Merle Hay

Merle David Hay (July 20, 1896 – November 3, 1917) was the first Iowa serviceman, and perhaps the first American serviceman to die in combat while assigned to an American unit, in World War I, along with Corporal James Bethel Gresham of Evansville, Indiana and Thomas Enright of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Early life

Merle Hay was born on a Carroll County, Iowa, farm to Harvey and Carrie Hay. He was the oldest of three children. In 1909, the family moved to another farm near Glidden. Before his service with the United States Army, he was a farm implement mechanic.

World War I service Cartoon published in the November 8, 1917, issue of the Des Moines Register; Uncle Sam brings home the body. A copy of the cartoon would be placed on a monument to Hay in Glidden. When the United States entered the First World War, Hay was young enough to avoid being drafted. With his father's blessing, he voluntarily enlisted on May 9, 1917. He was among eight men from Glidden who enlisted that day.

They were first shipped to Fort Logan, Colorado, then to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

Two days later, on 5 November 1917, Enright, Gresham, and Hay were buried near the battlefield where they had died. An inscription marked their graves: "Here lie the first soldiers of the illustrious Republic of the United States who fell on French soil for justice and liberty." Their bodies were eventually returned to their families and reburied in the United States. Hay was then re-interred in July 1921 in West Lawn Cemetery in his home town of Glidden, Iowa. The West Lawn Cemetery was later renamed the Merle Hay Memorial Cemetery. An 8-foot monument commissioned by the Iowa Legislature marks his gravesite.

Shortly after Hay's death, the highway running from the west edge of Des Moines to Camp Dodge was renamed Merle Hay Road. A memorial boulder was placed along Merle Hay Road in 1923 and remains up today amidst the commercial development along the road. Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines was also named for Hay; the local Kiwanis club placed a memorial plaque near the entrance to the mall's Sears store in 1979.

The first American military casualty in World War II was also an Iowa native. Robert M. Losey, a military attache, was killed on April 21, 1940, during a German bombardment of Dombås, Norway.

Family

Hay's mother collapsed upon hearing of his death but in an interview two days later Hay's father, D. Hay, said that "I am proud of my boy if he has given up his life for his country." He had a younger brother Basil and sister Opel.