Just before his death, Otis W. Strand of the town of Christiana asked his attending nurse to send a message back home to his parents.
After being wounded at the front lines in France during World War I, Strand found himself in the hospital on Sept. 1, 1918, just over three months after arriving there with the 32nd division, according to newspaper stories published in the Capital Times in 1918 and 1921. He asked someone to write to his parents and “tell them I am well and getting along all right.”
Nurse M. L. Wiatersteen obliged, but added to his message in her letter for his parents.
“But, it is with deep sorrow that I must tell you his condition is very critical,” Wiatersteen wrote in her letter, the Capital Times reported.
Strand had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and was battling the complication of pneumonia, which Wiatersteen feared would “prove fatal.”
Despite ongoing efforts by hospital staff, Strand passed away on Sept. 7, but not before making an impact on the hospital staff, the Capital Times reported. Strand “was with us just one week, endearing himself to all,” Wiatersteen wrote in her letter.
Wiatersteen also said in her letter that up until his final moments, Strand reported feeling “all right” whenever asked how he felt.
Strand was born on the Strand homestead in the town of Christiana on June 24, 1892 to his parents Ole and Dagne Strand. The family was large and Strand had nine siblings. Until he enlisted on May 18, 1917 to the 4th Wisconsin Infantry, Strand worked on the farm with his father.
Information on Strand’s life was collected by Russ Amacher of the Cambridge Historic School Museum, and shared with the Cambridge News/Deerfield Independent.
According to a draft registration card, obtained by Amacher, Strand was 28 years old when he enlisted. He was single, and described himself as short, with a medium build, with blue eyes and blond hair.
He was baptized in the West Koshkonong Church, The Capital Times reported, where 101 other members of the congregation also enlisted.
Along with his company, Strand began drilling in Edgerton in the evenings before the National Guard mobilized on July 15, 1917, Amacher’s research showed. In August, he was sent to Camp Douglas and later, in September, he was sent to Camp MacArthur in Waco, Texas.
Strand was then transferred to company M of the 128th infantry in the 32nd Division, which was sent to Camp Merrit in New Jersey in February of 1918. But, on the way, Strand developed Scarlet fever and was hospitalized in Lakewood, New Jersey until April. At that point, Strand sailed to France to rejoin his company.
Despite experiencing a long voyage filled with sea sickness, his first letter home from France was optimistic.
“Now, don’t worry about me,” Strand wrote. “I am in the best of health and what I have seen so far, I have enjoyed.”
Strand’s injury, which later proved fatal, occured in Alsace, 2 Marne, Soissons, France. Amacher’s research said Strand was buried in Suresne, with a service complete with an American flag draped over his coffin and covered with flowers before being laid to rest next to his comrades with a white cross to mark his grave.
Strand made his final journey home in 1921, at which point he was buried with military honors, Amacher’s research said. Rev. Krostu from the church and 50 members of the James Munro Post American Legion presided over the proceedings. Fifty members of the Woman’s Auxiliary also attended the funeral, where Strand was again laid to rest, this time in his home congregation’s cemetery.
The 32nd Division earned itself the nickname Les Terribles from the French during WWI, apparently in reference to the division’s ability to traverse terrain others could not, according to Arcadia Wisconsin’s Soldier’s Walk Memorial Park. After being the first allied division to breach the German Hindenburg Line of Defense, the division also adopted its shoulder patch, a line being shot through with a red arrow, resulting in the division also being known as the Red Arrow division.
All four of the division’s infantry regiments, three artillery regiments and three machine gun battalions were also decorated with the highest level of French Croix de Guerre, the only National Guard Units to receive the highest recognition during WWI.
Eleven of the division’s members have received Medals of Honor, nine of which were awarded posthumously. At least 157 soldiers from the 32nd division were decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross. The service cross is one of the highest honors for heroism, second only to the Medal of Honor. The division has also earned 11,500 Purple Hearts.
A memorial in honor of the division’s efforts in WWI can be viewed at the Soldier’s Walk Memorial Park in Arcadia, Wisconsin.
Lauren is Wis. born and raised. She graduated from UW-Madison, earning a degree in journalism and certificate in photography. Now, she covers the Cambridge, Deerfield, Lake Mills, Marshall, McFarland, Monona Grove, and Waterloo School Districts.
