chapter 350

French Pen Pal

je ne sais quoi

6/6/2014

In honor of the 70th Anniversary of WW2 D-Day my French pen pal sent me a copy of their village's recent publication, La Petite Histoire de Fressin #16. As a french collaborator, she used some of my pictures, stories, and web page reference. I guess you could say my web is now translated in foreign countries. Some details are lost in translation, but it's close enough, like hand grenades and horseshoes.

Fressin is proud of their chickens and used this one on the cover. This Wyandotte variety originated in America and lays brown eggs. I had mentioned that Grandpa Hayden served in WW I to help France beat the Germans, which she quoted. In my recollection there was a picture of him in the military doughboy uniform and it seems that he mentioned shipping back to the States from Le Havre, France, but these things are fading memories. In my fading Olmsted farm Ledger book salvaged from the auction there is some documentation of this chapter of history.

The ledger mostly itemizes money spent on farm supplies and income from sale of dairy products but the first two pages shown above include war time addresses. I recall Grandpa saying he was sick as a dog in quarantine and really got to Europe at the end of the war, not really seeing action before shipping back as the war ended; I'm sure you remember on Armistice Day (Veterans Day) Nov 11, 1918.

Some rough Googling for these bits of info imply GPa did basic training in Arkansas, then temporary assignment to NJ, shipped to England, then France and back home. Seemed to have been sick with the flu most of the time and in fact may have been part of the original vectors for transmitting the disease world wide!

Arkansas: 

Camp Pike:

Massive flu pandemic (H1N1 bird flu) at that time at his Camp Pike  Little Rock, Arkansas brigade and in England and around the world killing perhaps 100 million people.

54 Casual Company seems to be temporary duty assignments before being placed into specific purpose dedicated companies.

162nd Depot Brigade essentially basic training for the war effort.

26th Company 7th Training Batttalion

45th Company 12th Training Brigade

Company K 4th Training Regiment

AEF were the American Expeditionary Forces fighting in France alongside the Brits and French

New Jersey:

Base Hospital , Ward A Camp Merritt in NJ was a way point for soldiers before leaving Hoboken Harbor for Europe.

England:

Service ID # 3803156, PVT William Hayden Olmsted, Company G Casual Battalion, Casual 466, Casual Detachment No 1, Winchester England ship from Southampton

France:

Arrive Le Havre, France then back to the US.

While this is very fragmented and incomplete it may be the only documentation it will receive. 

Moral: Last weeks First Things First reference spoke of the 4 basic human needs- To live, to love, to learn, and to leave a legacy. They are all encapsulated here. I believe Gpa told me he almost died of the flu. Certainly, it could have easily happened as it killed way more people than the war. By a simple twist of fate, he survived. Otherwise all of his legacy (the 4 descending generations) never would have existed. The superficial and trivial stories here recounted with photographs and memories; they have a much deeper meaning.

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