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    100th Anniversary of first shot fired by Americans in WW1

    FORT DRUM, NY, UNITED STATES

    10.23.2017

    Story by Spc. Keegan Costello 

    27th Public Affairs Detachment

    “We are here to commemorate the first shot of the American Expeditionary Force in WW1,” said Lt. Col. Thomas A. Goettke, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th FA. “The 6th Field Artillery Regiment was hand selected by General Pershing to go over and support the 1st Infantry Division in Bathlemont, France, in the Alsace-Lorraine region. We are celebrating those who came before us. The history is rich, especially in the 6th FA, we have 36 campaign streamers and that speaks for itself. We are the most decorated artillery battalion in the United States Army. There’s a lot of history behind that and so this is a commemoration of those who served before us and really their heroism and action. It’s something that we aspire to every day.”
    On October 22nd, 1917, the Soldiers of Charlie Battery, 6th FA, used the cover of the day’s dense fog to carve out a firing position on a hill 1.3 kilometers outside the town of Bathlemont without being detected by the Imperial Germans. By nightfall the position was ready, but no order came to emplace a gun there. The Commander of C Battery, Captain Idus R. McLendon made the decision to move the .75mm M1897 gun there, but with the regiments horses and tools in the rear, the 3,400 pound gun would have to be moved by hand. The Soldiers under Captain McLendon struggled for three quarters of a mile in complete darkness, with mud and muck up to their knees they pulled the gun uphill, all while wearing gas masks to protect from lingering German mustard gas.
    “It was the end of a long day of the hardest, nastiest back breaking toil I have ever seen,” remembered Captain McLendon. “My men were utterly exhausted and plastered from head to foot with mud and grime, but there was the satisfaction of knowing that we were all set and ready to fire as soon as our [French] major said, ‘Go!’”
    Captain McLendon convinced his French superiors to fire upon the Germans at first light, it would be the first time in over a century that American and French Soldiers were to fight a common enemy, and the first time Americans had come to fight on a European battlefield. When the command was given to fire, the lanyard was pulled and the round impacted within the German lines, the time was 6 hours, 5minutes, and 10 seconds into the morning of October 23rd, 1917.
    “The importance of commemorating historic events such as these is for today’s warfighters to understand there are Soldiers who have gone before them and to understand their service and their sacrifice and that the legacy that we build on as today’s warfighters,” said Spc. Thomas P. Minton, the regimental historian for 3rd Battalion, 6th FA. “I am the regimental historian and I have a degree in Anthropology and I have experience in Museum and Curatorial studies with the United States National Parks Service prior to serving in the U.S. Army. I first read of the shell casing being sent to President Woodrow Wilson and I knew that an artifact of that significance would survive the hundred years. All roads eventually led to the Woodrow Wilson House Museum in Washington D.C., this is where Mr. Wilson lived following the end of his presidency and he kept the shell tube on his mantle. After opening a dialog with the museum, they were all too happy to lend the shell to our regiment and our battalion for this historic event. We cannot forget our history.”
    For his thorough detective work, Minton’s unit awarded him the Army Achievement Medal.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 10.23.2017
    Date Posted: 11.09.2017 10:10
    Story ID: 252826
    Location: FORT DRUM, NY, US

    Web Views: 282
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN