Company G, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division

—American Expeditionary Force, World War One —

Donald Kyler was sixteen years of age when he enlisted in the Regular Army in April of 1917. A native of Whitley County, Indiana, he grew up on a farm and in the small town of Collamer. With the consent of one of his family, he enlisted at Fort Wayne, Indiana. As part of the 1st Division, the 16th Infantry Regiment was one of the first infantry regiments to be sent to France and took part in seven major campaigns including the defense of the Ainse-Marne Sector and the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives.

During his combat experience he fought in the front line trenches and ran messages for the company commander through hostile territory, where on one occasion he knocked out a German machine gun nest with grenades and rifle fire. He was promoted to company mechanic and worked repairing arms and directed carrying parties of food and supplies to the front line. During the war Private Kyler kept notes on his experiences, when the war ended he was seventeen and a half years of age and had become a hardened professional Soldier. Of the 250 enlisted men of Company G that left together for France I n 1917 only ten of the original group returned with the regiment in 1919.

After the war he reenlisted in the Regular Army and rose to the rank of Sergeant. In 1990 at the age of 89 he published a book on his experiences in the Great
War entitled The Thoughts and Memories of a Common Soldier.

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