Kilmer Centennial
VFW REMEMBERS JOYCE KILMER
30 July 2018
Robbinsville, NC
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States National Commander Vincent “B.J.” Lawrence was the key note speaker on July 30th at a memorial service honoring famed author and poet Joyce Kilmer (“Trees”). The service was held at the Joyce Kilmer Forest which was also rededicated. This was Lawrence’s first public speech since being elected VFW National Commander earlier the same month.
Lawrence recounted Kilmer’s dedication and heroism which eventually led to his death by a German sniper while scouting forward positions in the Argonne Forest exactly 100 years earlier. Although 31 with a college degree, a wife and children, he said Kilmer enlisted and spurned opportunities for an Army commission instead serving as a sergeant in an intelligence unit with the famed “Fighting 69th.” Like everyone who served with that New York National Guard unit, Kilmer was considered an “honorary Irishman.”
Lawrence said Kilmer was an intimate of then-major “Wild Bill” Donovan, who later founded the O.S.S. during WWII and of Father Patrick Duffy, the most decorated military chaplain of all time.
The ceremonies included a bag piper and honor guard from the VFW Department of North Carolina which along with the Slickrock Conservancy sponsored the event. Several members of the Kilmer family also were present.
The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest was established by Act of Congress in 1935 and features one of the few stands of never-harvested native timber. Some trees within the forest are 110’ tall with 20’ diameters.
VFW National Commander-In-Chief Vincent “B.J.” Lawrence presents a challenge coin to Adjutant Jim Jorgensen, who represented Tellico Village VFW Post 12135 at recent Joyce Kilmer Forest ceremonies rededicating the forest established in 1935 and honoring U.S. Army sergeant Kilmer, who was KIA 100 years earlier in the Argonne Forest.
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