WWI and Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach and World War I

World War I started on July 28, 1914 as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.  The United States did not enter the war until April 16, 2017.  Germany signed the armistice on November 11, 1918 effectively ending World War I.

Over 4.7 million men and women served in the regular U.S. forces, national guard units, and draft units. There were 53,402 killed in action, 63,114 deaths from disease and other causes, and about 205,000 wounded.  “over 25 per cent of the entire male population of the country between the ages of 18 and 31 were in military service.”
sources: https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/fall/military-service-in-world-war-one.html  and https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/World_War_I_United_States_Military_Records,_1917_to_1918

The 1973 fire destroyed U.S. Army personnel records created from 1912 to 1963, but it did not damage U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps personnel files. While the fire left a tremendous gap in locating personnel information, the gap may be partially filled in through other extant records. This issue of “Genealogy Notes” goes beyond the scope of the previous articles by exploring a selection of the vast number of additional World War I records in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These records often provide clues to personnel serving in a variety of capacities in the U.S. Army during World War I. Conducting research in the records described in this article is sometimes a very labor-intensive and time-consuming procedure.

Harry M. (Cap) Sheue was a World War I veteran and former athletics director and coach at Huntington Beach High School.  He was inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame.

Joseph L. Rodman and Forrest B. Turner are Huntington Beach veterans of World War I who gave their lives and are listed on the Veterans Memorial at the Civic Center.

Most of those serving from Southern California and Orange County were in the 40th Division.

The Seventh Infantry Regiment, California National Guard ·was called into Federal Service March 26, 1917.  The troops assembled at the Mobilization Camp, Arcadia, California, and mustered into United States Army.

On October 14, 1917, the Seventh Infantry was consolidated with the Second Battalion and Companies L an of the Second Infantry Regiment, California National Guard, and was officially redesignated the 160th Infantry Regiment, 40th Division.

Source: http://militarymuseum.org/CNG%20%26%20CNM%20in%20WWI%2C%201917-1919.pdf  page 61.

As patriotic groups got together, they hoisted a flag containing the names of those in service on it.  It seems to have been a permanent thing which was shared between them and with the city.  Huntington Beach was the enlistment point for several surrounding “communities” and men from these places were named on the flag.  

Armistice Day 1923 Huntington Beach (photos from city website).