Battery Corporal
           Willis S. Cole
        Military Museum
                                 A Non-Profit Corporation
       13444 124th Ave NE, Kirkland, WA  98034-5403   U.S.A.
                   www.ww1.org                  ww1@ww1.org  

       NAMED AFTER  

                                Willis Samuel Cole
                              February 25, 1897 - July 11, 1949

                                       Corporal, SN: 738856
                         295th Military Police Company
                                       6th   Division, U. S. Army
                       April 24, 1918 - October 29, 1918
                         Company D, 1st Army M.P. Battalion
                             October 30, 1918 - July 12, 1919
                           A.E.F. - July 7, 1918 - July 2, 1919
                            Meuse-Argonne: Defensive Sector
                         Served: June 19, 1917 - July 12, 1919
                                                
     Willis S. Cole, Mahoning Rd. NE, Canton, Ohio, volunteered as a
Regular Army Enlisted Man on June 19,1917 at  Columbus Barracks,
Columbus, Ohio.  Exactly 39 years, 363 Days before his second son,
the Museum's Executive Director/Curator, volunteered for the beginning
of his 7 years in the service on 17 June, 1957.
    Willis S. Cole was 20 years, 4 months old, while Willis S. Cole, Jr. "Sam"
was 17 years and 9 months old when they volunteered.  His first son, Richard
K. Cole, served his volunteer military career in the Ohio Army Reserve.
    Willis went through Basic Training as a member Company B, 51ST
Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade, 6th Division (RA), serving with that
Company until 23 April, 1918, at which time he was transferred to
Company A, of the 6th Division Military Police.
    He was promoted to Private First Class on 13 October, 1917 and to
Corporal on 1 June, 1918.
   The 6th Division was organized from existing units of the Regular Army
on 26th November, 1917, at Camp Forest, Georgia, and Camp McClellan,
Alabama.
    The 6th Train Headquarters and Military Police landed at Liverpool and
Glasgow on 17 July, 1918, and spent a few days in a rest camp.  Traveling
to Southhampton and Liverpool for transfer to France on 19 and 26 July,
1918, arriving at Le Havre and Cherbourg.

23 July     - Division moved to 9th (Chateau villain) Training Area.
27 Aug.    - Division moved to Remiremont Area
31 Aug. - 6 Sept.:    Participates with French in the occupation of the
                                Gerardmer Sector (Alsace).
6 Sept. - 12 Oct.:    Occupies the Gerardmer Sector (Alsace).
12 Oct:    - Division moves to staging area near Corcieux & Saulxures-
                   -sur-Moselotte.
26 Oct. - 1 Nov.:     Moves to south of Les Islettes and Clermont-en-Argonne.
1 Nov. - 8 Nov.:      Participates in the Meuse-Argonne Battle.
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Post Card - Dated 20 June, 1917, 9 p.m.  Columbus, Ohio - 1 Cent Stamp

    Well Dad, I am a soldier now.  Am enjoying myself all right.  These are
two friends of mine.  They are from Detroit.  That drunk showed up, so I
didn't have to serve papers on him.  Well goodbye.  Your son:  Willis
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    Willis was a short fellow, just 5 feet 4 inches tall.  When he first wanted
to volunteer for the Army, he could not meet the weight requirement.
    At that time, bananas were thought to be a food that was very fattening,
so the Doctor told him to go home and eat all the bananas and drink all the
water he could, and come back next week.
    The next week, he was still under weight.  The Doctor told him to do the
same and come back again.  This went on for a period of six weeks.
    On the sixth visit to the Doctor, when he got on the scales, they quickly
went, almost to the minimum weight he was required to meet.  As he watched
the scale measure with great disappoint beginning to show on his face, the
scale suddenly moved to just above the line, as the Doctor said, "Son, anyone
who want in as bad as you do, should get in."  As he turned to look at the
Doctor, he could see the Doctor's toe on the scale.
    Bananas were not high on his preferred foods list until the day he died.
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                   Mildred       Luella
                    Long          Claire
              Mother's Best Friend       King
                             Soon to be:  Cole
    A tale passed onto his wife, Luella Claire King Cole, before they were
married.  "Once, when he was a motorcycle dispatch bearer, he was stopped
on a bridge over the Rhine River for inspection.  The guard who stopped him,
was a fellow he knew from Canton."
    Later in 1933, after they were married, my mother wrote me, they were
in Zanesville, Ohio, on St. Patrick's Day and while they were in a restaurant
for lunch, my father looked over and saw the same fellow, Ray Timson.
    They had a great reunion and met several times before Ray died.
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    One story, I remembered well, many years later, was one I heard him
telling a visitor one day.  In fact, it is the only war story, I ever heard my
father tell.
    One day, he was on a Dispatch Run and as he passed traffic he came
to a crossroads where an M.P. was standing in the middle and directing
traffic.  Not knowing which way to go, as he was not sure where he was
at, my dad stopped his motorcycle, got off and got out his map.
    As he was looking at his map, traffic cleared and the M.P. walked over
and asked him what was wrong.  My dad told him, He was supposed to
go to a crossroads at a place called Avocourt and take a road from there
to the place he was supposed to deliver his Dispatch.
    The M.P. told him, Buddy, do you see that stack of bricks over there
and those bricks over there?  And, before dad could answer, he continued,
Buddy, you are in Avocourt, you take that road over there, as he pointed
out the road my father was to take.

   That story came to mind one May day in 1977, when I found myself on
a motorcycle approaching a French village not all that far from Verdun.
The sign, as I entered the village, read Avocourt and within seconds, I was
faced with a crossroads and a decision was to be made, concerning the
direction I was going to take
    Yes, while I looked at the map, I though about that story and I missed
the M.P. with his directions.  Just a few kilometers down the road, I
stopped another crossroads in the countryside and look in awe at the hill
in the near distance.  Its top was cleaved open like a fancy loaf of bread.
As I looked, it came to mind, that I was watching the result of the World
War One practice of digging a tunnel under your enemy's line and then
placing a large amount of explosive at the end and setting it off.
    Then, I looked at my watch and knew I could not go up the side road
to visit that hill.  I have to get to the American Meuse-Argonne Cemetery
and on back to Dusseldorf, Germany.  But, I added it to my 'trip wish list'
and made up my mind to come back sometime.
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TO ALL MEMBERS OF COMPANY "D' FIRST ARMY M.P.B.N.

MEMORANDUM

   YOU WILL PLEASE ACCEPT MY APPRECIATION FOR YOUR
EXCELLENT WORK WHILE UNDER MY COMMAND.  YOU ARE
WORTH OF THE VERY HIGHEST COMMENDATION THAT COULD
BE GIVEN YOU.  I AM VERY GRIEVED TO PART WITH YOU, BUT,
I TRUST IT WILL PROVE TO BE FOR THE SERVICE.
    YOU HAVE MY VERY BEST WISHES FOR A PLEASANT TRIP
TO BELGIUM AND A VERY GOOD TIME WHILE THERE AND,
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, A SPEEDY RETURN TO THE UNITED
STATES.
    GOOD-BYE, GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

SINCERELY                CAPTAIN JAMES W. ALLBRITTEN
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     I have returned to that place many times over the years and each time I
visit, my father is there in front of me, riding into our family's history.
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    Willis S. Cole died on the 12th of July, 1949, after a long illness which,
at the time, was called "Miner's Black Lung," today it is known as Silicosis.
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