Morris High School - Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

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LAXNRIGNCIC F. UONDON J AMES COWAN ANDES EMANUEL ABEL FREDIWICK ERIKSEN 20

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, Gold Stars Plattsburg as soon as he graduated from City College in June 1917. He was the only man in the College to pass the entrance tests for this camp. He never saw actual service, for he was attacked by para-typhoid, of which he died, after only three months of training. I At Morris he had been a member of the football team, and Won his HM . He graduated in June 1913. David W. Miller served with the 30th Engineers at Camp Upton. On March 30th, feeling ill, he was permitted to go home. From here he was removed to the Polyclinic Hospital, suffering from appendicitis. An operation proved ineffectual and he died on March 17th, 1918. Isidore Rotgard, who in his letters home expressed the ut- most abhorrence toward the Germans for their atrocities, by a strange turn of fate was himself slain as a result of an atrocity. Some American forces, among which was Rotgard's regiment, were engaged in hand to hand fighting in a dense forest near the Marne. During the engagement Rotgard was wounded and sent to a hospital twenty miles behind the lines. While he was on the operating table German airplanes bombed the hospital and Rotgard wa killed. Missing in Action Lieutenant Philip Hassinger went to France with the American Aviation corps. It was on September 28th, during the Saint Mihiel drive, that he went up over thc lines in an aero- plane and failed to return. As no definite news of his fate has ever come, there is still a faint hope that he may even yet re- turn . Q Q g The following letter explains itself. We have given it a place in the ANNUAL because we feel that it gives better expres- sion to the spirit in which these boys entered the service and laid down their lives than any words of ours could do. Praise from us would be poor in comparison with the splendid sense of dedication to the cause of Right pervading every sentence. Rotgard's own words are the most fitting memorial for him and for his comrades. V . . . . . . .We have been drilling and working pretty strenuously lately, so that I could not find time to write you sooner. We dig trenches, have gas mask drill, take long hikes. One feels pretty tired at the end of the day. However it is great training and hardens one to -the point where he can endure anything. Al- though conditions are quite different, naturally, from what 19

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Gold Stars they were at Camp, the authorities are doing their utmost to provide us with all conveniences and comforts, knowing this, we look at everything in a cheerful light and we know that this optimism and unwillingness to grumble is an earnest of the fine things we are going to do at the front. How proud I am of being an American! The people of this town somewhere-in-France tell me that they admire Ameri- can clan, American generosity, and the American spirit of fair play. Perhaps I am overstepping the bounds of modesty but I am merely giving you a transcript of the words of various Allied soldiers I have spoken to. The Canadians are certain that We shall make as good a showing as they, the Australians are sure that we shall share with them the task of wiping out the Huns, the English Tommies like the freedom and ease of our ways. Furthermore, some of the Allied soldiers say that the Americans now in the front line are putting up a splendid fight against the I-Iuns. It is proverbial that one does not know how good a thing is until he misses it. Therefore, when a Lieutenant who hails from a western state told me of the fine soldiers that come from the West, of the fine people that live there, and of the splendid opportunities one can find there, it began to dawn on me what a wonderful country our United States is. It is so big, so gener- ous, so fair to all, that it is a privilege to fight for such a land. Being a soldier is not a trivial game, yet when one remembers that our country is trying to spread the light of liberty, inter- national fairplay, and the right to live and let live, throughout the world, one can endure anything. American adaptability, which enables our soldiers to beat their instructors at their own game, and American patriotism will tame the Hun. Inasmuch as this day has been decreed Mother's Day, I have written to my parents and expressed to them my deep gratitude for the numerous sacrilices they made so that I might get a college education. But their previous unselfishness is no- thing in comparison with their ready willingness to let me en- joy the privilege of fighting for the best country in the World. Although they worry and perhaps silently suffer, I am proud of having parents who would be ashamed to have me stay at home in the present crisis. Isrnoms Rorcaan, Co. H, 307th Infantry. Compiled by GREGORY PINCUS. 21