Return From Cheppy

     Returning to the United States from Cheppy today was easy for me.  Cheppy is about a three-hour drive to Paris at the posted 130 Kmph (80 mph) speed although I detoured to Normandy first.  From there to London on the 200 mph Eurostar train was a two-hour trip.  And the flight from London to Dulles Airport in Washington took about 7 1/2 hours.  There isn't much fatigue in flying on a Boeing 787 with two passable meals served enroute.

     My father's experiences were quite different.  The 35th Division remained in France from the November 11, 1918 Armistice until March 1919.  During this time, they were trained and made tough for European combat, training that probably would have prevented the collapse in the Meuse-Argonne.  Dad took leave to see eastern France including Fort de Vaux at Verdon.  He recorded that human bones were still on the surface of the land.  Then his unit had a stint at a rifle range near Champagne before being moved to Montoir in southwestern France.  According to his diary, it was "best town I have been in in France.  Beaucou[p] mademoiselle of every kind."  He shipped out on board the USS Matsonia at Saint-Nazaire. The ocean voyage was rough.  A wave took off two ventilators and some railing.  Dad got seasick.  Years later, he told my brother that he was advised to eat lemon drops to prevent seasickness. The remedy didn't work and left Dad with a distaste for lemon drops for the rest of his life.  They landed at Newport News, Virginia.  The Army erected a makeshift triumphal arch at dockside, and returning soldiers marched through it.  It has since been replaced by a permanent, commemorative arch.  Dad's unit went by train on a kind of victory tour, stopping to march through cities along the route, before arriving in Kansas City where they were mustered out.  I still have a photograph of a jaunty Harold Johnston in uniform in front of the Revolutionary War monument in Yorktown.  Two years ago, after I had researched and written a book about my father's experiences, I posed before the same monument.

Dad's ship home

Dad at Yorktown

Me at Yorktown