September 26, 2021 Gold Star Mother

Suppose you were to stop 100 randomly selected individuals on the street, and ask them:  

“Of all the conflicts in American military history, which single battle accounts for the greatest loss of life“.  

I suppose you’d get a few Gettysburgs in there, and maybe an Antietam or two.  The Battle of the Bulge would come up, for sure, and there’s bound to be a Tarawa or an Iwo Jima. Maybe a Normandy. 

I wonder how many would answer,Meuse-Argonne.

The United States arrived late to the “War End all Wars”, entering the conflict in April 1917 when President Woodrow Wilson asked permission of the Congress, for a declaration of war against Imperial Germany. American troop levels “over there” remained small throughout 1917, as the formerly neutral nation of fifty million ramped up to a war footing.

The trickle…