First Americans Killed in WW I-- Part 6: Merle David Hay

From Wikipedia.

Born July 20, 1896  Died November 3, 1917.

Born in Carroll County, Iowa.  Enlisted 3 May 1917, among eight men from Glidden, Iowa, who enlisted that day.

Re-interred July 1921 at West Lawn Cemetery in Glidden.  This was later renamed the Merle Hay Memorial cemetery in his honor.  The Iowa legislature had an eight-foot monument erected at his grave.

Shortly after his death, the highway running from Des Moines, Iowa to Camp Dodge was renamed the Merle Hay Road and a memorial boulder was placed on it in 1923.  The Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines is also named for him.

The first American military casualty of World War II was also an Iowa native from Arlene.  Robert M. Losey was a military attache killed April 21, 1940, during the German bombardment of Dombas, Norway.

--Cooter

First Americans Killed in Action in WW I-- Part 2

Continued from November 6.

The three men killed:

**  THomas F. Enright, private:  Sister Mrs. Mary Irwin, No. 6641 Premo St., Pittsburgh.

**  James P. Gresham, private:  Mother, Mrs. Alice Dodd, No. 1001 West Ohio street, Evansville, Indiana.

**  Merle D. Hay, private:  father, Harvey D. Hay, Glidden, Iowa.

All three enlisted, not drafted.  Enright joined in 1909, Gresham 1913 and Hay in May 1917.  Enright was 30, Greshan and Hay in their early to mid-20s.

All were members of the First Division, Co. F, Second Battalion, 16th Infantry.

--Cooter

The First Americans Killed in Action During World War I-- Part 1

From the October 27, 2017, Orlando (Florida) Sentinel "Commentary:  Honoring the first to fall in World War I:  A Story of U.S. sacrifice"  Thomas V. DiBacco.

I wrote about this Sunday in the WW I chronology.

One hundred years ago this week, three American soldiers became the first to lose their lives in front line combat during the war on November 3, 1917.

News of it broke in early November 1917 without much emotion.  The Washington Herald had a story about it on the front page with the headline "U.S. Soldiers Were Trapped: Caught In Dugouts by Germans, Officers' Belief Here."

The story continued on page two with their names and facts about each one.

Sadly, the First of Many.  --DaCoot