When Richard Evans Lander stood before Anchorage postmaster and recruiting officer F.B. Wood on May 25, 1917, he carried a secret that could have kept him far away from the trenches of Europe.
Lander was only 17 years old, a full year below the legal age required to voluntarily enlist in the United States military, according to local historian David Reamer’s weekly series on Alaska history published by adn.com. A week earlier, President Woodrow Wilson had signed the Selective Service Act.
To bypass the restriction, Lander simply added three or four years to his age while walking to the post office to sign the honor roll, as the Anchorage Daily Times coyly noted in historical accounts cited by adn.com.
From Gold Rush Cabins to the Western Front
Born in Chicago on July 23, 1899, Lander was the son of Harry and Harriet Evans Lander. His father, widely known in the North as “Uncle Harry,” had chased fortunes from the Yukon gold rush down to the Willow Creek district, where the family eventually settled into a cabin on the Little Susitna, adn.com reported.
When the young Lander decided to enlist alongside two other local youths, he returned home to secure his parents’ enthusiastic blessing. His father later maintained that had the boy not volunteered, he would have felt like whipping him, according to adn.com.
From Alaska, Lander traveled to Fort Lawton in Seattle, passed a rigorous physical, and shipped to Fort Bliss in Texas to join Battery E of the 5th Field Artillery Regiment. Europesays.com corroborated that his unit was shipped to New Jersey, where his unit joined the expeditionary force under General John J. Pershing that landed at Saint-Nazaire, France, in June.
Lander Operated Tripod and Range Finders in an Observance Squad
Battery E frequently functioned as a sacrifice battery, deployed in exposed, forward positions designed to fire upon the enemy rather than protect the gunners. Lander served within a specialized three-man observance squad.
While a lieutenant handled command duties and another soldier managed telephone wires, Lander operated the tripod, binoculars, and range finders, carrying only a revolver for personal defense as he scouted targets and transmitted data on wind, range, and elevations.
adn.com reported that Lander’s squad went over the top during some of the conflict’s bloodiest engagements, including Cantigny, Château-Thierry, Soissons, Saint-Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Writing to his mother in letters later excerpted by the Anchorage Daily Times, Lander reflected on the relentless movement of the front lines.
We are constantly on the move, changing positions and advancing. We never go back. We are all hoping this war will soon be over and we can come home. There are many beautiful sights in France and many, many sad ones.
Despite heavy exposure to poison gas—surviving an eight-hour ordeal wearing a gas mask while laying communication lines—and enduring severe cold and supply shortages in the Toul sector, Lander emerged physically unscathed. Of the 250 original members of his battery, only 12 survived to the end of the hostilities.
Return to Alaska and the Shadow of War
Following the Armistice, Lander received an honorable discharge and returned to Alaska.
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