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102
Year-Old Lenoir County WWI Veteran To Receive French Honor
Lenoir County's only surviving Doughboy, 102-year old Elliott Swann Russell of Pink Hill, has been qualified to receive France's National Order Of The Legion of Honor for serving in the American Expeditionary Forces that fought on French soil during World War I.  The French Embassy has requested information concerning surviving veterans of World War I who served with the American Expeditionary Forces in France before the war ended on Armistice Day. The Division of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C. recently sent out a letter and application to each of the approximately 900 World War I veterans who are still receiving VA benefits. To qualify for the French Legion of Honor, the veteran must have no criminal record, must have served on French soil during World War I prior to November 11, 1918 and must be living at the time of the application. No awards will be given posthumously. Russell served from August 6, 1917 until June 11, 1919. He was in France at Meuse-Argonne from May 25, 1918 to May 31, 1919. Russell said the fighting in France was so fierce that it seemed that both sides were trying to get rid of their ammunition. During most of the fighting, he said, the sun was a stranger. Weather conditions remained rainy and dismal. But on the day of peace, the sun came out and the birds started singing. Russell told of carrying wounded soldiers from first aid stations to base hospitals over slick limestone roads. The rain had created large potholes in the roads that jolted the wounded men. Some called out to him to let them out of the ambulance and let them die there. The ambulance company included 35 men from Lenoir County recruited by Dr. Vance Perry, a local physician. The Kinston Daily Free Press reported on September 17, 1917 that 48 men from the Kinston and Greenville area departed that morning for Raleigh as members of Ambulance Company 43. Dr. Perry went along with the group on the trip to Raleigh. The company was to leave Raleigh the next day for Camp Lee in Petersburg to undergo field training. Russell left the service soon after the war ended.
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