In England it's referred to as The Great War, but we call it World War I. Most of the generations younger than me have literally no idea what WWI was about or why it's important to study it. It had a profound impact on my life even though it ended 44 years before I was born.
Both of my grandfathers were in WWI, but only one of them actually went overseas.
My grandfather Bob Hasty was in the army for less than a year and never went overseas. (I was actually able to get a copy of his service record a year ago when I was researching my novel Return to Marietta.) He spent the entire time playing baseball on the Camp Gordon team. A scout for the Atlanta Crackers saw him and signed him, and he went on to play 5 years in the major leagues.
A few interesting facts:
Camp Gordon was located in Chamblee, Georgia, and I know exactly where it was, just a few miles from where I live today. Today it's the Peachtree DeKalb Airport, PDK.
During World War II, Naval Aviators trained at the site, according to this article.
When it was built, Camp Gordon was the largest construction project in Atlanta up to that time. According to the Georgia Historical Society: "The site’s 1,635 buildings contained barracks for 46, 000 men, as well as accommodations for over 7,000 horses and mules."
The legendary 82nd Airborne Division got its start at Camp Gordon.
Sports were very big at Camp Gordon -- they had a winning football team as well as a baseball team.
My grandfather was promoted to sergeant so he would have more time to practice.
After WWI, the camp was moved to a different location, just outside Augusta, Georgia, and is now known as Fort Gordon. My father's older brother Bobby was a civilian employee at Ft. Gordon for many years.
My other grandfather, Algernon Thompson, had been a professional soldier for years before America entered into WWI, and he had fought Pancho Villa in 1916. He came back alive -- many men who fought in World War I didn't -- and appeared unharmed but years later he died at 67 from emphysema. I have always wondered if that had begun when he was in the war because poisoned gas was used so readily in that war, and Grandaddy didn't smoke.
World War I was about alliances and borders. There were treaties in place that made it inevitable that the assassination of Franz Ferdinand had to be avenged. There was no clear and worthy enemy, like Hitler or Mussolini, or even Communism.
According to Encyclopedia Brittanica:
Four imperial dynasties—the Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary, the Hohenzollerns of Germany, the sultanate of the Ottoman Empire, and the Romanovs of Russia—collapsed as a direct result of the war, and the map of Europe was changed forever. The United States emerged as a world power, and new technology made warfare deadlier than ever before.
One direct result was that Germany was so devastated by the war that the ensuing years of dire poverty and economic ruin paved the way for the rise of Hitler and WWII.
My dad was fascinated by all things military, for his entire life.
When Dad's brothers went off to fight in World War II, he was a little boy and he stayed home, of course. One summer, Grandaddy told Dad and his friends they should dig a trench so they could play army more realistically. He showed them where and how to dig, and encouraged their efforts. At the end of that summer. a septic tank was installed in the "trench" and the outhouse was replaced by a real working bathroom.
Grandaddy was not educated but he was very smart.
On this Veteran's Day let us give thanks for the men and women in our military who understand all too well that freedom has to be fought for, and the price is very dear.
#worldwarIfacts, #campgordon, #bobhastybaseballcareer, #tributetoveterans
