Story Citians in Hawaii

During World War I, seven men from Story City, Iowa, were stationed in Hawaii as part of the U.S. military's Coast Artillery Corps. These men included Oscar Dale, Alfred Jacobson, Fred Jensen, Andrew Matson, Milton Olson, William Peterson, and Elmer Wendel. They volunteered for service shortly after the United States entered the war in April 1917.

In letters written home, that were reprinted in the Story City Herald, the men share how they travelled to Hawaii. Fred Jensen wrote in his June 3, 1917 letter that "after passing a preliminary examination at Omaha, we were sent to Fort Logan, CO, where we were given a more rigid one, including an inoculation for typhus, and a vaccination for small pox, and a Wasserman blood test." After staying there a couple of days they were sent by train to Fort Winfield Scott in California, where they were assigned temporary companies and drilled for about a week. 

On May 19, they boarded the U.S. transport Sherman bound for Honolulu. It took 8 days to reach their destination, arriving on May 27. Many of the men were seasick for the first few days. Elmer Wendel shared that they felt like they were packed like sardines on the boat. "It seems to me as tho they packed us (904 of us) quite tight, but when I was informed that there were over 1200 on board the previous trip I considered we were lucky." 

After they arrived in Honolulu they were quarantined near Fort Kamehameha for five weeks due to outbreaks of measles and scarlet fever on ship.  During this time they would drill every day and go on 2-5 mile hikes.

USAT Sherman, circa 1910

Cross-section model of Sherman. The lowest part of the ship is her coal bunkers. The two decks above have three-tiered cots for the troops. The top two decks have the first-class cabins. By Unknown author - https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/cassiersmagaz401911newy, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152838762