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Reflections on WWI and Vets' Fight

By VVAW

(The following interview was done by THE VETERAN with Preston Silder, a VVAW member in Chicago and a Black veteran of World War I. As a member of the all-Black 92nd Division, Preston was in France at the time of the Armistice, November 11, 1918 (which was declared as Armistice Day, later changed to Veterans Day). The interview, of which we are reprinting only a part, deals both with the way that Black soldiers were used during World War I and how they were thrown away once the war was over.)

THE VET: Tell me about where you were from—what were you doing when you went into the army?

Preston: Well, I was inducted into the army from Chicago. The 365th Infantry (regiment), in Camp Grant. I went from Camp Grant to World War I by way of Long Island. We went from Long Island on the British ship "The Olympia." We landed in Brest, France, in 1918. And from there we went on out to a little place—can't thing of the name—and from there to Metz in the Argonne Forest.

The Americans lost 1 division up there—they couldn't take it. So the 92nd Division was pulled up there—known as "The Buffalo Division"—all colored. We went up there in the Argonne Forest sector and we took that Argonne Forest sector. We had about 10 miles of soldiers—3 abreast. We went over with 258 men in my company and only 105 got back. The 367th and 368 (regiments, other regiments in the division) all got wiped out up there completely. But we busted the German line, the "Toul" line...(Armistice Day, 1918)

So the General told us the Armistice was going to be signed the 10th—November 10th, 1918. (Just before the Armistice) them shells were falling on them boys like showers of rain. And so finally they quit shelling. I came back on top (of the trench) and another boy was lying there. I looked at my watch. I said we got ten more minutes before the whistle blows (signifying the Armistice).

So that boy was standing up the parapet in the trenches. Me and him were standing there talking. I happened to turn my head around and a big shell came right by me just like that! And I went to duck and I told the boy, I said, "Duck!" When I ducked and then I got up and looked and his head was laying over here and his body down there. I said "Oh my God, look at here," and before I got done talking, the whistle was blowing.

And them Germans jumped up all around me. I was right in a nest of them and didn't know it because we were in high sage grass. And those Germans jumped and patted me on the shoulder and said "Wake up Sergeant." I was just trembling and I said, "What'd you say?"...

We stripped buttons off one another for souvenirs and changed helmets and all that.

THE VET: You mean you had to take this action even though everyone know the war was going to end the next day?

Preston: That's right. They knew the Armistice was going to be signed tomorrow.

THE VET: Did you talk to a lot of German soldiers?

Preston: Oh yeah. I talked to a lot of them after the Armistice, son.

THE VET: what did they think about the war?

Preston: They said the war was no good. Those boys that got captured. Those Germans asked us, "What are you all fighting for? This is a white man's war." I said, "We got to go by our government." He said "We ain't fighting you all. We got no grievance against the Black man. This is a white man's war..." And those Germans said, "We all are just like you. They say fight. We got to fight. But we don't want to fight."

And all those colored boys that got captured in Metz—they said "Man, I don't care if the war never ends. We were living like kings. Those white boys were painting their faces black... The Germans weren't hard on none of them Black soldiers.

THE VET: were the units completely segregated?

Preston: They were segregated in the Unite States. We had only one colored division in the U.S. That was our 92nd Division. It was built up out of nothing but colored. Everything in the 92nd Division was colored but from major to the general—they were all white.

THE VET: What did you think of the war at the time you were fighting it?

Preston: we didn't know nothing about it until after we got out and we came back and saw how they treated us. Then we knew that the war was nothing. When old Hoover got in there and then the soldiers marched down Washington, DC, for the pension—bonus—they threw gas on them...

(During the fight campaign of the 92nd Division, Preston was hit in the knee by Sharpnel; despite a swollen knee, he was sent back to the front. As vets from wars both before and after World War I have discovered, we are "used once and then thrown away.")

THE VET: What did the government do for your knee after the war?

Preston: Nothing. Nothing. Ain't don't a doggone thing. I've been fighting for it since 1922. And he told me you only got ten % disability.

THE VET: That was in 1922 they told you that?

Preston: Yeah. And they told me that up until now.

THE VET: Was that the V.A. that told you that?

Preston: Yeah. Ever since I've been going there it's been 10%, 10%, 10%. And out at Hines (a Chicago V.A. hospital) 40 some years ago they told me that it set into the marrow of your bones from that wounded knee.

THE VET: That's arthritis.

Preston: This is arthritis. It's in the marrow of your bones. Comes from the wounded knee. The doctor showed me and x-ray of it. Just like spider webs, moved up from the knee.

THE VET: This was 40 years ago?

Preston: Forty-five years ago. The doctor said there's no way in the world I could get rid of it. Just have to live with it. I've been fighting here since '22. And that doctor at Hones told me that if I could get it through, the yare supposed to pay me back from 1922 to the present time.

THE VET: At what rate? 10%?

Preston: No, he said I'm worse than 10%, but they wont give me more than 10%.

Preston: No. not until I jumped on Metcalfe (a Chicago Congressman). Metcalfe must have told them, "Give him a little something to keep his mouth closes."

They gave me my disability check—$35. I carried it back over there and I threw it in the supervisor's face and said, "you take this check and stick it you know where!" He said keep the check. There was a mistake. They gave you 10% from your knee down. This is from my knee up. He said you're supposed to get 40% from your knee to your hip. He said "File it back again and keep the check."

Later I went back and told them. "If you pay me 10%, then pay me my back pay from 1922 up til now and I'll accept the $35." That's what I'm fighting for now. If they can pay me 10% now they should have paid it from back then. I'm getting $44 now. I told them "I'm not fighting for the big money (the 40%) from back then. Just pay me my 10% from '22 up til now."

THE VET: What did they say?

Preston: I ain't heard from them.

THE VET: So, in other words, the V.A., by giving you the money has admitted that you deserved the money for your wound.

Preston: Yeah. But they haven't paid the back pay.

THE VET: You applied in 1922?

Preston: 1922.

THE VET: So they haven't paid you anything from 1922 until 1970 what?

Preston: 1976.

THE VET: So it took you 54 years to get your first payment?

Preston: Yeah. And now I'm fighting to get that back payment...

If there's something wrong with a person why don't they be truthful and tell it? Uncle Sam's got oodles of money.

There's Nixon there. He put the whole world in a cramp. We take him out of the White house and then they pay him a pension. Up into the thousands. I'm fighting for a penny. Can't even get a penny.

Then a war breaks out and he comes and grabs these young boys. Millions of young boys. Disfigures. No legs. No eyes. No arms. 19-year-old kids. Mess their lives up before they get any consolation out of their lives. They throw it back in society.

They put that doghead Nixon up there. Put all his men in prison and he's up there getting thousands and thousands of dollars. For what? For putting the world in a cramp. Why don't they pay me my penny?

They told me at Hines that you're entitled to every nickel but you've got to fight before you get anything, brother.

It's a shame the way this country treats its soldiers. And then when a war breaks out, who wins it for them? And when you come back, instead of thank you, kiss you and shake your hand, and give you what you've got coming to you, they kick you in the butt and say, "Get behind!"