George Kinkead's "Souvenir de Luxemburg"

The date was March 18, 1919, World War I had ended four months earlier and within two months these three young combat veterans would sail home to the United States and return to civilian life. They were in Luxembourg City that day and sat for this souvenir portrait, now in the Lucas County Historical Society collection.

All were draftees who most likely met first during late 1917 at Iowa's Camp Dodge. By the spring of 1919, they were corporals in Company E, 130th Infantry Regiment, 33rd Infantry Division --- from left, John Kintz of West Branch, Elmer Miller of Carterville, Illinois, and George W. Kinkead of Chariton.

We also have George's World War I Victory Medal at the museum and its rainbow-colored ribbon is gripped by three battle clasps signifying engagements in which he (and the others, too) had been involved: Somme-Offensive, Meuse-Argonne, and Defensive Sector, the latter representing battles without specific clasps.

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Assigned initially to Camp Dodge after they were drafted, George, Elmer and John were among 1,000 men shipped to Camp Logan in Houston, Texas, during late October and early November of 1917, then allocated among units of the 33rd Infantry --- a U.S. Army National Guard division.

After their training was complete, the men arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey, expecting to sail to France aboard the U.S.S. Agamemnon on May 16, 1918. There was, however, an outbreak of scarlet fever among the men of Company E and all three were among those held back and placed in quarantine for a week. They eventually sailed aboard the U.S. Tunisian on May 27, arriving in France a week and a few days later.

All units of the 33rd had arrived in France by mid-June --- and were dispatched into combat soon after. During the course of the war, 691 solders of the 33rd were killed, 6,173 wounded.

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Less than two months after this photo was taken --- on May 11, 1919 --- the men set sail from Brest aboard the U.S.S. Siboney, arriving back in Hoboken on May 20. Soon thereafter they returned to their homes and civilian life. We have no idea if George, John and Elmer ever met again.

A farmer and carpenter in his early years, George went to work for the Chariton Post Office, beginning a 37-year career and rising from substitute mail carrier at the beginning to assistant postmaster at the time of his retirement.

Among the organizers of Carl L. Caviness American Legion Post No. 102, he married Hildreth Miller and they had two sons, Richard and Robert. Following Hildreth's death during 1962, he married Ethel Ewald Price. He was 92 when he died on Oct. 20, 1987, having outlived both his wives and both of his sons. He is buried in the Norwood Cemetery.