Earle Schwartz
Submitted by: Bob Bostock
Earle Schwartz served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known June 5, 1917 thru shortly after Armistice Day.
Woodrow Wilson, former New Jersey governor and then-president of the United States, campaigned for re-election to the White House in 1916 on the slogan, “He kept us out of war.” Exactly three months and one day after Wilson took the oath of office for his second term, my grandfather, Earle Schwartz of Wood Ridge, New Jersey, registered for the draft. He did so less than three weeks after the President signed the bill instituting a draft to raise an Army to join what is today known to us as World War I. The day that Earle, then 21 years old, registered, June 5, 1917, was the very first day for registration under the new draft.
Before the year was out, young Earle, described by the draft registrar as being tall, of medium build, with blue eyes and brown hair and missing no limbs or eyes, was called up. Earle was sent to France as part of the American Expeditionary Force under the command of General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing. He returned to the States not long after the war ended, November 11, 1918, on what he always called “Armistice Day.”