promoted to Corporal, and soon after that to Sergeant. Judging by where in France the dead of his unit were later buried, the 416th also must have seen action during the Meuse-Argonne advance.
On November 3, 1918, a mere eight days before the Armistice, Sgt. Barry died of meningitis.
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