My grandfather Frank Severin Erickson in Le Grande, Oregon when he was a Deputy on the Oregon Railroad in the Spring of 1917.

Later in the Fall, Frank would be called up for training at Camp Lewis with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). By mid 1918 he and members of the 77th Division, 308th Infantry, Company H would be heading to England and soon after be serving on the battlefields of France.

Frank was a surviving member of what later would be referred to as 'The Lost Battalion.' What entailed in the Argonne Forest was a serious and brutal battle that began when the Division was surrounded by the Germans and only after what seemed hopeless odds, some were able to escape through the pocket not far from the Apremont-Binarville Road in the Argonne.

The Lost Battalion, the name given to the nine companies of the United States 77th Division of the American Expeditionary Force, consisted of 554 men that were surrounded by German forces in the Argonne Forest in France between October 2nd through the 8th of 1918.

Roughly 197 were killed in battle and approximately 150 went missing in action and or were taken prisoner. Only 194 remaining men walked out alive.

Since I have been a kid this has been my favorite photograph! I called it 'The Shootist,' and have always thought it would be a beauty of a film poster for a "great" western movie.