This Memorial Day Weekend, there was one particular veteran who I sought to remember and honor. I have been researching the life and service of Thomas Wesley Agnew, class of 1920, since the winter. I chose to follow Thomas’s story because he was a volunteer in one of two Bucknell ambulance units that served in Europe. Furthermore, Thomas had graduated exactly 100 years before my expected graduation in 2020, a fact that made him seem more “real” to me. Over the past two days, we have visited two locations where Thomas served. The first was located in Samongneux, where French villagers were evacuated […]

Unless one has a completely cold heart, it is difficult not to feel overwhelmed by what the Bucknellians in World War I group encountered today in what was an emotionally overwhelming series of visits to places of memory and remembrance. We ended our day emotionally exhausted and physically tired, with the fortune of our good hosts at the wonderful Le Cheval Rouge hotel in Sainte-Ménehould to help us recover over a dinner of camaraderie, lots of water, and profiteroles. As others have noted, we began our day at the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, where we observed the Memorial Day ceremonies. Speeches, taps, […]

In honor of Memorial Day, the Bucknellians in World War I team visited the Meuse-Argonne American cemetery to attend a special ceremony and visit the graves of two Bucknell veterans who rest there. Despite the heat, there was a surprisingly good turn out of both French and American attendees. The ceremony, performed in both French and English, featured invocations, blessings, and addresses from numerous public figures, including the Chargé d’Affaires at the American embassy in Paris, Ms. Uzra Zeya. The most moving part of the ceremony was, in my opinion, the playing of Taps and the National Anthems for both the United States and […]

This afternoon our guide, Dr. Thomson, took us to Vauquois, a rural French village on a hill turned World War I battle site. Dr. Thomson explained to us that the hill had originally held a small community, but the desolation caused by artillery shells, mining, and trench building caused the hill to significantly shorten and become too dangerous for habitation. Because it was in close proximity to the Argonne Forest and relatively accessible, Vauquois was a combat site for the entirety of the war. When the mobility of the early 1914 battles gave way to the permanence of trench warfare, […]

Today, in scorching heat, our team hiked approximately two miles to St. Hubert’s Pavilion in the Argonne Forest. This forest was the site of a major offensive for the American forces and one of Bucknell’s own, Dwite Schaffner, received the Medal of Honor there. The forest is still too dangerous to enter unless you stick to the designated paths because of the many grenades and artillery shells that remain in the ground nearly one hundred years later. Because of this, the forest is largely untouched and unused, giving it a uniquely tranquil quality. It is hard to imagine a large-scale […]

We had a fantastic day today during our visit to the Katherine Baker (1892) Pavilion at the Les Pléiades campus of the Henri Rollet Foundation, which protects and educates in-danger young women. Others will address this visit, but I was honored by our hosts and proud of our mature and engaged students Amy Collins, Julia Stevens, Steven Carita, AJ Paollela, and Dante Fresse! I share with you a new film produced by the American Battlefield Memorial Commission, which addresses the war overall and the Meuse-Argonne cemetery in particular. We will visit Bucknell fallen alumni veterans Charles O’Brien (’09) at the […]