U.S. Army Private 1st Class Raymond W. Maker, left, and the key he says he took from Verdun, France, around the end of World War I. His grandson, Bruce Norton, went to France last November to return the key back to the town.

World War I centennial: US author honors grandfather by returning key taken from France 100 years ago 

By Greg Norman
via the Fox News web site

One hundred years ago on this date, U.S. Army Private 1st Class Raymond W. Maker wrote in his diary “today is one of the happiest days of my life."

“The War is off, thank God. And all the boys have gone about half mad with joy. Bands are playing all day and at night all kinds of flares in the sky,” he beamed, capturing the relief felt among Allied forces as World War I officially came to an end.

It was a thrilling moment for Maker who, during the war, had been hit with mustard gas from the German army, wounded by artillery fire during the Muese-Argonne offensive – the deadliest battle in U.S. military history – and later went on to earn a Purple Heart for his service.

A century later, on Veterans Day 2018 – marking the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended The Great War – his grandson, Bruce Norton, was in France retracing Maker’s footsteps and honoring him by returning a key his grandfather took during the war. Norton joined the many Americans remembering the heroics of family members from generations past.

“My grandfather never spoke about the war to me, and it was only after his death that war stories were told at family gatherings about his service in France,” Norton, a former Marine and military author who is writing a book about Maker’s service, told Fox News.

Read the entire article on the Fox News web site.

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