Grandpa Sam's WWI Travels

War buddies: Withers, Sam & Wallace

For the U.S.A., World War I Started 95 years ago today. The war took my great grandpa Samuel T. Roberts all around the U.S. and Europe from November 1917 - June 1919.

Duchesne Utah - Fort Lewis Washington - Long Island NY - Newport News Virginia - France - Marne Battlefront - Ainse-Marne Battlefront - St. Mihiel Assailant - Battle of the Muse-Argonne - Stromberg Germany - Fort Russel Wyoming - Price Utah.

Jenny

Grandpa Sam had to leave grandma Jenny, with a child on the way, for a year and a half (if I did the math right).

Below is a travelogue in his own words:

When the War broke out in 1917, I received my greeting from Uncle Sam and left Roosevelt on the first of November, 1917.

I left Duchesne, Duchesne County, Utah on the evening of November second 1917 for Camp Lewis, Washington.

We went from Camp Lewis to Long Island, New York.

Just as I was wondering how was the best way to freeze to death, they called for volunteers to go to Newport News, Virginia. I was the first one to step out and volunteer. 

We left New York early in January 1918 and it was much nicer in Virginia.

We Stayed there until March and then being sent over seas to France. We trained in France for about two months and on the fifth of June we went to the battlefront.

We landed in France the fore part of March one year, 1918, I guess; the first part of the year, and we went on the Front; and we was shot from one Front to another; continuously, back and forth, from one place to another.

We were first engaged in the 2^nd Battle Marne defensive; then moved to Ainse-Marne Sector defensive and from there to the St. Mihiel Assailant, from there to Muse-Argonne Front until the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.

As the War was now over I really had high hopes of going home to my loved ones, but instead we were pushed right into Germany. We wound up in the Rhineland district near Coblenze in a little town called Stromberg.

We served there several months and then the blessed day of my discharge came in June 1919 when I got my papers at Fort Russel, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

My wife and daughter met me in Price, Utah where they had met every train for days looking for my arrival.