A Hint Uncovers WWI Military Foreign Deployment

I first learned of my great-grandfather Samuel Kirk's service with the U.S. Army during World War I when I visited his grave in 2016 and saw his government-issued headstone. It was literally carved in stone [see Finding WWI Military Service Despite National Archives Fire].

The author at Samuel Kirk's headstone, denoting his service during WWI

An article in the Colorado Transcript, a local newspaper for Golden, Colorado, publicly announced that Samuel - along with other drafted men - had been medically cleared for service in February 1918, and the Denver Public Library found him on a list of soldiers from Colorado that linked his service with the Motor Transport Corps.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs
Division, WWI Posters, Public Domain

On Memorial Day in 2016, I received a package of photos from a Kirk cousin that shed further light on Samuel's military service. The four pictures confirmed that he had been stationed in San Francisco, California.

Sadly, a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, destroyed between 16 and 18 million military personnel files, including Samuel's service records.

My request to the National Archives for his service file was returned with an ask to me to help them rebuild his file with what little information I knew. But that was it. That was everything I knew.

Until this week.

Turning Over a New Research Leaf

The research trail - once gone cold - reignited when a new shaky leaf hint popped up for Samuel on Ancestry.com. To my surprise and relief, it wasn't a user added photo of a strand of DNA or circuitous clue back to my own tree. This was something useful that would advance my research and understanding of his military service.

Samuel was enumerated on a list of men sailing from New York City to Liverpool, England. Sailing on the S.S. Anchises, the men boarded the ship on August 31, 1918 at Pier 58 North River in New York, NY.

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy,
The New York Public Library. "Pier 58, North River. View from Street"
The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1951.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/a44288b4-9c1d-b31f-e040-e00a18060314

At 8:00 am on September 1, 1918, the ship departed New York and crossed the Atlantic in twelve days, arriving in Liverpool on September 13th.

S.S. Anchises, Wreck Site

Samuel was headed overseas!

Previously I had mistakenly assumed that his service was stateside simply because I had no evidence of foreign deployment. Now I had proof that he was headed to the action in Europe.

Furthermore, the passenger list (pictured below) included important details about Samuel's service, such as his service ID number and his specific unit affiliations. He was a Private First Class with Truck Company E of the Army Artillery Park, Coast Artillery Corps. That information would be helpful in following his service in Europe.

What happened once Samuel arrived in Liverpool? Did he stay in England or transfer to the continent? An answer came on another passenger list.

Seven months after he arrived in Europe, Samuel was enumerated as a passenger on the U.S.S. Canonicus headed for Brooklyn, New York. On April 19, 1919, he departed France from the U.S. Naval Air Station at Pauillac about 30 miles northwest of Bordeaux. 

Ancestry.com. U.S., WWI Troop Transport Ships, 1918-1919 [database on-line].
Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.

From the ashes - Establishing A Military Service Timeline

Despite the fiery destruction of Samuel's service records, the few documents I've scrounged up - including some fantastic online histories and first person recollections for the military company (quoted below) with which he enlisted - helped me piece together a timeline for his military service.

Timeline:

• June 5, 1917: completed WWI draft registration card

• February 14, 1918: Sam passed medical review for draft, published in newspaper

• March 1, 1918: The Army Artillery Park, First Army, American Expeditionary Force was organized at Ft. Winfield Scott in San Francisco and commanded by Colonel William H. Tobin.

• 1918: Pictured in San Francisco area, perhaps during basic training

Samuel Kirk, photographed at the Presidio in San Francisco, California

• August 15, 1918: Truck Company E left San Francisco in a vehicle convoy

• August 21, 1918: Truck Company E arrived in New York City

• August 31, 1918: Boarded the S.S. Anchises at Pier 58 in New York City

• September 1, 1918: Set sail aboard S.S. Anchises

• September 12, 1918: Arrived Liverpool, England

• April ~13, 1919: Truck Company E met up with Park Battery C and Truck Companies D and F, in compliance with orders received to start for the Port of Embarkation.

• April 16, 1919: Companies started for the river docks at 6:45 am. Arriving there, they took a barge for 30-miles down the river, landing at Pauillac. Here they were stationed in a large building, capable of holding 5,000 men.

• April 18, 1919: "To the great surprise of all, saw an order come in that we should board our long-looked-for transport the next day.

• April 19, 1919: "Sure enough, April 19 saw us lining up to await our turn to go aboard. The ship was loaded by 3:00 pm, and by 4:30 we started to pull away from land and out towards the middle of the river. We were on the good ship SS Canonicus, which had a tonnage of 5,500, and was 410-feet long with a 49-foot beam. The southern route of 3,700 miles was taken, and by the next morning land had faded away."

• May 2, 1919: "The trip was uneventful, and May 2nd saw the ship feeling her way into New York harbour through the dense fog. After going through the usual quarantine inspections, we landed at 11:00 am. After a Red Cross dinner at the docks, we boarded the ferry and were taken up East River, under the Brooklyn Bridge, and at a pier in Brooklyn. Camp Mills was reached at 3:00 pm."

• May 1919: "At Camp Mills, we were located in tents, and were allowed passes every two days. We anxiously awaited the day of our demobilization, which at last arrived. The Regulars were the first to depart, leaving on May 10th. That was the start, and from then on, the regiment, composed of men from almost every state in the Union, and from every walk of life, gradually fell to pieces. May 11th saw the Camp Grant detachment on its way, while the largest of all, the California detachment, left on May 12, 1919, with Camp Dodge departing on the 13th. While sorry to part from so many friends, many of whom we would never see again, still we were glad to get home and be free once more-and fulfilling the ambition we had cherished for five and a half months. Thus, came the end of one of Uncle Sam's many organizations, which, having done its duty, went out in the same way as it had come into existence, and with the same spirit of "Come what may, we are ready."

While the two passenger lists provide a great bookend to his foreign deployment, there remains a significant gap regarding what his Truck Company was doing from their arrival in Liverpool in August 1918 until the Armistice on November 11, 1918.

Persisting Questions and Freedom to Ask

I've reached out to the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri to see whether they can provide any further insights about the service of his company. Perhaps they will have details about battles Samuel would have supported.

I've also submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to see what, if any, records they have for Samuel that can be released to me. He spent his final years in a veterans home, so I anticipate there are, at a minimum, medical records.

Have you had experience with FOIA requests to the VA? Were you successful? How long did it take (assuming in a pre-pandemic era)? Fingers crossed there's more to be learned about Samuel's service.

San Francisco 100 Years Later

A little over two years ago, I wrote about discovering my great-grandfather's service with the Motor Transport Corps during World War I.

See Finding WWI Military Service Despite National Archives Fire.

At that time, I received my first batch of original photographs of Sam Kirk (great-grandpa) during his service at the Presidio in San Francisco, California.

One of the photos depicted Sam with an officer with a very distinctive building in the background. I soon learned it was the Palace of Fine Arts, which was built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition - a world's fair that was held in San Francisco.

Samuel Kirk, pictured at right, with unknown serviceman
in front of  the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

Fast-forward a couple years and I find myself in San Francisco for work. Making swift use of my limited time, I hoofed it to the Fine Arts building. Although there is now a busy highway where I speculate Sam stood for this photo, I was able to give it my best shot and recreate the scene 100 years later.

The author in San Francisco, retracing his great-grandfather Sam Kirk's footsteps.

The Palace of Fine Arts is a beautiful building in a very lovely neighborhood. Across the highway I could see buildings from the Presidio - presumably where Sam was stationed during his military service.

Curious what the Palace looks like?

Et voilà!

Palace of Fine Arts, photo by author.

Finding WWI Military Service Despite National Archives Fire

The author at Samuel Kirk's grave.

After using genetic genealogy to identify my paternal great-grandfather, I was eager to pay my respects at his grave. Samuel James Kirk is buried in the foothills of Golden, Colorado in the shadows of looming peaks.

While I had gone through great research pains to discover his identity and confirm his genetic link to my family, his grave taught me even more about his history.

World War I Military Service
His headstone was inscribed: PFC US ARMY, World War I. This was the first confirmation I had that he actually served in the military. To learn more about his service, I went back to his 1917 WWI draft registration card.

At 24 years old, he was single with no dependents, and described as short and slender with light blue eyes and black hair. Coolest of all, he worked as a beekeeper. Yes, my great-grandfather was an apiarist! These are the kinds of details not always apparent on the census (in 1930, for example, his occupation was enumerated as odd jobs. Oh, come on, tell me more! How odd?).

Samuel James Kirk - World War I Draft Registration Card

On Valentine's Day 1918, the Colorado Transcript published a list of 43 men who were examined by a doctor and found to be physically fit for military service. Among them was Samuel J. Kirk. I was unable to determine exactly when he was drafted into service, but I assume it happened shortly thereafter.

Of course, the 1973 fire that raged through a St. Louis National Archives repository and destroyed an estimated 16 to 18 million military personnel records didn't help matters. My inquiries for information from the National Archives were met with requests for me to help them re-establish their file for Sam's service. It was a catch-22. Perhaps there were local records in Colorado that could shed more light on his service.

I wrote to the Denver Public Library to see what information their Western History/Genealogy division may have on Samuel Kirk's service. An archivist with the library discovered another small but helpful clue. A published volume, Roster of Men and Women Who Served in The World War From Colorado 1917-1918, reiterated that his rank was Private First Class (PFC), but added that his branch was the Motor Transport Corps (MTC). That was new information!

The Motor Transport Corps
In its earliest existential conflicts, the United States depended on soldiers on foot, horses and later trains to transport men and cargo. During the First World War, military transit quickly evolved and the Army relied heavily on emerging 20th century technology including motor vehicles.

On July 11, 1918, as the War to End All Wars was nearing its end, the American Expeditionary Forces established the Motor Transport Corps (MTC) in order to provide oversight and maintenance of the Army's motor vehicles.¹ In August 1918 - fewer than three months before the armistice that ended hostilities -  the MTC released its manual that defined motor vehicles during the "existing emergency" as "all bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles, trailers and trucks, by whatsoever staff corps or service they may have been originally supplied and for whatsoever purpose."²

At the War's end on November 11, 1918, the MTC "numbered 1,135 officers and 26,957 enlisted men."³ Samuel Kirk was among those enlisted men, but where did he serve? An answer eluded me.

Photographs Illustrate Clues
On Memorial Day, I received a wonderful gift from a Kirk cousin: a collection of original photographs of Samuel Kirk that were nearly 100 years old. Until this point, I had only seen a couple grainy images of him and owned no originals. The prize among the photos was a fantastic portrait of Samuel in his MTC military uniform.

There were also three tiny photos about an inch in height that were difficult to make out. Each had Sam's name penciled on the back. There was no other identifying information about the location or about the other men pictured.

Samuel Kirk in MTC uniform pictured left.

Samuel Kirk pictured left.

Samuel Kirk pictured right with perhaps an MTC officer.

His studio portrait was embossed with the photographer's name and location: the Presidio in San Francisco. According to the National Parks Service, the Presidio was a "preeminent military post under the U.S. Army." Was Sam stationed stateside during his enlistment?

I was able to further confirm his location by zeroing in on the curious backdrop in the last photo. A Google search found a matching San Francisco domed monument. The photo appeared to be taken in front of the Palace of Fine Arts, which was constructed in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. The monument was less than a mile from the Presidio.

Collectively, the photographs provided my research a location to focus on Sam's WWI service. What was the MTC doing in San Francisco?

Coast-to-Coast Military Convoy
I learned that the Army organized a coast-to-coast convoy that saw the MTC haul nearly 70 trucks and vehicles from Washington, DC to San Francisco in 1919.⁴ Under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. McClure, the convoy traveled 3,251 miles in just 62 days with 258 enlisted men and 24 officers, including a young Dwight D. Eisenhower.⁵ (Check out Eisenhower's photos from the military road trip.)

Did Sam know of Eisenhower's role in the MTC convoy? Would he recall their service in the 1940s when Ike was the commanding general overseeing D-Day operations and in the 1950s when he was President of the United States? An interesting side-thought to ponder.

Given the early 1918 medical clearance Samuel received for the draft, I speculate that he was already pulled into wartime service with the MTC long before the convoy set out. I haven't been able to confirm whether he played a role in the convoy.

The cross-country convoy had several interesting purposes that may have inspired America's nascent love of the automobile,⁶ including promoting highway construction, recruiting men to enlist with the MTC, and demonstrating to the American public the value of the motor vehicle for military purposes.⁷

The gentleman pictured with Sam in the last photograph wore very distinct trousers. I wonder if it was an officer's uniform. Was Sam photographed with Lt. Col. McClure? (Click on the hyperlink for McClure and view a photo for comparison. What do you think?)

The MTC Trains Mechanics and Unites Disunited Families

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs
Division, WWI Posters, Public Domain

The MTC lured young men into service with the promise of equipping them with the skills that would make them marketable following their service. Wartime recruitment posters boasted that men who enlisted with the MTC would learn to be mechanics. I can only imagine the exciting appeal of learning to work on the newfangled automobile.

While Samuel Kirk, to my knowledge, never met his son - my grandfather - I find it an interesting quirk of fate that both my grandfather and father (who also didn't have much of a relationship) would become mechanics.

The profession - from the beginnings of the auto industry to the modern day - would link three generations together who otherwise had almost no interaction with each other. Perhaps I have the Motor Transport Corps to thank for that.

And to think that I was inspired and able to learn all of this - despite the disastrous military records loss - from a visit of homage to Samuel Kirk's grave.

Footnotes
¹ Killblane, Richard. "70 Years of the Transportation Corps." United States Transportation Corps. 19 June 2014.

² "Manual of the Motor Transport Corps." American Expeditionary Forces. June 1918.

³ "Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War." Center of Military History United States Army. Washington, DC, 1988.

⁴ Scheck, William. "World War I: American Expeditionary Forces Get Motorized Transportation." Military History Magazine. June 1997.

⁵ "The 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy." Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home.

⁶ Preston, Benjamin. "How An Army Convoy Crossed America in 56 Days to Prove We Needed Better Roads." Jalopnik. 18 February 2013.

⁷ "1919 Motor Transport Corps Convoy." Wikipedia.