In Honor of Lonnie Green

In Honor of Lonnie Green. Dec. 21, 1892 - Nov. 3, 1918. Alonzo Richmond Green, also known as Lonnie, is the only Sugar Land soldier who lost his life while serving in World War I. Lonnie was born in Sebastopol, Mississippi, on Dec. 21, 1892. He moved to Sugar Land with his family sometime between 1912 and 1916., Lonnie, along with his parents and siblings, attended the First Presbyterian Church of Sugar Land. He aspired to be a Presbyterian minister, but had to leave for induction into the army at Camp Travis in San Antonio on the very day he was to start his religious studies., Lonnie rose to sergeant in the machine gun battalion of the 180th Texas Brigade, part of the 360th Infantry Regiment of the 90th Infantry Division. The earliest enlistees at Camp Travis started for France in late May 1918. The exact details of Lonnie's battle experience over the next five months are not known, but he would have participated in the important St. Mihiel Offensive in September 1918., More than half-a-million American and 110,000 French soldiers forged deep into heavily fortified enemy territory gaining ground at great cost amid horrific scenes of mud, massive entanglements of barbed wire fencing, heavy tank and machine gun fire and bloodshed. More than 7,000 Allied soldiers died. The regiment moved next to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, one of the largest, bloodiest and most decisive battles of the war, fought by more than a million American soldiers. It was a major part of the final western Allied offensive that led to Germany's defeat and the signing of the Armistice Nov. 11, 1918., There is no record of how or in what battle Lonnie received his wounds, but fate played a touching role-one that may have proved of great comfort to the Green family back home. Shortly before Lonnie died, he had a chance encounter with his brother Lee who served in the Army's 45th Infantry Division. Lee had been in the Machine Gun Company before being transferred to the Motor Supply Train as a truck driver. While waiting for his truck to be unloaded in France one day, by a strange twist of fate, Lee saw his wounded brother going by. At the time of that brief reunion, neither man considered Lonnie's wounds serious; nonetheless Lonnie died of his injuries on Nov. 3, 1918., Lonnie was buried in France just seven weeks shy of his 26th birthday, laid to rest alongside thousands of other young American soldiers at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery near Romagne, where he is listed on the World War Honor Roll., His brother Lee returned to their hometown after the war and, by 1920, was married and working for Imperial Sugar. Many sons were lost and buried far from home, but Lonnie's mother Anna Green applied and was selected to join the World War Mothers' Pilgrimage to France where she was finally able to visit her fallen son's grave., Captions , Lower Left: The Presbyterian Church of Sugar Land, Texas. Credit: Robert Laperouse family , Upper Right: Lonnie Green Park open space, 2016 , Center: world war one soldiers with companions in Sugar Land, circa 1917. Credit: Sugar Land Heritage Foundation , Middle Right: Drafted men reporting for service. Camp Travis, San Antonio, Texas, circa 1917-18. Credit: National Archives and Records Administration. , Lower Right: Eighteenth infantry, machine gun battalion passing through St. Baussant in advance upon St. Mihiel front, Sept. 13, 1918. Credit: National Archives and Records Administration