The Washington herald., 1921-10-23
WORLD WAR HERO
CIVESSTORYOF
MSADVENTURES
Forest Keyton, Aged II,
Wins d. s. C. for
Bravery.

~ ~ 49,
At II. a soldier Of the U. s. A.
and a real hero. How does that
appeal to you az beginner m any
young mans lief
Well. that was just ths fate Of
Forest II. Keyton. q mere lad OF
Dayton, Va, a small town In the
Shenandoah Valley, who visited
the Wheeling subdIstrict ONCE Of
the Veterans Bureau Saturday,
conferred with Manager Robert Al
Allen, and secured q transfer from
this city to his home for further
training that will make Of him q
useful and intelligent man. What
ever the future may have In store
for Keyton. he will always carry
the mark Of a real fighter. He Is
one of those fellows who nearly
gave his all, while performing q
duty that in peace time would at
tract the attention of the public
generally and which very probably
would win for him q Carnegie
medal or what not
And Keytou does not weara Car
negie medal. Instead he carries
with him Q real token Of the world
war. q Distinguishes Service CrosG
Besides this he was decorated by
the French government for bravery
while under fire. At the young age
Of 16 years Keyton enlisted In the
United States army. This was on
April -. 1917. Four months later
he was in France bound for the
front line trenches. He was In the
midst of the lighting all the way
through the struggle and followed
the Germans with the rest Of his
''buddies" through the Argonne For
est. And in Keyton's words is the
following:
The winter Of lsl7-1s was one
OF the hardest I ever Witnessed.
Fighting in all sectors was fierce
and little time did we take TO con-
slider the condition Of the elements
for we had one objective and that
was Berlin, Ny outfit. the lI6th
Infantry OF the Twenty-ninth Divi-
sion, saw, believe, about as hard
fighting as any outfit. We were
in IL from the beginning to end.
I waded through with the rest Of
the boys, and have God TO thank
that am here. though . have q
mark from It that j. will always
carry ..-s..
Fighting during september and
October. 1913. was the fiercest OF
the struggle, I believe. for IL was
at the time that our efforts 20 force
the Huns back had begun to bear
fruit. Sometimes We fought in nice
calm weather. others IL was in mud.
During the heaviest lighting in the
Argonns I received my injury
which almost proved the end OF me.
Forward Under Fire.
Following q barrage OF heavy
artillery FIRE early in the morning
of October az, 1918, my OUTFIT be-
first-class private and acted as a
lance corporal to our squad fore
runner, for such he was. Ny cor
poral, George Simmons, was q
strong and heroic character. was
following close behind him az we
were nearing q Boche trench. A
and came through the back Of his
tebrae. This was about 1890 o'clock
In the morning of the 22d.
Just after he was hit and had
ohOORCo ONGl " H4Nh
UP. As I was about TO lift his
body of the ground a machine gun
bullet hit me between the shoulders
down my back II tore loose the
skin and laid me low. took q
few steps with my corporal after
this. but had to lay him on the
ground and fell myself. managed
IN MI n ehAll An1a SrH 40 ~4AA
my corporal after me. He was un-
conscious at the time, otherwise he
would have suffered almost untold
agonies, for the ground over which
passed was very rugged.
when I had reached the hole I
placed the body of Corp. Simmons
in q fairly safe position, and took
more OF an out in the weather
position myself. When 1 had re-
gained a little strength crawled
back of the lines to an improvised
kitchen, which I entered, with the
aid Of several buddies, and my
wound was dressed.
| "As soon as I was able left the
kitchen and walked out into the
fresh air and took place on q
bench for little rest. When I was
about 100 feet from the kitchen q
she'll hit II and blew the structure
into q thousand pieces. One OF my
buddies from Dayton lost his life in
this explosion, the only man to die
in the fighting from our town. After
this awful affair 1 was sent back
of the lines to a hospital, where I
lay on my face until my wound had
completely healed.
Being injured was among the
first boys TO be sent back home, and
believe me II was some new life
that entered my soul when set
foot on American soil again. was
discharged from the army on May 9.
1919, at the age of Is years, but
have been so incapacitated from my
injuries that I had to ask Uncle