Karl Detzer was a long time Michigan resident living in Leland and Ann Arbor, Michigan. During WW1 he was an infantry Captain and a member of the Criminal Investigation Division. Form by Brigadier General Harry Bandholtz, (Constantine, Michigan) Provost Marshall-General of the A.E.F. “Father of the Military Police”, he appointed Lt. Col. E.O. Sanders to the newly established post of Director of Criminal Investigation, with authority to organize a division of the army to fight crime. Captain Detzer was assigned to the LeMans District, a territory the size of the state of Illinois. One Hundred Thousand homeward-bound men occupied his area at one time.

His duty was to reduce the percentage of crime, to apprehend lawless soldiers and civilians, and cooperate with French and Belgian gendarmeries and the British C.I.D., (Scotland Yard) in capturing “Men Wanted”.

Karl was a newspaper reporter before the war and went on to a very successful writing career. He wrote for a number of police and firemen stories having one of them, Car 99 turned into a Hollywood movie by Paramount studios. During WW 2, he was a Colonel and wrote a number of articles and books for the army. He received the Distinguished Service Medal for his wartime effort.

Charles Forsythe and the Khaki Trio

Soldier and Entertainer

The Khaki Trio was a soldier singing group that toured Europe as part of the American Red Cross’s program to entertain the troops.

Charles Forsythe was the organizer and songwriter. He grew up in Lawrence, Mi.

Harold A. Furlong

Congressional Medal of Honor

United States Army First Lieutenant and a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in France during World War I.

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 353d Infantry, 89th Division. Place and date: Near Bantheville, France, 1 November 1918. Entered service at: Detroit, Mich. Birth: Pontiac, Mich. G.O. No.: 16, W.D., 1919:

Citation: Immediately after the opening of the attack in the Bois-de-Bantheville, when his company was held up by severe machine-gun fire from the front, which killed his company commander and several soldiers, 1st. Lt. Furlong moved out in advance of the line with great courage and coolness, crossing an open space several hundred yards wide. Taking up a position behind the line of the machine guns, he closed in on them, one at a time, killing a number of the enemy with his rifle, putting 4 machine gun nests out of action, and driving 20 German prisoners into our lines.

Lieutenant Furlong served in the Michigan Army National Guard from 16 December 1921 to 31 May 1946 and was honorably discharged as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Major General George O. Squier

Chief of Signal Corps, U.S. Army

George Squier wrote and edited many books and articles on the subject of radio and electricity. An inventor, he and Dartmouth professor Albert Cushing Crehore developed a magneto-optical streak camera “The Polarizing Photo-chronograph” in 1896 to measure the speed of projectiles both inside a cannon and directly after they left the cannon barrel. This was one of the earliest photonic programs. They also worked to develop synchronous AC telegraphic systems. His biggest contribution was that of telephone carrier multiplexing in 1910 for which he was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1919.

As executive officer to the Chief Signal Officer, U.S. Signal Corps in 1907, Squier was instrumental in the establishment of the Aeronautical DivisionU.S. Signal Corps, the first organizational ancestor of the U.S. Air Force. He also was the first military passenger in an airplane on September 12, 1908 and, working with the Wright Brothers, was responsible for the purchase of the first airplanes by the U.S. Army in 1909.

From May 1916 to February 1917, he was Chief of the Aviation Section, U.S. Army Signal Corps, the first successor of the Aeronautical Division, before being promoted to Major General and appointed Chief Signal Officer during World War One. In 1922, he created Wired Radio, a service which piped music to businesses and subscribers over wires. In 1934, he changed the service’s name to ‘Muzak”.

Eugene Van Antwerp

City Councilmen, Mayor of Detroit, V.F.W. National Commander and instrumental in making Armistice (Veterans) Day a National Holiday.

He was educated in parochial schools and then at the University of Detroit and worked as an instructor in English at Gonzaga University in 1910-1911.He returned to Detroit, working briefly at the Detroit Police Department before going to work as a civil engineer. He did engineering work first for the Michigan Central Railroad and then for the Grand Trunk Railroad.Van Antwerp served as a captain in 16th Regiment of Engineers(Railway) from Detroit in the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War I, and was among the first members of the Allied Expeditionary Force to land in France, serving in 1917-1919. He is leading company D 16th Regiment of Engineers (Railway) May 1919 in the picture above.

He returned to his position with Grand Trunk after the war. He was chief engineer for the National Survey Service from 1926–1928, after which he went into private practice as an engineer and surveyor.

Van Antwerp was elected to the Detroit City Council in 1932.He served continuously from 1932.to 1948, when he ran for mayor. During his time on the council, he ran unsuccessfully for county auditor in 1935 and served a stint as the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1938-39. During this time, he lobbied to get Armistice Day made a National Holiday. It became Veterans Day after World War Two.

Van Antwerp served a single term as mayor, beating Edward Jeffries in 1947 but losing in the primary in 1949. He returned to the City Council in 1950, winning a special election in November of that year to replace Edward Jeffries after the latter’s death.During his second time on the council, he ran unsuccessfully for state highway commissioner in 1952 and for United States Congress in 1955.