World War I Memorial

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to give it its due. Somewhere in Texarkana, there stands a monument. Not a fancy plaque, not a government commission, but something put up by a group of women, in November of 1936, who decided that some things simply cannot go unmarked.

They called themselves the Texarkana Memorial Unit, and they banded together for one purpose: to honor the men from Bowie County, Texas and Miller County, Arkansas, who gave everything they had in the World War, 1917 to 1918. The supreme sacrifice, the marker says. That phrase doesn't flinch, and neither should we.

These were men from two counties, two states, straddling a state line, and yet the war had no interest in that line. It took from both sides equally. Now, you might expect a monument like this to talk about victory, about glory, about territory won.

But listen to what these women actually wrote. They said those men, and their comrades, fought not for selfish gain. Not for one foot of added territory.

Not one foot. They fought, the inscription says, for the highest ideal ever upheld by man: the peace of the world. That's a tall order to carve into stone.

That's a tall order to believe in, especially standing at the far end of a war. But the Texarkana Memorial Unit believed it. And they wanted the world to know that the praise and gratitude those men so justly merit, their word, justly, will forever be accorded them by their countrymen.

Forever is a long promise. November 1936, they made it anyway. That's the kind of thing that makes you pull over and just stand there a minute.

What the marker says

In memory of the men from Bowie County, Texas and Miller County, Arkansas, who made the supreme sacrifice in the service of their country in the World War 1917-1918. They and their comrades fought not for selfish gain nor for one foot of added territory, but for the highest ideal ever upheld by man--the peace of the world. This monument is a symbol of the praise and gratitude which they so justly merit which will forever be accorded them by their countryment. Erected by the Texarkana Memorial Unit, an organization of women banded together to honor their loyalty, their service and the devotion. November 1936.