CAPE GIRARDEAU VETERANS HOME WILL HONOR WORLD WAR I SURVIVORS

"Over hill, over dale, as we hit the dusty trail, and the caissons go rolling along."

Elves "Hap" Goodman didn't think much of pickin' cotton, so he joined the Army.

That was in 1916. Goodman, then 20, was assigned to the horse-drawn field artillery with its howitzers and caissons. He earned $12 a month.

Bennett J. "Ben" Crites -- who grew up in the Hilderbrand area of Bollinger County -- left home and joined the Marines. He was 18 and ready to fight. "I just ran out and enlisted," he recalled.

Both Goodman, 99, and Crites, 94, are among nine World War I veterans who will be honored at a special ceremony Sunday at the Cape Girardeau Veterans Home.

Five of those veterans live at the home: Roy Gill, 97, and Clem Walker, 96, both Army veterans; Wiley Macke, 94, a Navy veteran; and Goodman and Crites.

Four other World War I veterans from the region are expected to attend the 2 p.m. ceremony, home officials said Friday. The four are: George Vandeven of Cape Girardeau, Pertle Probst of Jackson, John Isaiah Farris of the Farmington area, and Ruel Swank of the Charleston area.

The local ceremony is part of a nationwide effort to locate and recognize the estimated 40,000 surviving World War I veterans in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the ending of "the war to end all wars" in 1918, officials said.

Brig. Gen. Ronald A. Hoppes of the adjutant general's office of the Missouri Army National Guard will be the featured speaker.

Nationwide, World War I veterans are being honored with commemorative medals.

At Sunday's ceremony, Hoppes will present medals to the five honored residents of the Veterans Home. The medals were obtained by the home.

It's up to the area veterans organizations to make application for medals for World War I veterans who are not living at the home, officials said.

"We feel this is probably one of the last chances to do something significant for World War I veterans," said Sam McVay, administrator of the home.

"We're scarce," agreed Goodman.

Nationwide, the average age of World War I veterans today is 96. The number of such veterans decreases at the rate of 25 a day, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

In all, 4.7 million Americans participated in military service during World War I; 116,500 died in service, about 53,400 of them in battles. More than 200,000 Americans were wounded in action.

Goodman was born in Carmi, Ill., on May 26, 1894. Goodman was living in Malden when he decided to enlist.

"I was 22 years old when I enlisted," he recalled. Goodman said he enlisted because there was "nothing to do down there (in Malden)" except pick cotton.

"I just figured there might be something a little better for me if I joined the Army," he said.

"I enlisted in the cavalry," said Goodman, who was initially sent to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis for training. However, he soon transferred to a field artillery unit.

He spent time at Fort Bliss in Texas and at Fort Sill, Okla. "I was in the border patrol down at Fort Bliss," which is near El Paso.

Goodman said troops set up a 3-inch field gun on top of a hotel. The gun was aimed at the nearby Mexican border.

When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Goodman was made a drill sergeant. He was sent to Long Island, N.Y., "to train the boys" who had been drafted. He taught them how to fire a 3-inch gun.

How far the shells traveled depended on how much gunpowder was used, said Goodman.

"All we did was just fire the gun," he recalled.

"The gun we used was made in Germany," said Goodman. "But they didn't use it over there in the fighting. They used a French gun. The Germans knew more about this gun than we did."

It took a team of six horses to pull one of the artillery guns and a like number to pull the ammunition wagon, said Goodman.

Goodman returned to civilian life in 1920. He moved to what was then Illmo, now Scott City. He worked for the Cotton Belt Railroad for 40 years, retiring in 1960.

Crites joined the Marines because, he said, no parental consent was required.

He trained at Paris Island, S.C. "It was pretty rough," said Crites. "But I was just a kid. I didn't worry about anything," he recalled. "I wanted to go places and see things and I did."

Crites served in France during the war. "You did what they told you," said Crites, who returned to Bollinger County and the family farm after the war.

Both Crites and Goodman said they're looking forward to Sunday's ceremony and a salute from a general.