Ray "Bubba" Sorenson, responsible for those brightly painted patriotic "Freedom Rocks" scattered all across Iowa, will be in Chariton later this summer to add Lucas County to the list. The rock itself has been in place for a couple of years in the southeast corner of Veterans Memorial Park and Earl Comstock, prime mover behind the park, is making the final arrangements for Sorenson's visit.
Which was why he visited the museum last week and asked if I could come up with an outline of Lucas County's military history to add to the material he already has provided Sorenson with. Naturally I put the compilation off until the last minute --- yesterday afternoon --- but here it is:
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Lucas County opened to Euro-American settlers during October of 1845, very late in the lives of all surviving veterans of the Revolutionary War; as a result, none are buried here. There are, however, at least 14 veterans of the War of 1812 buried in the county, including three in the Chariton Cemetery.
Although several Lucas County men were veterans of the Mexican War (1846-1848), most of them also served during the Civil War, so that later conflict tended to push their service in the earlier war into obscurity.
Staunchly pro-Union, approximately 800 men from Lucas County served during the Civil War. Of that number, about 150 died while in service to their country. Several Lucas County men also served in Iowa's Southern Border Brigade during 1861-62, responding to alarms when Confederate-sympathizing guerrillas from Missouri came too close for comfort.
Company B, 6th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, was the first unit raised in Lucas County --- during the summer of 1861 --- and its captain, Daniel Iseminger, probably the best known among Lucas County veterans although he did not survive the war.
Daniel was Chariton’s first mayor, a Mexican War veteran and was pushing 50 when he lied about this age and spiffed himself up to look younger in order to enlist. Having been placed in battlefield command of the entire 6th Regiment, Iseminger was killed on bloody Sunday, April 6, 1862, while leading his men in battle at Shiloh.
After the war, Chariton veterans honored him by naming Daniel Iseminger Post No. 18, Grand Army of the Republic, in his honor.
Although Iseminger Post was large, influential in the community and ensured that veterans were honored on all appropriate occasions, it died as an organization with the last Civil War veteran. The Civil War Memorial at the southeast corner of the Courthouse Park is its principal memorial today.
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During 1893, Civil War veteran Col. Warren H. Dungan, then Iowa lieutenant governor, pulled the right strings and Iowa located a National Guard company in Chariton --- Co. H, 55th Infantry Regiment.
Fund were solicited and an armory built at the intersection of South Main Street and Armory Avenue in 1895.
Company H was activated for service during the Spanish American War and dispatched to Florida, but sustained no fatalities although disease killed two of its members. During the years after, Company H hosted two massive regional encampments --- Camp Lincoln during 1909 and Camp Castle, during 1913 --- on what now are the Lakeview Golf and Country Club grounds. In 1915, the unit was dissolved and the Armory converted to civilian use.
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For Americans, World War I began on April 6, 1917, when the United States declared war on German, and ended on Nov. 11, 1918, with the Armistice. Approximately 740 young men from Lucas County served and 26 died.
Carl L. Caviness, shot to death by a sniper in France on May 20, 1918, was the first to die in combat, and after the war, Carl L. Caviness American Legion Post No. 102 was named in his honor. Although diminished in size now, the Legion post was a major player in community life during the 20th century --- sponsor of the acclaimed American Legion Junior Band that introduced hundreds of young people to music; sponsor for many years of the city’s annual Memorial Day and 4th of July celebrations; always prepared, then as now, to ensure that veterans were and are appropriately honored.
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Hundreds of young men and women from Lucas County served their country during World War II and approximately 55 gave up their lives.
Perhaps the most widely known World War II veteran who returned home safely was Chariton attorney Leo Hoegh, who resigned from the Iowa Legislature when called up for duty as a junior officer in the Iowa National Guard in 1942. Rising quickly in the regular Army to the rank of lieutenant colonel he was named operations officer for the 104th Infantry Division, nicknamed the Timberwolf Division, and wrote the operations orders that carried the 104th through to the Rhine and into Germany. His honors included the Bronze Star Medal with cluster, Croix de Guerre with palm and Legion of Honor. Hoegh returned to his Chariton law practice after the war and during 1955 was elected Iowa’s 33rd governor.
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Nine men with close ties to Lucas County, a number of them World War II veterans, died while in service to their country during the Korean War, beginning with the youngest, Donald Lee Halferty, only 17, on Aug. 6, 1950. The remains of three have never been found, among the most from any Iowa county --- George Musick, Elmer A. Rowe and Roy R. Kirton.
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Soon after the 1945 end of World War II --- during June of 1947 --- an Iowa National Guard unit was established in Chariton --- Headquarters Co., 1st Battalion, 168th Infantry, 34th Division. Initially, the Carl L. Caviness American Legion post home served as headquarters and drill site, but in 1955 a new armory was constructed in north Chariton.
The company, during 1959, was redesignated Co. A, 2nd Medium Tank Battlion, 113th Armor, and later still, Detachment 1, 3654th Light Maintenance Co., attached to a unit headquartered in Knoxville.
During March of 2003, the Chariton unit was activated and deployed with others from the 3654th to Afghanistan as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The Chariton unit was closed out in 2006, its members transferred to Knoxville or Oskaloosa units and the armory transferred to public ownership.
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Hundreds of young men from Lucas County were drafted or enlisted to serve during Vietnam, a war that claimed the life of Specialist 4 and Green Beret Dennis Bingham, 21, killed on July 17, 1969, in Laos, while guiding from the ground to a safe landing an emergency evacuation helicopter.
Larry Ray Peterson also was lost during that war, but in a helicopter crash off California while bringing a wounded sailor in from a ship at sea. Other losses that can be attributed to Lucas County include Larry D. Cooper, whose home of record was Lucas County because this was his mother’s home at the time. And both Richard Cesar and Denis Levis, although listed as residents of Wayne County, were former residents of Lucas County.
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Lucas County’s most recent combat loss was Specialist Matthew K. Anderson, one of two crewmen killed Sept 25, 1993, at Mogadishu, Somalia, when their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.
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