The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1920-02-10
Says War Was 'Picnic"
French and American Deco
rations Adorn Breast
PROVE HE WAS BUSY
ON THE BATTLE FRONTS
Son of MIR. and Mrs! 6. N. Shan
non of Bemidji; Coming
Home for Brief Visit
(MinneapOliS Tribune)

(Mluu6dpOllS llUuuC)
Wearing the same grin of youth
that marked him when he went away
to war in 1917, First Lieut.. Clarence
A. Shannon came back to Minneapo-
lis Sunday-last Minnesotan prob
ably, to come out OF France in the
rear guard Of the American army.
He is still aide to Brig. Gen. w. D.
Connor, and is on so days leave. And
that grin that people used to know
when he was a reporter on The Min
neapolis Tribune, just before he went
| into the first officers training camp
at Fort Smelling, goes with his dec
laration that "war has been picnic
with him.
War has been a picnic, perhaps
| but Lieutenant Shannon wears on his
breast the green and red of the
French Croix de Guerre, with gilt
star denoting an army corps citation.
And on the rainbow ribbons are four
other gilt stars, denoting three major
campaigns and one defensive cam
paign in which he participated.
War has been picnic, but the
Croix de Guerre was given for recog-
nizance work in the Oise-Aisne cam
paign, when Lieutenant Shannon was
liaison officer with General Man
gins Tenth French army. And the
picnic has taken this University OF
Minnesota "boy" over the whole OF
the war zone in France, perhaps as
no, other Minnesota man has been
For he is aide to the general who be.
came commander of the American
| forces in France after General Perish
ing came home.
Lived in Krupp Lodge.
| If you try to get Lieutenant Shan
non to tell details of the picnic, most
ly you will get formal statement OF
detail, dating back to his crossing to
France with the Fifteenth U. s.
cavalry in March, 1918. For three
months he stuck at Bordeaux on re-
mount duty; as judge advocate OF a
special court and member of gen.
eral court; as athletic officer and post
exchange officer. Then he saw two
weeks of front line duty with an in
fantry platoon, in Alsace. And next
he went to the division headquarters
troop for liaison and recognizance
duty and went through the Disc
Aisne campaign as liaison officer
with Mangin's army. 1t was then
that he won the Croix de Guerre.
At the beginning Of the Argonne
campaign Lieutenant Shannon was
detailed as aide to Gen. E. B. Winans,
commanding the Gath infantry bri-
gade, and they marched down the
Moselle valley to the Rhine where the
five months they occupied the Cob
lenz bridgehead sector and Lieuten-
ant Shannon lived in Bertha Krupp's S
hunting lodge, getting more lines on
German psychology than were given
to most students in the Army of Oc-
cupation.
In April, 1919, the 32nd division
was ordered home, and the picnic
seemed nearing an end. But at Brest,
Lieutenant Shannon was ordered to
join Gen. w. D. Connor's staff, the
general being chief of staff Of the
S. O. s. For two months Shannon
was assistant secretary and secretary
to the generals staff at Tours. Then
he was made aide de camp to General
Connor, and as such remained in
Paris and was one of the last bunch
of American army officers to leave
Paris. There are hardly dozen
American officers left in France.
One Tribune Man Still Across.
Lieutenant Shannon is on leave,
and expects to spend most of it in
Minneapolis and Bemidji, his home.
There remains in France only one
man from the group that went into
the service in the spring Of 1917 from
the staff of The Minneapolis Tribune
Captain Andrew P. Keefe is still in
Paris. He was one of the first Min
nesotans to 60 overseas. Most of his
service was with the Army Schools,
and later on detail in Paris, where
he could write it captain, P.M.G.D.,
chief of operations and later chief
of Paris D. G.. l." Now he has been
demobilized and is remaining in Paris
in business.