"Tell Them I did My Bit" - Veterans' Day 2009

“Tell Them I did My Bit” - Veterans' Day 2009

There is a reason the Veterans' Day Parade halts at precisely 11AM for a moment of silence. At 11 AM on the 11th of November, 1918, the deadliest and most destructive war in history to that point ended. The United States had been a latecomer to the fighting only declaring war on Germany and Austria-Hungary in April of 1917. The US Army was in such sorry shape at the time war was declared that it was May of the next year before even a single division could make an attack.

That being said, over 4.5 million young Americans were called to the colors and over two million of them made it to France before the Armistice. According to official Army figures 56,000 of them were killed in combat or died of their wounds, a similar number fell victim to disease, accidents or other “non-combat” causes. The Army's statistical record also points out the grim fact that in the last six weeks of fighting the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) was suffering an average of 6,000 killed in action EACH WEEK. No, that is not a mis-print.

Knoxville and Knox County contributed 5,305 men to the cause. Of these 11 officers and 150 enlisted men died in service, a rate of just under 5% which is very heavy, considering only about half the total number in service actually went to France. Of these 161 fatalities, 122 were killed in action.

Thousands of cars and trucks cross the Alcoa Highway Bridge going to and from Knoxville every day. A few of the drivers know that the bridge is properly named the J.E. “Buck” Karnes Bridge. They figure he must have been some politician or rich guy. They would be wrong.

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AWARD
OF THE
CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR

FOR CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY AND
INTREPIDITY ABOVE AND BEYOND
THE CALL OF DUTY IN ACTION WITH THE ENEMY

JAMES E. KARNES, sergeant, Company D, 117th Infantry, 30th Division.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy near Estrees, France, October 8, 1918. During an advance his company was held up by a machine gun which was enfilading the line. Accompanied by another soldier, he advanced against this position and succeeded in reducing the nest by killing three and capturing seven of the enemy and their guns.
Residence at enlistment: 2501 Broadway Avenue, Knoxville, Tenn.

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Finally, the politicians agreed to an Armistice. With typical Great War perversity, the agreed to time for the guns to go silent was “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.” At 1100 hours on 11 November 1918, the fighting would stop. The AEF was on the offensive and Black Jack Pershing was determined to make the Germans aware that the Americans had beaten them and ordered American units to continue the attack right up to 1100.

In the National Cemetery in Knoxville the headstones are all laid out just so. Marker B-17 8698 belongs to Private Oscar Rider of M Company, 3rd Battalion, 321st Infantry, 81st Division. Private Rider enlisted on April 26, 1918 and after an abbreviated training at Camp Jackson, SC, shipped out to France with the rest of the division, arriving there on August 14. By September 16, they were in the front lines in a quiet sector where boredom was a bigger danger than the Germans. After some back and forth, they were finally ordered to make a major attack at 0600 on 11 November, a mere five hours before the guns were to fall silent. M Company led the advance but came under determined German machine-gun fire. One hour before he could have stacked arms and come home to Knoxville, Private Oscar Rider was killed. He was the last Knoxvillian to fall in action in the Great War. In a war characterized by futility, it is perhaps fitting that Private Rider's ultimate sacrifice was in a meaningless attack on a meaningless objective in the last hour of a war that settled nothing.

It is right and proper that we should give honor and glory to those among us who have borne our nation on their shoulders. As we do so, though, it is also proper to remember the Doughboys whose courage and sacrifice we also commemorate at 11AM on November 11.