This Veterans Day, we have a special “Look Familiar” – on a Monday!
Tucked into a corner of Waters Road in eastern Blount County, not far from E. Lamar Alexander Pkwy (US 321), is a massive military tank. The vehicle marks the entrance to the Emerson J. Lones American Legion Post 13.
But who was Emerson J. Lones?
Captain Lones was the highest-ranking Blount Countian to die during World War I. Born in 1883, Lones was commissioned as a captain in 1911, serving in the Army Reserve. He married his second wife, Nell French, in 1917, not long before he shipped out to Europe. His death on Sept. 29, 1918, was reported in the Maryville Enterprise with the mournful note: “Another gold star, the emblem of supreme sacrifice, must be added to Blount County’s service flag.”
Lones led Company B, 117th Infantry, and died during the Fifth Battle of Ypres, part of the Hundred Days Initiative. He was one of some 10,000 Allied losses in the battle, which took place in western Belgium. The battle garnered an Allied advance of about 18 miles.
In August 1918, Capt. Lones wrote a letter to the Maryville Enterprise: “I want all the good people at home to know that I shall do my utmost to take good care of their sons that are under my charge…. We ask that you always remember us in your prayers, for we are thinking of you at home and longing and hoping for the happy day when we can come home a victorious army who has set the world free from the German Hell.”
Lones did not come home, but the following year, the American Legion Post 13 was commissioned in his honor.
This Veterans Day we remember with gratitude the many service people, today and in the past, who strive to do their duty by our nation.