Today was a special Veterans Day as it was 100 years ago today that WWI came to an end.

Because of the special significance of it being 100 years ago I decided to share this picture of my Great Grandfather’s first cousin Warren Van Duzor.

I really like the uniforms from World War I, especially the hat.

I do not know much about his service but do know what company he served with.

Warren served as a Private First Class in Company E of the 168th Infantry Regiment during WWI.

The regiment went into service in August 1917 and was sent to the Western Front in France.

The 168th Infantry Regiment which was also known as the Third Iowa served at Marne, Aisne, St. Mihiel, the Argonne Forest, Lorraine and Champagne.

The regiment was taking part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive at the time the war ended on November 11th, 1918.

Warren was from Coin, Iowa which is in the Southwest corner of the state and where my Great Grandfather also lived. I can imagine the family looking at the papers every day to see what was happening in Europe. Would they have known exactly where Warren was?

I found this picture of an Omaha Daily Bee front page on a site selling old newspapers (Rare Newspapers) and it may have been what my family would have seen since they lived not far from Omaha.

They may have seen the same articles in a Des Moines paper or a rival Omaha paper.

It is more likely that they saw a paper from Omaha as they were about 70 miles away from Coin versus 140 miles for Des Moines.

I hope that you took time today to remember the Veterans that have helped preserve our freedom.

Steven