Oregon's last World War I veteran dies

Corporal Howard V. Ramsey:A World War I Veteran Living in the 21st Centuryby John O. AndersenFebruary 5, 2001
Tonight we have a very special man in our midst. On January 1st of this year, Howard Verne Ramsey had officially lived in three centuries--the 19th, 20th, and now the 21st! As a surviving veteran of the first World War, over 82 years after it ended, Howard is also rare. Of the two million Americans who fought in France during that conflict, today less than 500 are still with us. In other words, 1 in 4,000!
World War One has been called the "war to end all wars." Sixteen countries sent troops to fight in what became one of the bloodiest chapters in human history. Over 8.5 million soldiers and sailors lost their lives in that conflict. To put this in perspective: if you count the population of the 4 counties in the Portland, Oregon metro area (Clark, Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas) you get a total of around 1.7 million people. Multiply that by 5, and the result is 8.5 million, the total killed in World War I-- a staggering number!
When Howard was born in 1898, William McKinley, was president of the United States and Victoria was queen of England. When Howard was five, Wilbur and Orville Wright made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk.
Nineteen U.S. presidents have served during his lifetime. Howard's favorite is Teddy Roosevelt. His boyhood fascination with Roosevelt and the Rough Riders revealed itself in the stories and illustrations Howard created. To this day, he still has some of those early stories and cartoons.
In 1916, while attending Washington High School in Portland, Howard joined the Oregon Naval Militia. He trained weekly aboard the USS Boston which was docked on the Willamette just south of the Broadway Bridge. The Boston, a 21-gun cruiser, had been part of Admiral Dewey's task force which defeated the Spanish Pacific Fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898.
On July 15, 1916, Howard sailed with a crew of 300 on a 17 day cruise to Sitka, Alaska aboard the coal-powered cruiser, the USS Marblehead. Howard, who attained the rank of coxswain, recalls a very rough voyage. A member of the ship's high school division, he performed a variety of duties which included sweeping the deck, cleaning the crews' quarters, and assisting in the ship's coal bunker and fireroom.
Not long after that cruise, Howard left the naval militia to move with his parents to Salt Lake City. When he arrived, he took a job as a driver for a transportation company. For the next two years he became proficient in driving taxis, ambulances, and even a sightseeing bus.
When he wasn't driving, he was often dancing at the Saltair Resort on the Great Salt Lake. Saltair, once dubbed the "Coney Island of the West," boasted one of the world's largest dance floors. Howard and his partner were excellent dancers. He recalls the two of them performing on the dance floor to the applause of many spectators.
During the Spring of 1917, America's isolationist stance finally came to an end as German U-boats resumed their attacks on allied shipping. In April, the U.S. declared war on Germany. Over the next year, America rose to the challenge and by the Fall of 1918, had stationed 2 million soldiers in France.
Howard's skill as a driver was very much in demand particularly when relatively few could drive. It was in fact his ticket into the army when he volunteered in June 1918. Had he not been a proficient driver, he would have been sent home and told to wait for the draft. After June 1918, most of those drafted never saw action in France.
When they first attempted to enlist, Howard and a friend were rejected because they were underweight. Not to be deterred, they stuffed their bellies with bananas and drinking water. On the second try, they met the weight standard.
After a couple of weeks at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, Howard was sent to Camp Holabird in Baltimore, Maryland where he was assigned to Company C of the 302nd Water Tank Train; a unit designated to supply water via motorized tank trucks to troops on the Western Front. Camp Holabird was the staging camp for motor transport corps en route to France. Trucks and spare parts were sent there from a variety of manufacturers. At Holabird, they would be stored, crated, and later shipped to France. Camp Holabird was also a training center for mechanics.
Howard spent just over two months there before heading to Camp Upton, Long Island, a troop staging camp for units immediately prior to going overseas.
On September 29, 1918, Howard and his unit sailed from Hoboken, New Jersey aboard the troop ship Leviathan. They arrived in France 8 days later. The Leviathan, formerly the German liner Vaterland, was the world's largest passenger liner at the time it was constructed in 1913. When America entered the war in 1917, the Vaterland which had been anchored in Hoboken for some time, was seized by the U.S. Government, and converted into a troop ship. Widely recognized for her massive size and zebra camouflage stripes, the Leviathan transported more soldiers to and from France than any other troop ship.
During Howard's crossing, the Leviathan was part of a convoy of troop ships carrying a total of 24,000 soldiers. Tragically, this passage occurred during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-19. Two hundred of the 24,000 soldiers died during the passage, and another 200 from Howard's ship died within a few days of arriving in France.
Luckily, Howard remained healthy throughout the passage, and immediately after landing in France, was sent to Commercy. Although his unit's primary mission was to transport water to soldiers on the front, Howard was selected to chauffeur officers from place to place.
In Howard's papers, I found a receipt for a truck he was issued on November 26, 1918. Along with the vehicle, he received an array of tools and related items. These reveal just how much more know-how was involved in operating a motor vehicle back then. It wasn't just turn the key and step on the gas pedal. The list included a tube casing & rim, tube, skid chains, galvanized iron buckets, funnels, a jack, spare hubcap, oil can, pump hose, grease gun, and a tool roll with screwdrivers, a hammer, a file, pliers, tube repair kit, and an assortment of monkey wrenches.
Commercy was a motor transport center for the American Expeditionary Forces. For five months, Howard shared a room in Commercy's Chateau Stanislas. His driving duties, however, frequently took him away for extended periods. During his nearly ten months in Europe he visited a variety of cities including Toul, Monte Carlo, Grenoble, Lyon, Nancy, Argonne, Paris, Dijon, Verdun, Esch in Luxembourg, Nice, and Monaco.
While on the road, Howard remembers frequent stops at Red Cross stations which would provide showers and clean underwear for soldiers. During the war, the American Red Cross operated 22 canteens close to the Western Front. Additionally, nearly 9,000 American Red Cross nurses served in France at that time.
After the armistice in November 1918, Howard was assigned to remove war dead from temporary graves on the front and inter them in a permanent cemetery. The results of his and many other's efforts became the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, which today is the largest American cemetery in Europe with 14,246 soldiers buried there. Most of them lost their lives in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in what turned out to be the final weeks of the war.
Howard's unit returned to the States during the summer of 1919 aboard the F.J. Luckenbach, a ship originally designed to transport horses, mules, and cargo. When the war ended, it was converted into a troop ship to bring the soldiers home.
Recently, while sifting through Howard's file at the Oregon Military Museum, I happened upon a small pamphlet he received in 1919 on his return voyage to the United States. It's titled: "To the Homeward-Bound Americans" by E. Van Vorst. What particularly struck me were these words on the final page:
"You have taken part in the greatest adventure upon which humanity has so far ever been launched. You have seen your friends fall by your side, you have, yourselves, perhaps, been face to face with death.
Your contact with men of many nations, your journey in foreign lands, the discipline you have accepted, the close association with Americans from every state in the country, will have inevitably changed your point of view. It has been said that you came into the war as crusaders. When you reach home, you will take up your work in the same spirit."
Howard opposes war perhaps even more than those of us who've never fought in one. Yet, when his country needed him, he jumped in and did what was necessary. That spirit of selfless service carried over into his family life, career, and community involvement. It has been a hallmark of his life.
We would all do well to be more like that.
Addendum: Howard V. Ramsey passed away on February 22, 2007 at the age of 108. He was the final World War I veteran in Oregon at the time of his passing.