Phillips Exeter Academy - PEAN Yearbook (Exeter, NH)

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1 1 , ' 40 .- Nm ff 1 -fllvxxsms ,RN ' x ' 5 . --- - I D x f 'u .F , ' ' x . 0 Xu - l X f If 4 s g Ms . 1' I X . f I ' ,ff f, 61:61 Lv.. ...ry .... X5 - '- I - - I else now eonnts. I am glad to have such :L great opportunity. From letters concerning his affairs to he delivered in case of his death: lf you receive this you will know lillllli I have done my duty to the best of my ability. Also, H lie sure that I :Lm wonderfully glad that l could give up my life so usefully. Our feeble attempts to describe the magnificent spirit that animated our men in the field fall far too short t.o do them the simplest justice. 'l'he extract lielow, taken from :L letter from Harry A. liutters, '09, Itoyal Field Artillery, is one which must live as one of the finest epistles yet brought forth from the war. HI am no longer untried. 'l'wo weeks' action in :L great battle is to my credit, and il' my faith in the wisdom of my course or my entlnlsiasin for the cause had been due to fail, it would have done so during' that time. But it has only lmeeome strongerg I find myself :L soldier among millions of others in the great allied armies fighting for all I believe right and civilized and hmnaue against a power which is evil and which threatens the existence of all the right we prize and the freedom we enjoy, It may seem to you Ifllllli for me this is all quite uncalled for, that it can only mean either the supreme sacrifice for nothing or at least some of the liest years of my life wasted, but I tell you that I am not only willing to give my life to this enterprise Cfor that is comparatively easy except when l think of youj, but that I firmly believe--if I live through it to spend :L useful' lifetime with you - that never will I have an opportunity to gain so much honorable advance- ment for my own soul or to do so much for the worldls progress, as l am here daily, defending the liherty that mankind has so far gained against the attack of an enemy who would deprive us of it, and set the world hack some centuries if he could have his way. I think less of myself than I did, less of the heights of personal success I aspired to climb, and lnore of the service that eaell of us must render in payment for the right to live andiliy virtue of which only can we progress. Yes, my dearest folks, we are indeed doing the worldls work over here, and I am in it to the finish. A l rom the foregoing one can realize something of the high ideals living in the minds ol' our young soldiers. It remained to be discovered whether their conduct in battle, their own deeds on the field, followed these noble utterances. 'l'he ensuing extracts, taken from letters of oflicers and eenlrades, will show how firmly these ideals we1'e welded into their cliaracter hy the liery furnace of war. Concerning Stephen Potter, '152 . . . t l'here are no words that can expressthesplendid- ness of a life and death like Stevc's. He did his duty at this station with a skill and devotion which surpassed the most experienced pilots. Ile shot down :L llnn seaplane in :L perilous fight way up the German coast. l'Ie has left us an example and an inspiration which makes us grit our teeth mul go to it harder than CV0l'. NVQ: will win this war or die trying, as Steve did. Steve went will- Int-'Ely llllfl tlladly, with a smilc. May we follow his example, and 'carry on' till the world is right again. Again, Ile died well, fighting against heavy odds. Ilardwieke M. Nevin, '18, an ambulance driver, had his ear blown to pieces by a shell during Il' lf0l'l'llic attack. Ile found a lied Cross car and assisted in the evacuation of civilians for thirty- six hours. All the while he sought for his own company which had lost him in the confusion.

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I , , f 4, -f, Aidgqlylzgy qi.. 'eg of 'f X 4? 'fri I' ' my -.mt I ' ' ' ,.. li...T.,!l H111 Ie ,I I I, - progress of the wer. A gmnfl totul of 2,187 is the glorious reeorrl which Exeter holflsg of these 862 :ire oflieers, hoth in :Lrmy :incl natvy, rnnking ns follows: ARMY NAVY I lirigzulier General I Cuptuin 3 Colonels 3 COIYlfIlfLI1fI0l'H 7 lllellflellrmt Colfmels 2 I,ieutermnt-Commanders 46 Majors 5 Lieutennnts Cs. g.J 135 CILDIIILIIIH 25 Lieutemmts Qui. g.J 200 First Lieutenzmts I00 Iflnsigns 325 Ser-onfl Lieutennnts The numher of rleeorzitions ztwrtrflecl is 57 elzissified below: I I 28 Croix rle Guerre I4 Distinguisherl Service Crosses 4 Itulixui Wan' Crosses 4 Crosses of the Legion of Ilonor 3 Meduille Militnire I Prix fle Vertu 2 Meclul of Aero Club of AIIIOPIISSI , I Cross of' Leopold The hrnve nets for whieh these honors were given will remain forever ll souree of highest, honor to the men :incl :L souree of great pricle to their sehoolg they will :ilwnys serve ns it stimulus for those who follow in their footsteps. The flezithless spirit whieh fired the souls of our men in the serviee is one whieh to the observer is but the logienl outeome of sturrly Iflxeter trzulitions :mrl fuithful Iflxeter teuehing. The letters from the men in the serviee flowing over with irleuls that trunseencl the Imseness of wnr eontziin mueh that will he preserved for the erlifieution of future generations. The following extrxiets will serve to show the motives o f those Iflxonizms who served their eountry in the Greet Wur. . , , , l'Come what may I only hope I'm uhle to go through with it und pluy IL mun's pert ,.... I wonder what it is thut this wer puts into :L mung :tml yet its only finfling out thut 'its Love that mzike the worlll go 'rounrlg' for it's Love of Country :tml Cziuse, Love of' Ilome :incl l'urents, Love of Ifzunily unrl lfrienfls that mnkes :ill these snerifiees worth while. . . . . . . . American is :it lust in this wzir with both feet :mrl we 'out here' grow proumler eueh fhty of being Ameriezin .... . . . . We :Lre expeeting to hleerl :Lnfl suffer too, unrl I helieve we :ire rezuly. I expeet to give the best that is in me - to he first in the firing line mul lest to quit .... They say Tor- tune favors the hruve.' I'm going to try to live up to thut saying! .lust think of ull the wonderful cleerls performed in the pest hy Atheninns, liomzins, Iunglish, Ifreneh zmrl even f-ermnns. Anil then think of the ehnnee l've got! I woulrln't swzip pluees with :L king. Stephen Potter, killecl while fighting llun phmes ugzminst superior oclrls, writes in referenee to fleeision to enter serviee: I feel sure thnt this is my fluty :Lhove ull else. I realize thnt nothing

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s 'N s f l X I I ll 0 N N N Y X 1 N l 2 l 1 as saints rNw mmR N X uni , me' 5 l s :ew I l f . . X -. - M ff x 1 af 'fx -. l X .I Q- . 1 ' f . mx , ' ' ' ,.. tr...r..w mil AU -T. I ' ' ws Pi is s gr l A 1 w. 1 :Q lx -Q .. ,. ., ,,... . ,. ,. ,. , ., W. . . ts.,.5x., ,. .-3.5.21,-,:.,iw.,3.-sflrasr ,lla , gags. Finally he found a clue from a soldier as to the location of his company, but on reaching the place he found his company had moved on. lnstead, he found the Foreign Legion there. He answered its call for broncardiers, serving for three days without rest. He had no protection in his work except a few roadside bushes. While carrying an Arab comrade he was wounded by an exploding shell which peppered his right arm and back with shell fragments. In spite of the intense pain he continued on his way through an enemy barrage. Nearly all the way he assisted in carry- ing a wounded poilu. He spent three weeks in the hospital, and was recommended for the Croix de Guerre and the Medaillc Militaire. A Costa Rican, a lieutenant in the Foreign Legion wrote him thus: My dear Boy - 'l'he souvenir of your noble actions will remain always fresh in our memories, and so far as life lasts 1 will remember that my brothers of the North know how to live and die for an ideal. Another lieutenant of the Foreign Legion writes, We will never forget the little American as we call you. ' Norman C. Lee, '16, won the Mcdaille Militaire for conspicuous bravery under shell fire as illustrated by the following: He drove an ambulance one-half mile along a shell-swept road, walked half a mile when the machine was overturned by an exploding shell to save the uncon- scious driver of another ambulance whose machine had been blown to splinters. Lee carried the wounded man a mile on his back, preventing him from bleeding to death. Joseph F. Wehner, '17, won the Distinguished Service Cross. While on a mission he found an enemy patrol of machines attacking a single observation plane. Ile immediately attacked, destroying one and forcing another plane down out of control, his own plane being badly damaged by machine gun fire. Ile managed to convoy the American plane to safety. The Bronze Oak Leaf was awarded him for amid terrific anti-aircraft fire and ground machine guns, Lieutenant Wehner descended, attacking and destroying two enemy balloons. V Kenneth l'l. Fuller, '12, w1'otc, .... The second lieutenant who goes 'over the top' successfully displays about the finest qualities a man can have, and for a year my mind has been set on being put to the test to see if I have a share of those qualities. Later it was written of him that, in an assault upon a nest of machine guns posted on the crest of a ridge where they had held up the advance, he chose his tactics, and carried them out and was killed leading his platoon in the final rush upon the guns, just as he raised his pistol to fire, but what few of his men reached the guns took them, and saved hundreds of lives. 'l'hey have brought honor to their country, to themselves and to their school, and in doing so they have made their names immortal. Of all those Exeter men engaged in the war some fifty-two yielded up their lives. ln action twenty-one fell, and four died of wounds received in action, twenty-two fell victims to disease, while in the government's service 5 and live lost their lives in accidents. Of their sacrifice we need say nothing. Their deeds speak for them. And it is not in sorrow, but in reverent pride that we read of them. An lllxeter graduate of '17 concludes a remarkable war poem as follows: HO happy boy, you have not lost your years! You lived them through and through in those brief days, When you stood facing death. 'l'hcy are not lost: 'l'hey rushed together as the waters rush