1917
June 5: Registers for the Military in Cortez, Colorado.
July 10: First day in Military
September 27-29: Las Cruces, New Mexico: Dona Ana County Fair
September 30: Camp Baker, El Paso, Texas
October 5: Las Cruces, New Mexico
October 7: Camp Baker, El Paso, Texas
November 24: Left El Paso, Texas at 1:30 p.m. On Train headed east in Texas
November 24: 1:30 p.m. El Paso, Texas;
November 25: 11:00 a.m. San Antonio, Texas
November 25-28: Atlanta, Georgia; North & South Carolina; Virginia;
November 28: Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia
November 29: 14 miles outside New York in Barracks.
December 5 – 27: U.S.S. Huron across the Atlantic to France
1918
March 30: France: At the front in a dugout
April 5(?)France: Helps bury three German soldiers
April 8: France: At the front
May 12: First Mother’s Day letter (title of the book comes from this letter)
June ?: France: Gets button from German pilot who was shot down.
June 7-9(?): 48 hrs at the Front/”difficult” & “exciting conditions”
June 11: France: Back from the front a couple days ago.
July 11: France: Watches French Farmers harvest grain.
August 6: St. Nicholas, France
August 18: In France
October 4: Wounded, shrapnel in lower left leg above ankle.
October 8: American Red Cross Hospital, No. 5 in Paris.
Nov. 12: American Red Cross Hospital, No. 5 in Paris, 20 minutes from Central Paris. In the hospital seven weeks, October 4 – November 24.
Nov. 28 (Thanksgiving): On a boxcar headed for St. Dizier, 200 miles east of Paris.
Dec. 25 (Christmas): On a boxcar bound for Germany
December 29: Back with Company in Engers, Germany.
1919
Feb. 8: Engers on the Rhein, Germany
March 26: Engers, Germany
May 11: 2nd Mother’s Day letter (contains one the most poignant passages in the book)
May 18: Puderbach, Germany
July 2: Sayn, Germany
July 10: Sayn, Germany, getting ready to entrain to Brest, France
July 10? – August 3: Brest, France, departure point for home.
August 3-9: Trip home to America on U.S.S. Imperator
August 24: Honorably discharged from the Army