Historian and Huntington Beach City Archivist Kathie Schey will tell stories of the many Huntington Beach residents of who served in World War I at the next meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, Thursday, April 10, 2025, 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The public is welcome!
American Legion Post 133 in Huntington Beach is among the oldest continually active posts in the nation and is only a few months younger than the Legion itself. It was built on a remarkable legacy of service: Those who left a sleepy coastal farm town to fight an international war they could never have imagined amidst the threat of an international pandemic.
The small group of veterans who founded Post 133 represented a cross-section of the community. One was an attorney, another a land developer and most of the rest had small businesses or farms. Some had seen the horrors of battle, while others hadn’t even made it off their troop transports. Each of their stories shine a light on the lived experience of that time.
More than one hundred local men joined the Service after the U.S. entered WWI in April 1917 – a staggering number for a tiny city less than a decade old. They served on land, on sea (and under it), and in the air. Most went to France while others were sent to China or were members of the occupying force in Germany.
Courtesy OC Archives
Scouring newspapers, letters, diaries and more, their stories have unfolded. Among them, heroism in the sky, mastering new technologies, lying “doggo” in a muddy trench while artillery roared overhead, witnessing the burial at sea of a Spanish Influenza victim. Introductions to just a few examples follow:
- Three boyhood friends met serendipitously in a French battlefield, then separated, their fates unknown to each other and to their frantic families at home.
- Another soldier wrote to his father to watch for him in a newsreel.
- One infantryman disembarked at the very port his father immigrated from decades earlier.
- The first African American graduate of Huntington Beach High School was proudly assigned to one of only two Black units allowed to bear arms.
Some returned home to jubilant welcomes. Others returned in coffins. All their stories are worth knowing and sharing.
Kathie Schey is currently the Archivist of the City of Huntington Beach. She holds a master’s degree in history, receiving the Nicholas Perkins Hardeman Prize for her work. Subsequent awards include two nationally competed Visiting Research Fellowships. Kathie has served on numerous history-related boards – including OCHS – and holds certification in archives, historic preservation and urban planning.
Please join us to hear this important presentation on service given by Huntington Beach residents during the turbulent years of Word War I on Thursday, April 10, 2025, 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The public is welcome!
Image courtesy OC Archives