The
two Great War era photos below were emailed to me by Brian
Pohanka, on December 28, 2000. In both pictures, the man
on the farthest right is his maternal grandfather, John
M. Powers.
The photo above was taken circa 1915. The photo below
shows Powers and his friends in uniform.
Comments by Brian Pohanka - December 30, 2000
Thought
you'd find this of interest. Looking through that little
snapshot album of my grandfather's [John M. Powers], I
found this image of one of his friends -- a fellow who
played on the baseball team with him -- William C. Greifzu.
He went into World War One with most of the other kids,
and in his case he did not come back. Doing some research
on the 'net', I found that Bill Greifzu died of wounds
May 16, 1918 -- he was a Corporal in the 1st Engineer
Regiment of the 1st Division -- I suspect he was hit during
the fighting for Cantigny -- one of the first engagements
of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) in France. He
is buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery -- same
place the poet Joyce
Kilmer is interred (whose grave I visited, as you
know). The VFW Post in Darby, PA, was named for William
Greifzu.
Thought
you'd find this of interest. Looking through that little
snapshot album of my grandfather's [John M. Powers], I
found this image of one of his friends -- a fellow who
played on the baseball team with him -- William C. Greifzu.
He went into World War One with most of the other kids,
and in his case he did not come back. Doing some research
on the 'net', I found that Bill Greifzu died of wounds
May 16, 1918 -- he was a Corporal in the 1st Engineer
Regiment of the 1st Division -- I suspect he was hit during
the fighting for Cantigny -- one of the first engagements
of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) in France. He
is buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery -- same
place the poet