Request World War I, “Congressional Medal of Honor” and “U.S. Army World War I Victory Medal and Battle Claps (2).”.: Breaking World Financial News and Special Report, “Muese Argonne American Cemetary, “Section E” Pfc. Cornelius J. Conway killed in action, November 3, 1918 Oisne-Aisne Offensive, France”.: “I request the President of The United States of America expedite and award posthumously the, “Congressional Medal of Honor”, and U.S. Army World War I Victory Medal and Battle clasps 1.) Meuse-Argonne, 2.) Oisne-Aisne, to Pfc. Cornelius J. Conway U.S. Army 77th Infantry Division 305th, “Company I”, the “Liberty Brigade” (Metropolitan) N.Y. N.Y., Grave site section E., for answering beyond the call of duty and making the ultimate sacrifice in the face of severe enemy fire and over whelming enemy opposition.”: Request made by; Grand Nephew, Robert E. McCullough B.A., Arch. aka “Captain Democracy”, P.O. Box 332 La Jolla Cove-La Jolla, Calif. 92038
November 3, 1918.
77th Infantry Division (RTU)
Pvt. Cornelius J. Conway 77th Infantry Division 305th Company I, “Liberty Brigade” N.Y. N.Y. (Metropolitan Division) was killed at the Muesse Argonne November 3, 1918, and is buried at the Muesse Argonne American Cemetary, “Section E” outside of Verdun, France. This is the largest U.S. cemetary in all of Europe and the largest offensive in American military history.
Citation: Pvt. Cornelius J. Conway had attempted and succeded to save the platoon (Co. I) from machine gun fire from a ridge on the battlefield of Oise-Aisne, France. He charged up the hill with fixed bayonet in hand and took out one machine gun nest with rapid bolt action marksmanship firepower, then waved up the platoon (Co.I.) as he charged at the second machine gun nest taking out this also flinging a baseball pitch with great accuracy two hand gernades. When the platoon took and secured the ridge and the surrender of 85 German prisoners, a sniper fired and a mortar shell hit and mangeled Pvt. 1st Class Cornelius J. Conway who died in route to rear hospital support from the Oise-Aisne battlefield.
Pvt. 1st Class Cornelius J. Conway, of the 77th Division, “Liberty Brigade”, I shall not forget in all my living days and always will remember this soldiers dedication and devotion, beyond the call of duty his sacrifice in the face of severe enemy fire and opposition that saved the men of Company I. I put forthe to my commanding officer, Major General Robert Alexander a citation to and for, Pvt. 1st Class Cornelius J. Conway 77th Division, “Company I” for the nations highest honor, “The Congressional Medal of Honor”.
Captain King 77th Inf. Div. 305th, Co. I.
Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery (WWI) by Jeffrey Aarnio, Assistant Sup.
The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery
is located about 26 miles northwest
of Verdun in the Meuse Department
of the Lorraine Region. Meuse-
Argonne AC is the largest military
cemetery in Europe with 14, 246 burials
(as many as 28,000 burials at the
end of 1918). It is fitting that this
cemetery is located in the heart of the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive of 26 September
through 11 November 1918,
which remains America’s largest military
offensive to date with over
1,200,000 soldiers who took part in
this continuous battle over a 47-day
period. To put this into perspective,
there are currently around 160,000
U.S. military personnel in the entire
country of Iraq. In the early morning
hours of 26 September on the jumpoff
line, there were nine American
divisions with six divisions in reserve.
An American division in WWI consisted
of 28,000 men as opposed to a
WWII division of 18,000 men. (There
were only five U.S. assault divisions
in Normandy on 6 June 1944) The
land between the towns of Romagnesous-
Montfaucon and Cunel, where
the cemetery is located, was liberated
on 14 October 1918 by the 32nd and
5th Infantry Divisions and was immediately
used as a burial site. By 31
October, the American First Army
had finally breached the last defensive
trench line of the series of Hindenberg
lines, not even five kilometers north
of Romagne and suffered over 27,000
casualties. In the next 11 days, the
First Army pushed north another 37
km to reach the edge of Sedan before
the Armistice took effect on 11 November.
While it is impossible to truly
put into perspective the number of
Americans and the difficulty of fighting
in this colossal offensive, the map
on the next page reveals how many
Medals of Honor were awarded over
this month and a half period. In all, a
total of 119 Medals of Honor were
awarded for the First World War.
“Double” Medals of Honor awarded
to marines by the Navy and Army for
the same action – only count as one
award. Out of the 119 total Medals of
Honor for World War One, 53 of
which were awarded for actions in the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive (45%). If
one adds the eight Medals of Honor
earned in the Champagne Offensive in
the area between the Argonne Forest
and Blanc Mont (Sommepy – where
the U.S. Federal Monument is located),
then this brings the total to 61
Medals of Honor (51%). This latter
tally is logical in that this area was
known as the Meuse-Argonne
(Champagne) Offensive and is in the
area of responsibility of the Meuse-
Argonne AC. There may very well
not be another battlefield where so
many Medals of Honor were awarded
(post Civil War) than the horrendous
battle that took place between the east
bank of the Meuse river and the Argonne
forest in the fall of 1918.
Those of you who have visited the
cemetery or know the history may
think of the Lost Battalion (elements
of the 77th ID who were isolated in
their advance when the flank units did
not keep pace, eventually becoming
surrounded by Germans for five
days), or Sergeant York’s heroic exploits
(killing 15 enemy and taking
132 prisoners, portrayed later in a
classic film with Gary Cooper), or the
numerous officers who would later go
on to greater fame in WWII such as
Captain Harry Truman, Colonel
George Marshall, Jr., Colonel Bill
Donavan, Colonel Douglas MacArthur,
and Lt. Col. George Patton, Jr.
(all of whom fought in the Meuse-
Argonne campaign). Of the nine
Medal of Honor recipients buried at
MAAC, Luke Air Force Base is
named after Lt. Frank Luke and the
National Guard training facility Camp
Roberts in Central California is
named after Corporal Harold Roberts.
Corporal Freddie Stowers received the
Medal of Honor in April 1991 after a
Presidential committee was ordered to
re-examine whether discrimination
played a role in military awards. In
fact, Corporal Stowers was the only
black soldier to have been nominated
for the Medal of Honor during the
war. Also buried in the cemetery is
the only Jewish soldier to receive the
Medal of Honor during the war; the
recipient was Sergeant William Sawelson.
Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery
Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France
lated grave. Cpt. Coolidge, nephew of
President Calvin Coolidge, and friend
and former classmate at Groton and Harvard
of Quentin Roosevelt, was killed on
27 October 1918 about 10 km west of
the cemetery. His isolated grave is maintained
by the people of Chièvres.
Sergeant Victor Chapman, Plot D, Row
1, Grave 33, is the only member of the
Lafayette Escadrille to be interred in an
American overseas military cemetery as
a member of this French unit, also
known as the Lafayette Flying Corps.*
This is a very unique and mysterious
burial which still leaves us perplexed
about how the decision was made to
bury Sgt. Chapman in the cemetery. It is
true that Victor Chapman was representative
of the blue-blood idealists – he was
the great-great-great grandson of John
Jay, first U.S. Chief Justice – who volunteered
to fight with the French and British
before the official entry into war by
the U.S. In fact, Chapman volunteered
for the French by first entering the Third
Marching Regiment of the First Foreign
Regiment of the Foreign Legion before
transferring to the Escadrille Américaine
as one of its founding members (the
name was changed soon after to Escadrille
Lafayette following German protests
of American neutrality in 1916).
Chapman was killed flying a non-combat
mission from his base at Behonne, near
Bar-le-Duc, to deliver fresh oranges to
another American pilot at the evacuation
hospital at Vadelaincourt, near Verdun.
Instead of following orders not to fly on
a combat patrol, Chapman followed several
Lafayette pilots to the east bank of
the Meuse and was shot down near
Douaumont, northeast of Verdun on 23
June 1916. (see “The Lafayette Flying
Corps: The American Volunteers in the
French Air Service in World War One”,
by Dennis Gordon)
poses. The only recorded combat death
of a balloonist took place when “Lt.
Cleo J. Ross (8th Balloon Company) . .
. and Lt. Herbert Hudnut were aloft and
attacked by a Fokker D. VII, the balloon
burst into flames. Lt. Ross made
sure that his observer got over the side
safely. He went over the side and after
his parachute deployed, burning fragments
of the balloon fell on the parachute.
Lt. Ross [fell] to his death from
several thousand feet.” The Army Balloon
School at Ross Field, Arcadia,
California was so named after the death
of Lt. Ross, who is buried at MAAC.
(see http://www.militarymuseum.org/
BalloonSch.html)
When one mentions the Code Talkers,
most people immediately think of the
Navajo marines who were instrumental
in the Pacific theater during World War
II. But the original Code Talkers were
fourteen Choctaw soldiers of the 36th
ID who first used their language to defeat
German code breakers in the
Meuse-Argonne (Champagne) Offensive
of October 1918. This highly successful
use of Native American languages
was repeated and expanded in
the Second World War to include Comanche
and, as already mentioned,
Navajo, to compliment the Choctaw
soldiers (see http://www.turtletrack.org/
I s s u e s 0 0 / C o 0 6 0 3 2 0 0 0 /
CO_06032000_Codetalk.htm).
In early October, we had the pleasure of
welcoming to MAAC an American
grandfather, father and son—direct
descendents of a WWI aerial photographer
who took many photos of the
Meuse area around MAAC—after all
three had read, “Echoes of Eagles: A
Son’s Search for his Father and the
Legacy of America’s First Fighter Pilots”,
by Charles Woolley & Bill Crawford.
They made the decision to make
the trip to France and visit the WWI
battlefields after being inspired by the
book and the experience of the greatgrandfather
during the war. One of their
desires was to get out to Chièvres and
see Captain Hamilton Coolidge’s iso-
Looking now at the lesser known history
behind the Meuse-Argonne AC, it is
fitting to examine the soldier that was
selected among the 1,237 unknowns
from the Great War to represent the national
unknown soldier. This decision
followed the British and French ceremonial
burials of an unknown at Buckingham
Palace and the Arc de Triomphe
respectively. On 22 October 1921, one
unknown from four American military
cemeteries (Aisne-Marne, Meuse-
Argonne, Somme and St. Mihiel cemeteries)
was selected from among the unknowns
“which represented the remains
of soldiers of which there was absolutely
not the slightest indication as to name,
rank, organization or date of
death.”(from Quartermaster report that
can be read at: h t t p : / /
w w w . q m f o u n d . c o m /
soldier_unknown.htm) The four unknowns
were disinterred and brought to
the town hall in Châlons-sur-Marne
(today Châlons-en-Champagne) where
they were given full military honors.
One of the pall bearers, Sergeant
Younger – a decorated infantryman -
was asked to place a white rose on one
of the caskets in the town hall. This selected
unknown was then shipped to the
United States aboard the American naval
vessel, the Olympia. The Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier with the selected unknown
remains (he was officially
awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished
Service Cross and the highest
military awards by several allied nations)
was officially inaugurated on 11 November
1921, three years after the end of the
war. The three remaining unknowns
were brought to the Meuse-Argonne AC
and interred in Plot G, Row 1, Grave
numbers 1, 2, and 3 (also from Quartermaster
report).
According to the ABMC book,
“American Armies and Battlefields in
Europe”, 1937 Edition, the American Air
Service of the American Expeditionary
Forces had a total strength of 78,495
men by November 1918, of which a total
of 6,811 were balloonists. There were 23
balloon companies that actually served at
the front, mostly for observation pur-
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,
Arlington National Cemetery
Choctaw soldiers of the 36th ID
Cpt. Hamilton Coolidge’s Headstone
Emblem of
About this entry
You’re currently reading “Request World War I, “Congressional Medal of Honor” and “U.S. Army World War I Victory Medal and Battle Claps (2).”.: Breaking World Financial News and Special Report, “Muese Argonne American Cemetary, “Section E” Pfc. Cornelius J. Conway killed in action, November 3, 1918 Oisne-Aisne Offensive, France”.: “I request the President of The United States of America expedite and award posthumously the, “Congressional Medal of Honor”, and U.S. Army World War I Victory Medal and Battle clasps 1.) Meuse-Argonne, 2.) Oisne-Aisne, to Pfc. Cornelius J. Conway U.S. Army 77th Infantry Division 305th, “Company I”, the “Liberty Brigade” (Metropolitan) N.Y. N.Y., Grave site section E., for answering beyond the call of duty and making the ultimate sacrifice in the face of severe enemy fire and over whelming enemy opposition.”: Request made by; Grand Nephew, Robert E. McCullough B.A., Arch. aka “Captain Democracy”, P.O. Box 332 La Jolla Cove-La Jolla, Calif. 92038,” an entry on Architecture & Environmental Design
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