SAYLES: Local History and American Stories: Jus’ passin’ through Mason City

For a few of the 15 Black World War I soldiers’ lives explored for this serial, the connection to Mason City and North Iowa was short, slight and tenuous. It was that way for George A. Hudson. Yet, George’s journey to Mason City crossed paths with Willie D. Baker, who you previously met, as they trained together at Camp Grant, Illinois, and served in France together, both in Company F 803rd Pioneer Infantry performing the gruesome and necessary job of body identification and exhumation to facilitate the reverent burial of both comrades and the enemy into designated cemeteries of hallowed ground.

J.W. Sayles is a Mason City resident. Opinions are his own.