Merle Hay

Merle Hay was born on a Carroll County, Iowa, farm to Harvey and Carrie Hay. He was the oldest of three children. In 1909, the family moved to another farm near Glidden. Before his service with the United States Army, he was a farm implement mechanic.{{harvnb|The Glidden Graphic|1917|p=1}}

File:636452248700808677-1917-merle-hay-cartoon.jpg; Uncle Sam brings home the body. A copy of the cartoon would be placed on a monument to Hay in Glidden. ]]

When the United States entered the First World War, Hay was young enough to avoid being drafted. With his father's blessing, he voluntarily enlisted on May 9, 1917.{{harvnb|Evening Public Ledger pg7|1917|p=7}} He was among eight men from Glidden who enlisted that day.

They were first shipped to Fort Logan, Colorado, then to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. He was assigned to the 16th Infantry Regiment. On 26 June 1917, the regiment disembarked the troop ships in St. Nazaire, France, as part of the 1st Infantry Division. By November 1917, he was assigned to Company F along with Corporal James Bethel Gresham and Private Thomas Enright. They were posted in the trenches near a French village in Artois. In the early morning of 3 November 1917, the Imperial German Army attacked. After an hour of fighting, Hay, Corporal Gresham, and Private Enright were the first three casualties of the American Expeditionary Force.{{harvnb|Connors|2007|p=}}

File:First three American soldiers to die fighting in World War I, Merle Hay, Thomas Enright and James Bethel Gresham 1917 poster - "The first three!" Give till it hurts - they gave till they died LCCN00652854 (cropped).tif and James Bethel Gresham 1917 poster]]

Two days later, on 5 November 1917, Enright, Gresham, and Hay were buried near the battlefield where they had died. An inscription marked their graves: "Here lie the first soldiers of the illustrious Republic of the United States who fell on French soil for justice and liberty." Their bodies were eventually returned to their families and reburied in the United States. Hay was then re-interred in July 1921 in West Lawn Cemetery in his home town of Glidden, Iowa. The West Lawn Cemetery was later renamed the Merle Hay Memorial Cemetery. An 8-foot monument commissioned by the Iowa Legislature marks his gravesite.

Shortly after Hay's death, the highway running from the west edge of Des Moines to Camp Dodge was renamed Merle Hay Road. A memorial boulder was placed along Merle Hay Road in 1923 and remains up today amidst the commercial development along the road.{{harvnb|Strong|2006|p=}} Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines was also named for Hay; the local Kiwanis club placed a memorial plaque near the entrance to the mall's Sears store in 1979.

The first American military casualty in World War II was also an Iowa native. Robert M. Losey, a military attache, was killed on April 21, 1940, during a German bombardment of Dombås, Norway.{{harvnb|Cleverley|2003|p=68}}

Hay's mother collapsed upon hearing of his death but in an interview two days later Hay's father, D. Hay, said that "I am proud of my boy if he has given up his life for his country." He had a younger brother Basil and sister Opel.

File:The Literary digest history of the world war, compiled from original and contemporary sources- American, British, French, German, and others (1919) (14800169483).jpg, erected November 1918 in Bathelémont, destroyed by the Germans in October 1940]]

• Albert Mayer, the first soldier and first Imperial German Army soldier killed, August 2, 1914
• Jules-André Peugeot, the first French Army soldier killed, August 2nd, 1914
• Antoine Fonck, the first Belgian Army soldier killed, August 4th, 1914
• John Parr, the first British Army soldier killed, August 21st, 1914
• Thomas Enright, one of the first three American Army soldiers killed, November 3, 1917
• James Bethel Gresham, one of the first three American Army soldiers killed, November 3, 1917

• George Edwin Ellison, the last British Army soldier killed, at {{no wrap|9:30 a.m. November 11, 1918}}
• Augustin Trébuchon, the last French Army soldier killed, at {{no wrap|10:45 a.m. November 11, 1918}}
• Marcel Toussaint Terfve, the last Belgian Army soldier killed, at {{no wrap|10:45 a.m. November 11, 1918}}
• George Lawrence Price, the last Canadian Army soldier killed, at {{no wrap|10:58 a.m. November 11, 1918}}
• Henry Gunther, the last soldier and last American Army soldier killed, at {{no wrap|10:59 a.m. November 11, 1918}}

Notes

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References

• {{cite journal |last=Cleverley |first= J. Michael |date= December 2003|title=The First American Official Killed In This War|journal= Foreign Service Journal|volume= 2003|issue=December |pages=66–68|url=https://photos.state.gov/libraries/finland/788/pdfs/cleverley.pdf |access-date= January 12, 2018 |publisher=American Foreign Service Association |issn=0146-3543}}
• {{cite web |last=Connors|first=Michael|date=November 11, 2007|url = http://www.post-gazette.com/Op-Ed/2007/11/11/The-Next-Page-Finding-Private-Enright/stories/200711110239|title =The Next Page: Finding Private Enright|publisher = Pittsburgh Post-Gazette| access-date = January 11, 2018 }}
• {{cite news |title=Casualty List In First Action Thrills Nation|last=Evening Public Ledger pg1|author-link=Public Ledger (Philadelphia) |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1917-11-05/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=11%2F01%2F1917&index=4&date2=11%2F31%2F1917&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&lccn=sn83045211&words=action+ACTION+Action+general+General+Honor+HONOR+Killed+killed+killing+Pershing+ROLL+Roll&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=killed+in+action+roll+of+honor&proxtext=&phrasetext=+&andtext=general+pershing&dateFilterType=range&page=1|newspaper=Evening Public Ledger |publisher=Cyrus H. K. Curtis|location=Philadelphia|issn=2151-3945|lccn=83045211|oclc=9355469|date=November 5, 1917|pages=1–22|access-date= January 12, 2018 }}
• {{cite news |title=Proud to have given son to Nation's cause|last=Evening Public Ledger pg7|author-link=Public Ledger (Philadelphia) |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1917-11-05/ed-1/seq-7/|newspaper=Evening Public Ledger |publisher=Cyrus H. K. Curtis|location=Philadelphia|issn=2151-3945|lccn=83045211|oclc=9355469|date=November 5, 1917|pages=1–22|access-date= January 11, 2018 }}
• {{cite news |title= Glidden Boy First American Killed in France|last=The Glidden Graphic|url=http://www.cityofglidden.org/pdfs/Newspaper.pdf|newspaper=The Glidden Graphic|issn=0746-6196|oclc=10164185 |date=November 8, 1917|access-date= January 11, 2018 }}
• {{cite news|first=Jared|last=Strong|title=Veterans cast light on memorial|work=The Des Moines Register|date=2006-03-24|page=3B}}

• {{Find a Grave|1674}}

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Category:1896 births

Category:1917 deaths

Category:American military personnel killed in World War I

Category:People from Carroll County, Iowa

Category:United States Army personnel of World War I

Category:United States Army soldiers