By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch A Veterans Day observance Tuesday in Eatonville was hosted by the American Legion post that once was named for the town's only known resident to die in combat during World War I. The community was invited to the spaghetti dinner the evening of Nov. 11 in the hall of Post 148, which was formed in 1923 and originally populated with veterans of WWI. One who was a member in memory only was Jesse L. Jensen, an Army private who served with the 361st Infantry, 91st Division. He was killed in action on Sept. 30, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne campaign in France. Jensen, who's buried at Bethany Lutheran Cemetery in Spanaway, was Eatonville's only casualty in the war, according to Ray Arment, an officer for Post 148. As described in "The Story of the 91st Division," a book compiled by the 91st Division Publication Committee in San Mateo, Calif., fighting in the Meuse-Argonne offensive was heavy and intensive. The book, which is available as a free e-book at books.google.com, tells some of the history of the 91st Division and its entry into the war. The division trained in Pierce County at Camp Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) beginning Sept. 5, 1917. Members came from Washington, California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. After finishing its base training, the 91st traveled across the continental U.S. for its departure from the East Coast to Europe. Along the way, the book relates, "the soldiers from the Far West" witnessed examples of "the patriotic unity which ultimately was to bring about the defeat of Germany. The motherly, gray-haired old woman standing in front of her little cottage on the broad prairie of Montana, alternately waving a flag and brushing away the tears she could not restrain, contributed as much to this feeling as did the impromptu receptions tendered the men in the great cities through which they passed." The division set sail for France on July 6, 1918, with soldiers squeezed "into every available foot of spaceGÇ¥ ships for the 12-day crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to England. The transports arrived safely, but a Navy cruiser, the San Diego, which escorted the ships carrying the soldiers, exploded and sank GÇô the apparent victim of an enemy torpedo or mine GÇô on its return voyage to the U.S. "In Service of his CountryGÇ¥ is inscribed on Jensen's tombstone, Arment said.
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