336 O’Donnell Voiceover: This program is sponsored by Grove Atlantic. (Theme music) Voiceover: The following is a production of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. Bringing citizens and citizen soldiers together through the exploration of military history, topics, and current affairs, this is Pritzker Military Presents. (Applause) Williams: Welcome to Pritzker Military Presents with author Patrick K. O’Donnell discussing his book The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home. I’m your host Jay Williams, and this program is coming to you from the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in downtown Chicago and is sponsored by Grove Atlantic Press. This program and hundreds more are available on demand at PritzkerMilitary.org. On Armistice Day 1921 the remains of an unknown American soldier who had fought and died in France during the First World War were reinterred at a new memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. While the monument only held the remains of one soldier, he represented the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers who had given their lives during WWI but whose identities were never known. To bear the body from the Capitol to Arlington National Cemetery, General John Pershing, leader of the American Expeditionary Force in France, selected eight of the most decorated men who had served in the war. Together, they represented the story of America’s role in the Great War, much as the Unknown Soldier continues to do. In his book The Unknowns, Patrick O’Donnell examines the lives and service of those eight men in order to tell the larger story of American service in WWI. These include a cowboy who relived the charge of the light brigade; an American Indian who heroically breached mountains of German barbed wire and captured more than sixty Germans; a salty New Englander who dueled a U-boat for hours in a fierce gunfight; and a tough New Yorker who sacrificed his body to save his ship. The backgrounds and sacrifices of the eight body bearers revealed an America that was diverse, courageous, and indomitable. This distinct American spirit would continue to shape global events throughout the twentieth century and beyond. O'Donnell illuminates the saga behind the creation of the monument and enlivens the story of the tomb by giving voice to those who served. Bringing together exhaustive research and captivating narrative, O'Donnell crafts a timeless tale about answering the calls of duty, courage, and brotherhood. Through the stories of these eight men, O’Donnell humanizes the First World War, the most influential event of the early twentieth century, and evaluates the shadow its legacy continues to cast upon all our lives. Patrick K. O’Donnell is a best selling military historian and an expert on elite units. He is the author of eleven books, including Washington's Immortals, We Were One, and Dog Company. He is also the recipient of several national awards. He served as a combat historian in a marine rifle platoon during the battle of Fallujah. Today he speaks as an expert on espionage, special operations, and counterinsurgency. He provided historical consulting for DreamWorks' award- winning miniseries Band of Brothers and for documentaries produced by the BBC, the History Channel, Fox News, and Discovery. Please join me in welcoming Patrick O'Donnell back to the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. (Applause) O’Donnell: Thank you. It's good to be home. I’ve been coming to the Pritzker since it opened up, and it's always special to come back and talk about my latest project, The Unknowns. I was in a cab today, and I went around to the various Barnes and Nobles here in Chicago and signed books. The cab driver asked me, "How do you find your stories?" And I told him, "The stories find me." And that's not cliché at all. The Unknowns is no different. I mean, with Washington’s Immortals I found a rusted sign that said, "Here lie 256 Continental Soldiers, Maryland Heroes," and I wanted to know the backstory behind that sign. With We Were One, for some reason I was put in the platoon that had the most casualties during the Battle of Fallujah. The story found me. Give Me Tomorrow--it's a book on the Korean War. When I came back from Fallujah I asked my parents not to come. The men that asked me if I wanted a ride to the train station were marines from the 1950s that told me that they had--they had held a hill against all odds in the Chosen Reservoir, and that was We Are One. And with The Unknowns, it's sort of related to Fallujah in one way or another. I was asked by the battalion commander of Fallujah to give a guided tour for his marines in France, and I gave them a guided tour of Normandy and the various landing points—Sainte-Mere-Eglise. But then we went to Belleau Wood, and at Belleau Wood, exactly one hundred years ago to this day the Marine Corps in the Second Division, the army, saved Paris from a major German drive. And as we were walking around the shell holes and craters in Belleau Wood, some of which they could bury a small house, the trees in Belleau Wood still contain mustard gas from shells that are lodged in there. The world’s moved on, but Belleau Wood is still locked in WWI. And we were there with men that I was in Fallujah with, and it was kind of this meeting of generations. It was the Fallujah generation, and it was the WWI generation. And it was there that I realized, it's like today's generation is a forgotten generation and so was the generation that won WWI. That WWI generation is the generation that changed the world; they remade our world. It was a generation that changed everything, and it was WWI that the former Ottoman Empire, which all of the marines that I was with impacted. It was a place that almost killed us. And it was that sort of realization that I wanted to tell that story. And as we walked around, we walked to a place called Hill 142, which was a key inflection point in the Battle of Belleau Wood. And on 142, it was sort of the high ground--it was the highest ground at Belleau Wood. And here the 49th company, which is a band of brothers of this book the Unknowns--I tell their whole story through the war. This book is multiple stories within one story. It’s the story of the Unknown Soldier, it's the story of the body bearers, it's the story of the 49th company, it's also the story of the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI. And in 1918 the 49th company on June 6th, sort of WWI's D-Day if you will--was charging through the week. They were facing incredible machine gun fire from maxims. Many men were dropping, but they kept going. And they had to--their objective was Hill 142, which was held by a battalion of Germans. And this small company believe it or not was able to dislodge them. They were also--they held the hill, and they braced for a counterattack, which they knew was gonna come within twenty or thirty minutes. After they captured the hill they dug in as quickly as they could, and Ernest August Janson, who is a body bearer in this book--he's one of the main characters in this book--was in his shallow fighting hole, and he heard the thud of a grenade, and the Germans were screaming—they’re charging the hill. But off in the distance in his per-view he could see several Stalheim camouflage helmets, and German machine gunners were setting up their maxims. They were about ready to sweep Hill 142, but Janson let out a war cry and charged at those machine gunners and disrupted what would have been a fatal attack on Hill 142. The rest of the 49th company and other elements were able to then charge that position and secure the hill. In the process he was very badly wounded. As I was with the marines, it was found out that Janson was the first Medal of Honor for the Marine Corps in WWI. He was also, what I found out, was a body bearer for the Unknown Soldier. And I was--what's a body bearer? A body bearer is someone who actually physically returns the remains or carries them. But I found out that General Pershing personally selected him. And I wanted to know who the others were--who the other men were. There might be a story there. And that began my quest, which started in 2010. I went back to France three times with the marines, first with the 5th Marines, and then with the Wounded Warrior regiment. And I started to develop the story. And it’s an extraordinary story. It’s a story of not only, as I mentioned, our greatest war memorial, which is largely an unknown story, it's a story of the man who selected the Unknown, who's a Chicagoan--also an unknown story. It’s a story of these eight men who General Pershing selected, and it's a story of the AEF. And general Pershing was very careful to select eight men from three of the branches of service--the Army, the Marine Corps, and the Navy--but also combat specializations within that--those groups.