On this Veteran's Day, 2010, 92 years after the armistice, a letter from my maternal grandfather, George Grady, a conscientious objector in WWI, who served as a corpsman and ordinance technician throughout France between 1916-1919, to my great grandmother, Mary Logan-Grady, of Valders, WI.Charpentry, France
Jan 1st, 1919
Dearest Mother-
Well, another year has rolled around and in place of the grim and hideous spectacle which the last few years have found confronting them on taking their appointed place in the ages, it finds all mankind at peace. I can well imagine with what a frenzied and momentous joy the wild bells ushered in this new year of nineteen hundred and nineteen. God grant that all subsequent years finds the world more securely attached to peace and peaceful pursuits.
It would be too bad if this war has been fought in vain, unless the whole world stands as a unit and agrees to abolish compulsory military service and fails to uphold the fourteen points of President Wilson's plan, I am sure in a few years expect the same awful catastrophe to occur again and with more terrible and appalling results. There is no way to judge the future but by the past. My prayers now are for the peace counsil [sic] which is soon to sit. I hope God be with them in their work so that their poor blind eyes be able to see their way clear and guide them aright. On their heads rest the future of this turbulent sphere. How well their work is done determines the safety of it. Let us sincerely hope and pray for the best so that the sacrifices and heroic sufferings and efforts will bear fruit.
-PVT George W. Grady
Ordinance Detachment
American Expeditionary Force
France
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