Dakota Doughboy
by Marvin Baker
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Dakota Doughboy
The Otto Ihringer Story
Otto Ihringer enlisted to fight for the United States in World War I because he felt it was his duty to enlist in the American Army and join the allies in “the war to end all wars.”
In March of 1999, Otto Ihringer was presented the Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honor Award from the French Government. He served in the Battle of St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne offensive in France in the fall of 1918. These are two of the worst battles ever recorded in human warfare. Jean-Pierre Tutin, deputy consul general of France, presented the award and personally expressed his thanks. “The French people will never forget the sacrifice you and the other veterans made.”
Reading his story, I realized how quickly my education skipped over World War One. We studied the Revolutionary War, at least in some way, almost every school year. Then the history class would fast forward to the Civil War, which often leads directly into World War Two. My college history classes included Ancient Greece and Rome, the Westward Expansion…and both the Revolutionary and the Civil Wars.
There is a solid introduction at the beginning of this book about the events that led up to World War I. There is a great deal of information on the battles and events of WWI, made more real as we are seeing them through Ihringer’s eyes.
My own grandfather fought in WWI, but he never talked about it. I do know that he also went through his initial indoctrination at Camp Dodge, Iowa.
Their Army training was done quickly. On April 29, 1918, Ihringer left Carrington for Camp Dodge. On June 20, he left New York on a boat headed for France.
A month after the Armistice was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Ihringer was sent into Germany to be part of the Allied Occupation Force that would protect western Europe and see that Germany held up their end of the agreement.
In his later years, Ihringer gave talks in classrooms about his time in the trenches and his time after the war with the American Occupation Force in Germany.
He continued speaking in classrooms into his 90s, telling of his adventures. His daughter said he told of his experiences in story form, which kept the children more attentive while he was speaking. He did not talk of the gruesome details, his daughter said. He wanted to be sure the children all knew about the Great War and the effects it had on the United States.
Spoiler alert : the War to End All Wars did not end all wars. Ihringer saw his sons grow up to serve in WWII and Korea. He did not talk much about World war II or Korea, but he said his sons did their patriotic duty.
Otto Ihringer.
Patriot of the United States of America.