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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Ralph Waldo Strickland, April 18, 1980. Interview H-0180. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Experiences of World War I

Strickland was not the only one of his family to join the armed forces. Both of his older brothers saw action in Europe during World War I.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Ralph Waldo Strickland, April 18, 1980. Interview H-0180. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

My brother Paul and brother Lee both, my brother Lee, he joined the Navy. He put four years in the Navy, and brother Paul, he joined the army. That was before World War I. He was on the Mexican border right before World War I. They was having trouble on that Mexican … old Pancho Villa and that crowd. Mexico was having trouble, and the United States maintained an army on the Mexican border. Well, Paul was down there for a while. Then after that, they went overseas. My brother Lee, he stayed overseas twenty-two months, and brother Paul, he stayed over there eighteen months. They were older than me. My brother Lee was ten years older than me and Paul was eight years older than me.
LU ANN JONES:
Did they tell you about what they saw?
RALPH W. STRICKLAND:
Oh yeah, they told me all about Argonne Forest. Brother Paul, he was a quarter master sargeant. He rode a motorcyle. He was carrying messages and stuff from back of the line back to the headquarters to and from. He rode a motorcycle.
LU ANN JONES:
Did they write you letters? Did you hear from them a lot while they…
RALPH W. STRICKLAND:
They wrote my father and mother. I was a good big boy. I was twelve, or thirteen, or fourteen years old when World War I come on. Woodrow Wilson was President.