Today is Memorial Day 2026. Though I never think much about it, other than as a holiday, this year I am. I say over and over, “they did not die for this,” the ShitShow that is America. I’m pretty much a nihilist, and I don’t see anything getting better–at least in my lifetime or 2 or 3 lifetimes from now. We are all going down. I hope I am wrong, but I think not.
This Memorial Day, I remember Charles Carey, USMC, my first cousin twice removed, who long, long ago was killed in the Battle of Belleau Wood; therefore, in the words of Donald Trump, he was “a loser.” I am probably the last person still around who knows his name–something about him–more than just his name carved in the keystone of the American Legion Post in Salem, Ohio. So, here’s to Charles Carey and what he and America, with all its faults, once was and never will be again.
PRIV
ATE CHARLES HERBERT CAREY, USMC; 1898-1918
Charles Carey was my dad’s first cousin and my first cousin twice removed. His father was Charles M Carey, son of abolitionist Dr. Abel Carey, a Civil War surgeon. His mother was Effie Inez Campbell Carey, the sister of my great-grandmother, Adella Campbell Greiner.
Charles attended Salem High School.
He joined the US Marine Corps in April 1917. Two months later, after training at Quantico, he was assigned to Co A, 6th Machine Gun Battalion. On June 12, 1918, he was wounded in action during the Battle of Belleau Wood and died the following day. He was 20.
Belleau Wood was the last major German offensive of the war. A wiki entry for June 11th, the day before Charles was wounded, describes the battle and the 6th Machine Gun Battalion:
At 04:00 on 11 June, Wise’s men advanced through a thick morning mist towards Belleau Wood, supported by the 23rd and 77th Companies of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, and were cut to pieces by heavy fire. Platoons were isolated and destroyed by interlocked machine gun fire. It was discovered that the battalion had advanced in the wrong direction. Rather than moving northeast, they had moved directly across the wood’s narrow waist. However, they smashed the German southern defensive lines. A German private, whose company had 30 men left out of 120, wrote “We have Americans opposite us who are terribly reckless fellows.”
The battle took a heavy toll: U.S. forces suffered 9,777 casualties, with 1,811 dead. It was at this battle that the Marines were allegedly given the name, “Teufelshunde”–Devil Dogs
I am sure I am the only person in my circle who grew up hearing stories about World War 1. When we visited my great aunt, the topic of Charles Carey nearly always came around. I have always felt a bond with him and wish I’d paid more attention.
My dad turned 6 the year Charles died. He had a military jacket cut down to size, supposedly from one of Charles’ uniforms. At least that’s the story. I can’t imagine the Careys letting their dead son’s uniform be cut up for a snotty kid (which, by all accounts, my dad was.) I eventually inherited the jacket and wore it until the seams burst and the sleeves were nearly up to my elbows. I don’t know what happened to it, but I can guess. My mother hated the jacket. So un-girrly. Whatever she did with the jacket, she saved the buttons and various insignia from it, now in my possession.
American Legion Post #65, Charles H. Carey, Salem, Ohio
Although killed in France, Charles seems to be buried in Hope Cemetery in Salem, Ohio. Or perhaps it is just a large memorial stone. The Salem American Legion Post #65 is named in his honor. Every time we drove past the building, I would take a second to read the cornerstone with his name on it.
Semper Fi!
This is slightly edited from a blog I posted on November 11, 1917, honoring all of my family–bio and adopted, who died in World War 1.