1st Sergeant Adolph H Cologne
Adolph Harold Cologne was born in St Paul, Canada on May 5th, 1895 to Napoléon Coulombe and Delima Kerouac. The next year, his entire family immigrated to the United States and settled down in Bristol, Rhode Island. When Adolph was old enough, he began working as a doffer at a cotton mill instead of finishing school, eventually married Mathilda Gladue in Hartford, Connecticut on February 19th, 1917, and became a naturalized citizen on May 17th. By doing so, his last name changed from “Coulombe” to “Cologne.” The year 1917 had been good for Adolph so far, but when the United States formally entered World War One in April, the possibility of being sent away from his wife became very real. Instead of waiting for a draft notice, Adolph enlisted in the Coastal Artillery Corps on May 24th, 1917 and was sent to Narragansett, Rhode Island for training. Afterwards, Cologne was activated for Federal Service on July 25th in preparation for movement overseas to support the war effort. This would not come for almost a year, but in the meantime, Cologne quickly moved up the ranks to 1st Sergeant and had his first daughter born in January of 1918. On October 7th, 1st Sgt Cologne boarded the Euripides with the Fort Narragansett September Automatic Replacement Draft, CAC and left for France. Once he arrived, he was quickly transported to Operations and Training Center No. 6, Haussimont, France where he joined Battery F-2, 54th Coastal Artillery. As a native French speaker, 1st Sgt Cologne was a valuable asset for communicating with the French soldiers there. As with most Coastal Artillery units in France, his 3rd Battalion, 54th Artillery was not to see combat. Instead, they functioned as a training battalion for railway artillery regiments at Haussimont until the Armistice was called on November 11th, 1918, effectively ending WW1 and any doubts 1st Sgt Cologne had about seeing his wife and daughter again. Unfortunately, he still had to remain in France until February 25th, 1919 when he boarded the USS Nebraska and left for the United States. Nine days after making landfall in Boston, Massachusetts, Adolph was discharged from the Army on March 19th and returned to his family in Bristol, Rhode Island, got a job at the U.S. Rubber Co as a millwright, and two years later they welcomed a son into the family. Sadly, Adolph would pass away on December 30th, 1942 at the young age of 47 and is buried at Saint John the Baptist Cemetery in Bristol, Rhode Island.
|
|