Preserving the Public Memory

How quickly things fade from the public memory. In the history of the American involvement in World War I, the exploits of Douglas MacArthur’s beloved 42nd Infantry or Rainbow Division are legendary. The division suffered more than 12,000 casualties and their blood stained many landscapes in France, but has that sacrifice been forgotten? It is easily understandable how it can happen. There are only a handful of WWI veterans still alive and they are nearly all over the age of 100. Their sons and daughters are all septuagenarians or octogenarians and more closely associated with memories of World War II and Korea than World War I. There are still thousands of veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam that keep the memory of those epochs within the public forum. Even the American Civil War and its veterans are remembered because battlefields and museums are plentiful in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic United States. Each year thousands of re-enactors stage battles in commemoration of the struggle of 1861-1865. Book stores abound with titles on the American Civil War, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. But books concerning American experiences in World War I are few and far between. Are our World War I veterans forgotten? Here are three stories of three separate events at a place called Camp Mills to show the stark reality of how strongly held memories so quickly fade.

On Memorial Day in 1997, a color guard and bugler of the 42nd Division, New York National Guard, were on hand for a ceremony at the Rainbow Division Monument in Garden City, Long Island. Located on a 1/4-acre triangular plot of land, the monument is a fifteen by five foot obelisk of Alabama limestone. It stands across the street from what was the entrance to the 42nd Division’s World War I training grounds at Camp Albert Mills on the Hempstead Plains of Long Island, New York. Inscribed on it is a lone bugler standing over crosses with a list of all the units that made up the Rainbow Division and the World War I campaigns in which they fought. Eighty years had passed since the Rainbow Division had come together at Camp Mills in 1917 and it was felt that a Memorial Day tribute at the monument was a fitting thing to do. So on that sunny Memorial Day in 1997, amidst the neighborhood that stands there now, the color guard and the bugler stood alone save for a handful of spectators. It was a far cry from a Sunday in October 1941 when thousands were on hand to witness the monument’s dedication.

Originally the Rainbow Division veterans wanted to dedicate the monument at old Camp Mills in July 1941 to coincide with their national reunion in Atlantic City. Unfortunately, funds to pay for the $2500 monument were insufficient to complete it in time. Only a few short months later, however, funds were quickly secured by the Long Island chapter of the 42nd’s Veterans Association and the obelisk was completed and slated for dedication on 12 October 1941. Every 42nd Division veteran that could be there was going to be there for the dedication of the monument. "Wild Bill" was going to be there. Colonel William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan was the fighting heart of the Rainbow Division’s 165th Infantry during the trench warfare of Luneville-Baccarat, Champagne-Marne; the San Mihiel and Ourcq River offensives; and the living hell of the Meuse-Argonne. His presence alone would bring out New Yorkers in droves, for the 165th Infantry was the old "Fighting 69th" New York Infantry. Nassau County Judge and Rainbow veteran Courtland Johnson was chosen as Master of Ceremonies and all was readied for the Sunday afternoon activities of 12 October.

Thousands turned out for the dedication of the monument on that Sunday afternoon in October 1941. The parade was huge. Beginning at the 4th Regimental Armory, Federal and State units of the National Guard, elements of the American Legion and the VFW, local civic and high school groups, and thousands of veterans marched down Clinton Street to the Rainbow Plaza across from the Long Island Railway’s Clinton Street Station. There from the reviewing stand Judge Johnson dedicated the monument to the delight of the crowd, which was composed of many types of people. Many of them were veterans who had been molded by the experience of Camp Mills. Many were families of the veterans. Others were locals who remembered the exciting days of August to October 1917 when twenty-seven thousand boys and men from twenty-six states were assembled on the Hempstead Plains of Long Island. The crowd, estimated to hold anywhere from eight to twelve thousand people, paid tribute to a memory 24 years old. Though large, the celebration paled in comparison to the warm Saturday after noon in September 1917 when the entire Rainbow Division passed in review for the Secretary of War and the citizens of Long Island and New York City.

More than 50,000 people came out to witness Secretary of War Newton Baker’s review of the Rainbow Division on 23 September 1917. Twice the size of any German, French, or British Division and about the size of a Civil War era corps, the Rainbow Division had only been together for little more than a few weeks before it was called upon to pass in review as a unit. Little time for training in close order drill was in evidence during the review. The spectators were thrilled with the spectacle despite errors in the performance. For two months the Long Island towns of Westbury, Jamaica and Garden City had been inundated by men and boys from across the country. The populace from the areas surrounding Camp Mills felt the Rainbow was theirs, and the review was an event no one wanted to miss so they turned out in force. Everyone wanted to pay tribute to the Rainbow men before they left for France. The experience at Camp Mills was part of all their souls, both veterans and civilians alike, and that is why more than 12,000 turned up 24 years later to let that memory glow once more at the dedication of the monument in October 1941.

How quickly things fade from public memory. In 80 years, the crowds of those paying tribute to the Rainbow Division veterans of World War I went from fifty thousand to a handful. It’s not that the World War I veterans have been forgotten, it’s just that there are so few around who remember and so few monuments like the one in Garden City to remind us of them. It is different in France where the battlefields and monuments are located all over the eastern half of the nation as a constant reminder. It would be a travesty if their sacrifice for their country was forgotten, mainly because we can learn so much from their experiences. Institutions such as the MacArthur Memorial are dedicated to the task of keeping the exploits of World War I veterans such as those from the Rainbow Division forever within the public memory. In his excellent book Men of the Rainbow, Leslie Langille stated,

Langille’s aim is ours, for as long as institutions like the MacArthur Memorial exist, the memory of the sacrifice of all American veterans will not be allowed to fade away. The answer, therefore, is no. They are not forgotten.

The MacArthur Report