Paul E. Pearson was living in Neosho, Missouri when he was inducted into the army on March 24, 1917. Assigned to Company L, 18th Infantry, Pearson’s regiment was part of America’s famous 1st Division. The 18th Infantry was placed in the division’s 1st Infantry Brigade at New York City and sailed for France on June 14. They arrived in St. Nazaire, France on June 26. The 1st Division was heavily engaged in the St. Mihiel Operation and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Pearson returned from overseas service on April 18, 1919. Pearson wrote to his brother Frank from Camp Merritt, New Jersey on June 25, 1919. Just back from occupation duty in Germany, he described the trip home and explained how the war had changed him.
Like most American soldiers, Pearson wanted to see Paris. The closest he got was on the outskirts while riding in a French boxcar. Known as a 40 and 8 (40 hommes et 8 chevaux), they transported 40 men or 8 eight horses. Pearson wrote, “we had the 40 Hommes all right and we were en long and most any old way we could get in some were in drunk and some almost drunk we were all in long I mean a long time and anyone who wasn’t drunk was simply out of luck for sleep.”
Pearson was eager to get out of the army and believed he was entitled to a medical discharge after being wounded in France. On March 10, 1920, Pearson was awaiting an X-Ray to determine if surgery would be required to remove shattered bones from his left thigh. He estimated he would receive a ten percent disability because of the wound.
In a previous letter, Frank wrote the army had made a man out of him, but Pearson responded “it has made a man of me, I mean an old man with gray hair. physically the army and the war have made a wreck of me and moraly I can’t say the army has helpt me any. of course the oppertunity of seeing a few things has opened my eyes a little and mentally, well I don’t think it will be safe for me to go back on the farm without a body guard until all the squirrels are caged up.” Perhaps worst of all, he felt Americans looked down on the regular army. Before enlisting, Pearson believed professional soldiers had joined the army to get out of trouble. While Americans celebrated the tradition of the citizen-soldier, Pearson wrote “it is nothing uncommon to hear some old hen make remarks about the regular army.”
Despite the destruction, Pearson believed good things would come out of the conflict as he wrote to Frank, “This war has awakened lots of those who realy saw it to realize a few things. it has purified and trans-figured their souls and is over-throwing selfishness and resurrecting humanity in the likeness of its creator.”
Despite being eligible for a discharge and having “a chronic case of the army blues,” Pearson reenlisted and was transferred to Company C, 14th Infantry. The regiment was sent to guard the Panama Canal Zone in 1920. Some letters and a company roster with photographs documents Pearson’s service in this isolated outpost of the United States Army in the 1920s.
Paul Pearson died in Denver, Colorado on March 27, 1945, and is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Newtonia, Missouri.
Sources:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=pearson&GSfn=paul&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=26&GScnty=1469&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=32681453&df=all&
