Forbush, Frederic Moore

Born August 11, 1896, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Son of F. D. and Florence Moore Forbush. Home, Detroit, Michigan. Educated Detroit Schools and Interlaken School, Indiana. Business with U. S. Tire Company. Joined American Field Service, April 25, 1916; attached Section Eight to October 24, 1916. Returned to America. University of Vermont. Enlisted U. S. Naval Reserve. Eleven trips to France on U. S. S. De Kalb. Died of pneumonia, October 6, 1918, in Philadelphia hospital. Body cremated at Detroit, Michigan.

FREDERIC FORBUSH's home, except for the first three years of his life, was Detroit, Michigan. Here he spent most of his school days and here he worked for nine months in a branch of the U. S. Tire Company, prior to his departure for France. His mother has written of this period of his life: "He was just the average happy, adventurous, fun-loving boy. He had a very keen sense of humor and often had amusing experiences in his association with all types of men and boys. He made friends easily and his greatest enjoyment was in the company of his many boyhood friends."

In the early spring of 1916 he enlisted in the American Field Service and sailed for France in April. The Section to which he was assigned, S. S. U. 8, did not leave for the front until the following month and for the intervening weeks he was quartered in the American Hospital at Neuilly. Here he first saw the results of the struggle which France was making and a letter written home at the time shows how tenderly he reacted to it: " received my first shock of war yesterday as I was climbing the stairs to my dormitory. A French soldier was descending and his face was the most terrible thing I have ever seen,---all twisted and creased and wrinkled, and one eye and ear gone. He wore the Croix de Guerre, and when I saluted he came to attention and gave me a fine salute. Just that one short glimpse of him seemed to hit me awfully hard and when I got to the dormitory I just had to bawl,---I could n't help it."

His Section left Paris the 25th of May and first took up work in Champagne. By the middle of June, however, they were actively engaged in the Verdun sector, where they remained with but short periods of rest until September. Of the sort of work Forbush did during the summer, the following letter, written by his Section commander some months later, is sufficient evidence: "At the time when we had our hardest and most trying work at Fort Tavannes, I remember him as being one of the foremost to volunteer for any particularly hard run. When Keogh was hit, our one casualty, he was the one to volunteer to take his place and continue the run at the beginning of which Keogh was wounded. I can but say that I am awfully sorry to see him leave."

On October 24, 1916, he resigned from the Field Service and returned to America. Desire to be near his fiancée prevented him from carrying out his original intention of returning to France and instead he entered the University of Vermont to complete his education. When war was declared in the following spring he enlisted immediately in the Navy and on the De Kalb, formerly the German raider Prinz Eitel Freidrich, made eleven round trips to France. Shortly before his first voyage he was married, and a year and half later a son was born who bears the father's name.

He died at Philadelphia, October 6, 1918, of pneumonia, at the age of twenty-two years, but in his life, short as it was, had been crowded the experiences denied in a long lifetime to many older men. His mother has written of him: "Even as a little boy he was of the fearless, happy-go-lucky type, and he retained those characteristics, even though sobered by his work in France, well calculated to make him thoughtful. He expressed always a deep admiration and love for France and a great satisfaction in having served her,- --and for his own dear land he made the supreme sacrifice."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921