Ohio 37th Served in Two Wars  

Veterans Day notifications remind me that every summer when I was a kid, we went to the Company A Reunion. It gathered WWI vets and their families from Crawford County environs. It was the one beer a year I saw my grandfather share. He wasn't a drinker. It was always a potluck until that year the guys cooked up a kettle of Slumgullion Stew for the assembled crowd. Excellent.

My grandad belonged to that first WWI "Buckeye Battalion." It was National Guard, called up in times of crisis. We also have a lot of Ohio vets in the regular military, while the Ohio 37th still serves. This year two of our vets, endorsed by the DA Veterans and Military Families Caucus, were elected. Kristina Knickerbocker was one of those unexpected wins for the US House, from the 10th CD, Dayton area. Shelby Kimball will represent the 60th district in the Ohio state house.

The DA VMF had a web call today, commemorating Veterans Day. Naveed Shah, from Military.com online news site, reported on their pre-election poll of military concerns and issues now shaping up in the lame duck and for January. Of immediate concern is TCAVA (Taking Care of American Veterans Act). It's another one of those lovingly named GOP gestures that actually snatches support away from future veterans.

And then there's Secretary Hegseth. You can help hasten his exit here.

Politics dispatched, people shared their own Veterans Day thoughts. There were some who served, and some whose family members had. No bragging, but a quiet sense of pride all round. And gratitude. And concern for those currently in peril.

My thoughts turned back to my grandfather. I grew up in his house and heard the references, but no war stories. Serving in an observation tower above the trenches, he was not one of the wounded, though my grandmother said he never slept a full night's sleep after he came back. He persevered, worked, farmed, raised a family. And then again me. When he died, a letter came from President Nixon, expressing his deep condolences. 

My grandmother pursed her lips, as she was wont to do, and said, "Well, it would have been nice if they'd given him a pension while he was alive." WWI vets never got a pension. 

A couple of his Company A buddies kept in touch and shared visits right up into the late '60's when I moved on to college and ... life. They made an impression. I was fascinated by one who'd survived a devastating hit (and early 20th century medicine). He looked perfectly normal from the front, but seen in profile, the front of his forehead was missing. He'd been in the trenches. It didn't affect his thinking, his productivity nor his lifelong attachment to the other guys in his group. He comes back to my mind whenever "One" the film or rock saga was played. He had been lucky. I think his name was Slater. No, Peters. 'Dutch' Peters. It's been a long time, but it comes leaping back. 

My grandfather's WWI footlocker stored other stuff for some years and then served as a toy and storage trunk for two of his great-grandchildren. The slightly crumbling paper lining was re-upholstered with a bright red cotton poplin. The kids are grown and more now. The footlocker still serves. It's end-panel, never painted over, still says "F.H.Fortney, Co. A." Now, it's storing the dough-boy helmet, gas mask and mess kit that it held in 1917 and the panorama prints of photos from Camp Sherman before they shipped out. Sherman? That's what it said about the OH 37th in at least three different web sites, including Wikipedia. Well, okay. If it's on the Internet ...

Correction: While attending the VMF commemoration today, I heard a lot of personal anecdotes from DA vets and members with family connections. What I wrote just above about Camp "Sherman" kept bothering me. Because I'm sure I remember my grandmother specifically mentioning Camp Sheridan. She and other young military wives had actually gone there to be near their husbands. And I'm sure she said it was in Alabama.

Nah, age must be muddling my memory. But today's call made me 'check one more time.' And this time, I dropped "Sheridan" into the search. Sure enough, there it was in a military history research site. It mentioned Camp Sheridan, AL, where the Ohio 37th had completed training before shipping out for Europe. The sepia photos on the home page were almost identical to the ones in our footlocker ... except our photos have all 'the boys' in the unit, arms over shoulders, looking brave and young. They always do.

Nov. 11, 2026. Veterans' Day