My Dad Survived Some of World War I’s Fiercest Battles and Lived to 104
My father, Clarence E. Ohmann, was born in 1894 and lived to the ripe old age of 104. He was from a hard-working and respected farm family, and had intended to homestead on a farm in North Dakota, leaving in 1915 for Amidon. But then World War I happened.
Clarence’s World War I draft registration card. Source: MyHeritage
He enlisted in the Army and was sent into battle in France, serving as a “hostler” — one who handled horses to bring artillery to the large guns — with the 42nd Rainbow Division, 151st Field Artillery Regiment, Battery D.
The 151st Field Artillery regiment in the field
He was thrust into some of the most defining and intense battles of the war. He fought in the defensive engagement at Champagne-Marne, where his regiment provided heavy bombardment support to help stop Germany’s last major offensive. He was in the counteroffensive at Aisne-Marne, where artillery and infantry were critical in forcing the Germans to retreat. He drove teams through St. Mihiel, the first independent American-led offensive of the war, where the 151st’s artillery cleared the way for the infantry to break through German defensive lines. Finally, he survived the Meuse-Argonne, the largest American operation of World War I, where his unit fired thousands of shells during the final push. He also served in defensive sectors of Essey and Pannes in Lorraine, Vesle in Champagne, and remained in a defensive sector in Germany after the war to keep the peace.
Clarence as a soldier
The items — and trauma — he brought home
Dad was an unassuming but courageous man who never really talked much about his part in the war, but he brought home a few incredible tokens of his service. We found a funny item in his metal chest: a German belt buckle that read “Gott Mit Uns,” meaning “God with us.” When I asked Dad about this piece, he replied that he took it off a German soldier because “he didn’t need it any longer.”
He paid a heavy physical and mental price for his service. After the war, he became ill and had to be hospitalized three separate times—twice for six months, and a third time for a year and a half. One of the medical diagnoses was pernicious anemia due to poor nutrition during the war, but looking back, I now suspect he also experienced some severe war trauma. He likely suffered from what we now call PTSD, though it wasn’t known or understood back in the 1930s. How could he not?
Despite those early setbacks, Dad went on to live a long, full life, remaining a proud, long-time member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 1697 in St. Paul. Because of his remarkable longevity, he became quite frequent in newspaper articles as one of the country’s oldest living World War I veterans. He was quoted in one article as saying, “I guess I consider myself lucky to have lived so long.”
One of the newspaper articles about Clarence
Dad passed away in 1998 and is buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis.
A record of Clarence’s burial in MyHeritage’s United States, Veteran Burials collection
Shortly after his death, he was decorated by the government of France and awarded the French Legion of Honor for his participation in the war. He was also awarded several other medals. Today, those medals are in my possession, and his French certificate hangs proudly in my son Karl’s studio in Manly, Iowa, where he is happy to point it out to anyone entering. Our family is incredibly proud of his service, and I am so glad to have had him as my dad.
Many thanks to Donna Schilling for sharing her father’s incredible story with us. Explore more American Family Stories and discover how ordinary families experienced extraordinary moments in U.S. history on MyHeritage’s America 250 hub.
