Meet Mechanic Donald D. Kyler

Meet Mechanic Donald D. Kyler. Company G, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division, American Expeditionary Forces, World War One. , Donald Kyler was sixteen years of age when he enlisted in the Regular Army in April of 1917. A native of Whitley County, Indiana, he grew up on a farm near the small town of Collamer. With the consent of one of his family, he enlisted at Fort Wayne, Indiana. As part of the 1st Division, the 16th Infantry Regiment was one of the first infantry regiments to be sent to France and took part in seven major campaigns including the defense of the Aisne-Marne Sector and the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives., During his combat experience, he fought in the front line trenches and ran messages for his company commander through hostile territory, where on one occasion, he knocked out a German machine gun nest with grenades and rifle fire. He was promoted to company mechanic, in charge of repairing firearms and directing carrying parties to the front lines. During the war, Mechanic Kyler kept notes on his experiences. When the war ended, he was seventeen and a half years of age and had become a hardened professional Soldier. Of the 250 enlisted men of Company G that left together for France in 1917, only ten of the original group returned with the regiment in 1919., After the war, he reenlisted in the Regular Army and rose to the rank of Sergeant. In 1990, at the age of 89, he published a book on his experiences in the Great War entitled The Thoughts and Memories of a Common Soldier., [Caption:] , Mechanic Donald D Kyler (then still a private and marked with an X) with the Color Guard of the 16th Infantry Regiment upon their arrival in France, June 1917.