Dr. Sentelle talks with students at Buffalo Elementary.
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Dr. Sentelle talks with students at Buffalo Elementary.
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May 27, 2008
On Memorial Day, most people think about Vietnam, or the Korean Conflict, or World War II.
Dr. Sam Sentelle is reminded of the battlefields of France and Belgium in World War I, and the stories often heard from his father Henry about that tragic time.
Henry was there on July 4, 1918, when the 30th Infantry Division became the first American unit to march into Belgium.
As they crossed the border, he saw artillery flashes and heard the pounding of heavy guns. "They're not really fighting," the men were told. "They're just celebrating the 4th of July." Then a shell exploded among the soldiers killing several of them, and the troops knew better.
After the start of the Hindenburg offensive, the Germans threw twenty divisions against twelve British divisions, and the Americans were ordered to the front.
 Henry Sentelle
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The Germans had machine guns.
During the afternoon of October 8th, British cavalry charged through the infantry ranks in an effort to break the enemy line. "They had some of the finest horses you'll ever see" [ -- nineteenth century valor against twentieth century weapons.] "They came back, one man leading five or six horses."
Henry returned home after the Armistice. But several of his comrades were buried where they had fallen on the fields of battle in France and Belgium.
Their sacrifice was memorialized by Lt. Col. John McCrae:
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
A local superintendent of schools for 22 years in West Virginia, Dr. Sentelle is a member of the Putnam County Board of Education.
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