The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1919-01-17

lTeuCLeS. willie serving Oh HIS uTSl
enlistment he was on the U. S. S.
Denver for some time, also during
this time he was made a sergeant and
received two workmanship medals.
Lieutenant Strand was a sterling
young man with large circle of
friends by whom he was well thought
of who will be greatly shocked to hear
of his death, but who will remember
him as hero in the World War.
The surviving relatives are his par
ents, Mr.. and Mrs. Alex Strand; two
brothers, Carl Strand, residing in this
city and Corporal Oliver Strand who
returned from Brest, France, Deem
Der %, where he was serving in the
aviation corps; and three sisters, Hell
en- and Eleanor, now at Rockford, ILL.,,
and Harriet at home.
Last Days of Life.
Paris, France, November 6, 1918
My Dear Mrs. Strand: AS l was with
your son, Lieutenant Walter Strand,
during the last few days of his life l
thought you would like me to give
you as many of the details as possible.
If anything can make his loss easier
it will be the knowledge that he seem
ed in his last hours to stand for all
that is finest in America. Parents
often ask if their boys fell in win
ming or losing fight. l do not know
whether your sons regiment was ac
tually advancing when he fell, but the
fighting in which he was wounded was
that which made Germany finally re-
alize that she could not win. When
he died the newspaper was beside him
saying that Germany had asked for an
armiStice.
Probably some of his company can
tell you how he was wounded. He had
struck in five places, the right arm,
the left shoulder, back and both legs.
The wounds in the arm and back
were both serious. He seems to have
been treated in field hospital or per-
haps an evacuation hospital and then
put on a hospital train to go further
back. At TroyeS, about eighty miles
south, the people on the train seemed
to have decided that he was worse and
must have an immediate operation, so
they left him at French hospital
where there were already a number
of Americans who had been left for
the same reason. The American Red
Cross had two American nurses and
two nurses aids on duty at this hos
pital to take care of the Americans.
Your son was delirious when he was
brought in. l do not think he had been
really conscious since he was wound
ed. They found his arm was infected,
so amputated it at once at the Shout
der. They said, however, they had
practically no hopes for him. They
merely wanted to try everything. The
first night the French orderly was
with him, but the second night he
seemed more restless so stayed. He
talked all night, quite out of his head,
but not appearing to suffer at all. He
talked almost entirely of his duty, of
his men, of the preparations for the
battle He thought he was in the
camps or in the trenches and held
long, quite natural conversations about
little everyday things with imaginary
friends. Through it all he gave rev.
elation of a fine upright, unusually
brave nature. He was the first man
have ever seen who imagined in his
fever that he was in the midst of the
fighting and yet still showed no fear.
Had Been in Many Fights.
l thought perhaps he had just come
over and had been wounded in his
first action, but afterwards l found
that he had been in all the fighting of
the summer; this was the third time
he had been wounded, and he had got
his commission in action. He showed
great generosity and unselfishness,
too; when offered him milk or water
he would apologize for the troubles.
Then he would call for an ambulance
I for some one else, or would imagine
he was buying things at the commissary
/ to give away, or would sip little