Two days after the Fifth U. S. Marines landed at St. Nazaire. France on July 2, 1917, Buck Private Abian Anders Wallgren was arrested for trying to smuggle two bottles of cognac into camp. It was the first vagary of a mildly undisciplined disposition which ultimately got Private Wallgren seven court-martials, never for anything more serious than "butting an officer in the stomach to get into quarters."
Having been a newspaper cartoonist in Philadelphia and Washington, "Wally" Wallgren was appointed Regimental Sign Painter; and for nearly nine months, punctuated by spells in the hoosegow,...
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