00:00:00
Interview
INTERVIEWER: We’re here today to interview Mr. John Pavlik. Mr. John Pavlik is
a veteran of World War I. John what is your age?
PAVLIK: Right now my age is eighty-nine and I will be ninety on August the 2nd.
I enlisted at the age of 16, not quite 16, but I said that I was 18, and they
accepted that.
INTERVIEWER: John, in what outfit did you serve while you were in the armed forces?
PAVLIK: I enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guards, and they were starting a
new ambulance company which was motorized. Before that we had horses and mules
to draw the ambulance wagons. This seemed like seemed like a very interesting
00:01:00position to get into since automobiles were first coming into being, and so I
enlisted in the Motorized Ambulance Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Got my
basic training at the Goldsmith Building. Have squads right and left and first
aid and so forth. Later on when our vehicles came they were stationed at
Whitefish Bay [WI] and we were there for a week camping in pup tents getting
used to the pup tents, and the vehicles. Then we drove from Whitefish Bay to
Madison [WI]. That was an all day ride and stayed at Camp Randall overnight. And
next morning we went to Camp Douglas and got there about 4:00 in the afternoon.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, the dates that you served?
PAVLIK: My date that I served was--I enlisted on April 3rd 1917 and of course
00:02:00the war was declared on April 6, 1917. And I was discharged 1919 on the 30th of
May in 1919.
INTERVIEWER: You did serve overseas?
PAVLIK: Yes, when we went to Waco, Texas for our training from Camp Douglas the
Wisconsin National Guards and the Michigan National Guards were combined to make
up a Division. And our Division was numbered the 32nd Division. We have the Red
Arrow as an insignia indicating that all of the lines, the front that we fought
00:03:00on, we broke through those lines and that’s what the arrow indicates.
INTERVIEWER: And when you were overseas I’m assuming you were in France. What
part of France?
PAVLIK: We got on the boat in February of 1918 and landed in Brest, France, and
then from there we went by train to the 10th French Training Area. Later on we
were then sent to Chateau-Thierry to support the Marines and the 26th Division
who took over the Marines position at Chateau Thierry. Then of course we went to
00:04:00Soissons area in Givigny and than later on we went to the Argonne woods, and we
finally got the enemy out of their dugouts. And then we regrouped our group
again, the 32nd Division, and went back into the line and start pushing again.
At the time Armistice was signed we were in a town called Dun-sur-Meuse where
city Dunn is on the Meuse River. At that time that was in early November, and we
continued on, and at that time we were told Armistice was going to be signed on
November 7th, but instead it was signed on November 11th. After the Armistice
00:05:00was signed we were assigned as the troops to cross the Rhine River. That was
three Divisions; the 32nd, the 1st and the 2nd in the Army of Occupation. We
were the only three Divisions that were on the other side of the Rhine River.
Our headquarters was at Dusseldorf, and we were in little village called Wain it
is near Ehrenbreitstein, a short distance also from Koblenz, Germany. After
serving three months there we then went back to Brest by train and sailed home.
We were on a battleship, USS Virginia that brought us to Newport News in
00:06:00Virginia, and then from there by train we went to Camp Sheridan in Illinois, and
we were separated from there and came on back to Milwaukee. And of course the
next day we had our Memorial Day Parade in Milwaukee, and I participated in that
parade at that time. I have been trying to participate in that parade ever since
that time. The parade was a very long one. We started at 35th & Wisconsin and
ended up at the Northwestern Depot which was at the foot of Wisconsin Avenue. As
you know when we got home we soon found out that some of our newspaper people
00:07:00that were covering the war by looking in the files of Stars & Stripes and some
of the other newspapers and they found a poem written by a Canadian physician
who was serving his mother country England in Belgium in the province of
Flanders. And at that time the good doctor was on constant duty there, and that
was the first time that the gas was used by the enemy. And he contracted
pneumonia, and he had died a year later. However, the poem was written, but it
never was published in the newspaper or much was said about it. We World War I
00:08:00veterans, after it was published, discovered that and put that as part of our
ritual at the opening and closing of our meetings and so forth. And at this time
I’d like to recite [In] Flanders Fields for you as it was written originally
and America’s answer to those who made a supreme sacrifice in Flanders Fields.
The poem was very, very meaningful. It can be applied to all veterans of all
wars in any part of the world that it is being fought by just substituting a
word or two here and there.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky
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The lark still bravely singing, fly
Scarcely heard amid guns down below.
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 the poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
America’s answer to those who made a supreme sacrifice is as follows:
Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead.
The fight that ye so bravely led
We’ve taken up. And we will keep
True faith with you who lie asleep
In Flanders fields
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With each a cross the mark his bed,
And poppies blowing overhead,
Where once your life blood ran red.
So let your rest be sweet and deep
In Flanders fields.
Fear not that you have died for naught;
The torch ye threw to us we caught,
Ten million hands will hold it high,
And freedom’s light shall never die!
For we’ve learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders fields
Your torch and poppie red we now wear in honor of our dead
Your flaming torch aloft we bear,
When a burning heart and oath we swear,
To keep the faith to fight it through,
To crush the foe or sleep with you,
In Flanders Fields.
Thank you.
00:11:00
[*Mr. Pavlik’s recitation of the poem and the reply is repeated on the tape.
His answer to the poem appears to be a composite of various versions.]
[End of Interview]
