Place the Headstones Where They Belong: Thomas Neibaur, World War 1 Soldier

Preface

xi Preface In May 2005 I commenced a journey of discovery that has climaxed with the publication of this biography. Over the last three years I discovered the heart and soul of Thomas Neibaur, and I am a better historian because of it. I remember well how the journey began with a casual phone call and conversation with Robert Freeman, the director of the Saints at War Center and professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. I asked Bob who was the first Latter-day Saint recipient of the Medal of Honor. He offered the name Thomas Neibaur, of Sugar City, Idaho. It was the first time I had heard of Thomas Croft Neibaur. Since that day, I have come to respect and admire a young American soldier who, in the course of several hours on the afternoon of October 16, 1918, performed gallant actions, with skill and cool-headed determination, that would change his life for ever. He would be both the first Mormon and the first nativeborn Idahoan to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Bob Freeman passed on another name to me. A few days later I called Paul Kelly of Idaho Falls, Idaho, a former Air Force officer and a historian and businessman. Paul told me more about Thomas Neibaur and his life and importance, including his plight in later years. Paul Kelly then gave me another name, that of Anthony Gardner, Thomas Neibaur’s nephew, who lives in St. Anthony, Idaho. Both Anthony and Paul became fast friends to me and provided me with the first xii Place the Headstones Where They Belong real look into Neibaur’s life. Through them I learned of the man behind the medal. They sent me newspaper clippings, copies of photos, segments of books and articles, and two accounts of his military exploits that Neibaur himself wrote and contributed to, respectively. In the fall of 2006 I made two rewarding journeys. First, I went to Côte de Châtillon in France and walked the battle area where Thomas Neibaur performed his valorous exploits in October 1918. Then in December, I visited Marian Neibaur Hunkerford in Lancaster, Ohio. She is Neibaur’s daughter and the last surviving member of his immediate family. This visit was a gold mine. Marian had a small collection of her father’s letters that she had kept safe for more than sixty years. She made them available to me. The list of others who have helped, commented, advised and supported this biography is not especially long, but their assistance was beneficial. Lt. Col. Joseph Whitehorne, Ph.D., U.S. Army (retired) of Lord Fairfax College in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, where I also reside, read the manuscript. As a former combat veteran, military historian, and college history professor, Joe provided comments that were dead on and always helpful. In Boise, Ken Swanson of the Idaho Historical Society and Gayle Alvarez of the Idaho Military History Museum, also reviewed the manuscript and provided guidance. Gayle and Ken have been of tremendous help to locate photos and other resources. A military historian, museum specialist, and well-read student of the Great War, Scott Schoner of San Antonio provided some great comments and corrected many minor military and combat issues. Lavina Fielding Anderson, a great editor and scholar, read and commented on form, structure and prose, and because of her, it is a better, tighter book. My good friend John Roller of Stafford, Virginia, read the early draft as a representative of the audience I envisioned and helped me make it readable and more fluent for the general reader. I hope I have not fallen into the trap that some biographers do, by which they admire their subject so much that warts and blemishes are covered over. Thomas’s blemishes Preface xiii were minor, but fate, the casino of life, dealt him a tragic hand to go with the few aces of fame and honor he received at an early age, as a war hero and local celebrity. Yet that hand also contained grim adversity and death, again at an early age. Through the dire times of the Great Depression, he struggled to support a family; he lost three boys to domestic accidents at tender young ages; and by his thirties he was disabled from four German bullet wounds, mustard gas poisoning , and a work-related accident. Adversity, an interrupted education, economic frustration, and little hope caused him to make an astounding choice. There...