The following is part of the oral history of my family. My grandfather, Earl Francis "Butch"Neal, member of the 150th Field Artillery, 42nd Division, served with Paul Cross in Battery E. The artillery pieces were pulled by teams of horses and part of the gun crew(which had about a dozen men) cared for them(including strapping special horse-issue gas masks in place when the poison gas attack alarm sounded!) while the others manned the gun. These duties were rotated on a regular schedule (unless the unit was under attack). In any event, either duty could be quite arduous. Can you imagine trying to keep horses calm during an artillery barrage? Grandpa said they even tried stuffing cotton in the horse’s ears to help block out the noise. On 5 June 1918 in Baccarat, (Lorraine Sector), France, Butch had just returned to horse duty; when suddenly there was a huge explosion-their gun (a six-inch howitzer) had blown up; killing Paul Cross and Bernard Hurst of Shelbyville and wounding Frank Roth Huntington of Decatur County. Grandpa said that part of the lanyard (rope) which, when pulled, fired the weapon, was still clutched in Paul's hand. I can't help thinking how close the school came to having the Earl Neal Gym and how my mother, Frances Evelyn would not have been born and I would not be here writing this.