Otto Ferdinand Leven |
Otto Leven during World War I [ca. 1917] | World War I, 1914-1920
Army
Company E, 90th Infantry Division
Camp Travis, Texas; Camp Mills, Long Island, New York; England; France
Sergeant
Ottawa, IL
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Otto Leven served in the army during World War I. He was of hearty German
stock (his parents immigrated to America around 1886) and spent most of his
twenty-three civilian years on his family's farms in Kay County and Newkirk,
Oklahoma. Drafted in October 1917, he was assigned to the 90th Infantry
Division and served in the 357th Regiment. Leven apparently wrote home
copiously, his surviving letters projecting earnestness charm, and enthusiasm.
Leven was mortally wounded while on patrol on September 29, 1918 and died
two days later. His last letters home offer the reader an irony created by the
contrast between Leven's generally cheery prose and the harshness of war. The
irony is further defined by Leven's description of a dream he has where he
envisions his mother and sister laying out his clothes.
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