"I apologize for a rather unpleasant war story, but let me assure you, there is nothing pleasant about war in any shape or manner and I hope that nobody will ever see another one and here we are in the midst of having them killed over there in Vietnam right now..." (Audio Recording, 53:34)

Arnold Stephen Hoke

Arnold S. Hoke, prior to his transfer to France; Creston, Iowa [1918] War: World War I, 1914-1920 Branch: Army Unit: 42nd Rainbow Division Service Location: Creston, Iowa; Mexican border; France; Germany; Texas Rank: Second Lieutenant Place of Birth: Spaulding, IA

After serving in the Iowa National Guard, Arnold Hoke joined the US Army in 1917. In 1971, he and his wife, Clara Hoke, who is also in our World War I feature, sat down to record their memories of the Great War. Like so many others, Arnold Hoke was thrust into trench warfare in France with little knowledge of what to expect, and initially without a weapon. He saw every major battle that the Army participated in during WWI, and his straightforward descriptions of the trenches, and the men lost, and the randomness of who lived and who died, are a timely reminder of the true cost of war.