Syracuse, NY —
Many people over the age of 60 or so can remember when today's holiday was called Armistice Day, instead of Veterans Day. 104-year-old Eugene Lee actually remembers the armistice itself, 85 years ago today. He was in France when World War I came to an end.
WNYC's Fred Mogul went to Syracuse to talk with Lee, one of the oldest living veterans, about that day, and the years before and since.
FM: One of the few things I remember learning about World War I was that in 1918, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the guns fell silent. It never occurred to me I would meet someone who went through that. Eugene Lee had been in France for more than a year at the time of the cease-fire.
Lee: We come there, eleven o'clock, and see the guy walk out, waving a white flag
Our officer went out a little ways there and met him. All those German soldiers come runnin' down the hill, and we got up and met them. We had a time swapping souvenirs with each other.
FM: Lee is something of a celebrity on the nursing home wing at Community General Hospital in Syracuse, where he has lived since March. Many friends come to visit him. So do many recruits, reservists and veterans from the area's military community - and so do others, curious to hear a century's worth of stories, and to learn about The Great War. We are like pilgrims seeking the wisdom of an oracle, except that we want a glimpse of the distant past, instead of the approaching future.
Lee: The Germans was on a big drive and they was headed for Paris, and they rushed us up there. When they got us around there we met the people comin' back, walkin' back. They had dog carts and everything, whatever they could carry.
FM: Lee complains he's too damn old. He's limited to a wheelchair, but he still does many things for himself. He still enjoys Yankees games and cream pies, and he seems to like sharing war stories - even he gets frustrated by his own foggy recollections and needs a little prompting.
Frank Herron: Fred might want to know about Belleau Wood, going into battle and the French retreating Lee: We went in waves. The first wave would go so far and they'd fire in there, just to keep em busy. And the next wave would jump over em. I guess there was about four waves until we reached the woods until, that's when [sobs]
FM: Lee won a Silver Star for saving wounded comrades during Belleau Wood, a decisive battle in the spring of 1918, but he doesn't volunteer that information. I asked him why he wanted to join the Marines and fight in a war many Americans thought should be left to the Europeans to sort out. But at age 104, Lee talks about what he knows, and the answers don't always match the questions.
Lee: I became 18 just in time, so that I, well, I always thought a lot of the Marines, so that's when I went out and enlisted right away.
FM: Lee was in the first wave of enlistees, when the U.S. entered the war in 1917. And he almost didn't make it to Armistice Day. On the night of November 10, his unit was shelled during an advance that turned out to be unnecessary.
Lee: We crossed the river at night, Nov. the 10th, and laid along the bank. One of my best friends was killed the last night
FM: I wanted to ask Lee more -- about trenches and gas masks and going AWOL, about parading with General Pershing, about how The War to End All Wars didn't. But after more than an hour of talking, he was tired. He said his memory was all balled up. I asked him if, in the decades after the war, Armistice Day ever brought back painful memories -- or gave him pause, to reflect on his survival, or the nature of war and peace. Well, Lee said, We were always just happy to have the day off.
