Thomas Bernard Roche
Questioning one’s faith while enemy shells fall upon a man at the war front was undoubtedly a shared experience. For the Doughboys, the chaplain was typically the one man in the unit who could be looked upon as that unwavering pillar of spiritual strength to help guide the men through some of the worst days on earth.
Bernard Lipscomb Jarman
The fighting in the open battlefields during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive subjected the advancing American soldier to a volley of enemy machine gun fire, gas attacks, and a barrage of artillery and mortar rounds raining down upon them. The soldiers would try to get as low as possible in order to protect themselves from being totally exposed. This sometimes required occupying the slump of earth created from a newly formed shell hole.
William Ballard Preston
I had the great pleasure of talking with Ballard Preston, the son of First Lieutenant William B. Preston, company commander for Company A, 313th Machine Gun Battalion. Mr. Preston shared a few stories with me that his father conveyed to him about his experiences during the war. Lieutenant Preston survived the battle of the Meuse-Argonne, and was very lucky, as the following story will illustrate. (Photo shows William B. Preston with his Captain bars May 1919).