Private Paul O Fagerlie
Paul Olson Fagerlie was born in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway on August 24th, 1891 to Ole Fagerlie and Sigrid Oien. When Paul was fourteen years old, his family immigrated to the United States and settled down in Becker, Minnesota. Due to Paul’s parents teaching him english as his first language, likely because they had planned to immigrate for a while before he was born, attending school was made easier, and afterwards, he worked as a laborer locally. When the United States formally entered World War One in 1917, Paul was still not an American citizen, but was still given a draft notice. On July 26th, 1918, he was called into service and sent to Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina in early August as one of the 3300 men assigned to the 54th Pioneer Infantry to bring it up to full war strength.
The newly arrived troops barely had any opportunity to train before the regiment was sent by rail to Virginia just a few weeks later for deployment overseas. Private Fagerlie’s Company D quickly boarded the Duka d’ Aosta on August 30th and arrived in Brest on September 12th. After a few days, the Company left by train to Port D’Atelier but was halted by a train collision in a tunnel directly ahead. Since the 54th Pioneer Infantry was the closest to the accident, they were tasked with extracting the dead and wounded from the debris before continuing their journey. Finally arriving on the 20th, Private Fagerlie’s company was issued gas masks and immediately shipped off to Fleuery Woods, arriving on the 23rd. Here, the men were taught how to properly put on their gas masks, but the majority still lacked a tremendous amount of training needed for going to the front. Regardless, the company continued on their journey to support the Meuse Argonne Campaign, marching through Clermont Woods, Aubreville, and Neuvilly until settling in Bourielles on October 2nd. They remained here for eighteen days, likely catching up on some well needed training and conducting engineer duties wherever needed. On October 20th, Private Fagerlie’s company moved to Varennes where they would remain until the Armistice was declared on November 11th, 1918, effectively ending the war and Private Fagerlie’s rather short wartime service. Although the war had come to an end, the 54th Pioneer Infantry remained in Europe for the occupation and continued to repair and construct bridges in France and Germany. On June 13th, 1919, Private Fagerlie finally left aboard the Artemis to return home. Shortly after landing in the United States, Paul was officially made a US citizen on July 8th and discharged from the army just two days later. Settling back down in Minnesota, Paul married Ella Lindberg on January 30th, 1925, worked for Minneapolis-Moline, and was a member of Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church before passing away on August 14th, 1962. |
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