Letter to the Editor:
Veteran’s Day brings back a lot of memories of the older vets I knew when I was a young child. It seemed like they were old men. However, in years many of them may not have been 60 years old.
These vets had seen service in WWI (the Great War to End all Wars). They had seen a lot of action and very bad things happening. Many of the vets had been wounded and/or gassed on the battlefield. This war saw the first use of airplanes and motorized vehicles in the military.
Montana had a very large volunteer enlistment; Montana had the highest per capita enlistment in WWI. Many were loggers, cowboys, miners, and businesspeople. On the battlefield, the cry of “Powder River Let’er Buck” was heard often. How this was started no one knows but it was popular. Quite a few researchers have tried to find how it got started.
When the vets got home, they went back to their homesteads, mining, etc. Also, some of them went to college.
The WWI vets I knew as a child were good neighbors. They worked hard, were usually fairly quiet, had senses of humor, and very supportive of the WWII vets getting home.
Pat Hanlan
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