Spotlight On: Bring Home the Soldier Dead League
In June 1920, a military order was issued to place a guard in the Belleau Wood cemetery in France to arrest any American who attempted to exhume the bodies of soldiers buried there. The order was given after learning that James Foster of McKeesport, the father of a U.S. Marine killed during the battle, had made extensive plans to disinter the remains of his son and bring them home. This program will examine the nearly three-year-long struggle of the Fosters and other families who wished to bring their fallen loved ones home after WWI. Also highlighted will be additional artifacts and stories from the museum’s collection related to this subject.
Andrew serves as President of the Trafford Historical Society, and co-authored the book “Images of America – Trafford” published in 2017 by Arcadia Publishing. He is the author of the book "Good War, Great Men. The detailed accounts of a machine gun battalion during World War I." In 2018, his book was endorsed as an official project of the World War One Centennial Commission in Washington D.C. In the Fall of 2021, Andrew’s article “Bring Home the Soldier Dead League” was published by the Heinz History Center’s Western Pennsylvania History Magazine. This article was recognized with two awards by the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, one for Excellence in Written Journalism in the History & Culture category, and the other with a Best in Show award in Division 7, recognized with a Ray Sprigle Memorial Award.
In 2023, Trafford American Legion Post 331 officers William Bray & Andrew Capets at the grave of Pvt John Manion, a soldier who served with Andrew's grandfather who was killed during the Great War. His body was returned home in the same escort that carried four other men from Carnegie, PA, including the remains of 2nd Lt Joseph M. Duff Jr.
