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Metzger Oliver Charles

Name:
Oliver Charles Metzger
Rank:
Corporal
Serial Number:
Unit:
18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
Date of Death:
1918-07-21
State:
Iowa
Cemetery:
Riverside Cemetery, Shell Rock, Iowa
Plot:
Row:
Grave:
Decoration:
Comments:

When Oliver Charles Metzger was born on January 4, 1897, in Shell Rock, Iowa, his father, Harvey, was 22 and his mother, Mabel, was 21. He had three brothers and one sister. He lived there until he was eight years old, when the family move to Cedar Falls, remaining there until 1910 and returning. He was graduated from high school here in 1916 and then taught school for two terms. He enlisted at Allison soon after this country entered the war going first to Jefferson Barracks, MO., then to Douglas, Ariz. He passed thru Iowa on his way to France when the first draft registry was under way in Iowa.

He was with the first troops to reach France and took part in the first action in which American men entered, doing scout duty in the vicinity in which the first United States casualties occured. He was killed when his detachment ran into terrific machine gun fire while crossing a field, while a heavy barrage also played on them. The few survivors ran for a ravine and Metzger, already wounded in the arm, declined help of two comrades, one of them has written the parents. When the two men reached the ravine in which they sought shelter, Metzger was missing, and one R.R. Nash returned for him, finding him dead with machine gun bullets in his breast. He was Killed in Action on July 21, 1918 (at the age of 21) and is now buried in Riverside Cemetery, Shell Rock, Butler County, Iowa, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.ancestry.com