My father-in-law died in 2018 at age 100. He’d been born in the spring of 1918, and he never knew his father, who is pictured above. I’ll call him William; he was a second lieutenant in the Rainbow Division, which had been hastily assembled from multiple states’ national guards when the United States entered World War I.

William served with distinction in Black Jack Pershing’s American Expeditionary Force. But he didn’t live to see the Armistice; he died in August 1918 when his son (also named William) was about four months old.

Donald Trump, I’m sure, would call him a sucker and a loser. He turned down opportunities to avoid serving in the War, choosing instead to fight alongside his fellow Rainbows. In honor of Armistice Day, here’s a short version of his remarkable story.

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