Hometown: Auburn, WA
Branch: U.S. Marine Corps
Unit: 8th Machine Gun Company, 5th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division
Date of Sacrifice: November 12, 1918 - KIA near the Meuse River, south of Sedan, France
Age: 24
Conflict: World War I, 1914-1918

Born on December 28, 1893, Joseph Turley was known by friends and family by his middle name, “Otto.” He and his family lived in Auburn, Washington—a community northeast of Tacoma with a view of Mt. Rainier to the southeast.

Otto was the middle child of seven born to Richard and Martha Turley, with older siblings Hattie, John, and Thomas, and younger siblings Jesse, Grace, and Louis.

At Auburn High School, Otto played football and was the student body president. He graduated with the class of 1917, which The Tacoma Daily Ledger noted was “the largest class in the history of the school,” with 31 graduates.

According to family recollections, Otto and his brothers were known as the “Singing Turley Brothers,” earning tips by performing in local saloons.

A month before Otto graduated from high school, the United States had officially joined what author H.G. Wells called “The War That Will End War.” Bloody conflict had been raging in Europe since 1914.

After a secret proposal by Germany was discovered—a to ally with Mexico if the U.S. entered the war—American public opinion against involvement shifted. When German aggression on the high seas killed U.S. citizens, the Congress voted to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.

In December of that year, Otto and his brothers Tom and Jess enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. The three were sent to Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California, for training.

Marine Private Otto Turley was trained as a machine gunner, assigned to the 8th Machine Gun Company, 5th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, and shipped off to the battlefields of France. By mid-June 1917, 14,000 American infantry troops arrived in France and trained for combat.

In the year that followed, Pvt. Otto Turley was involved in the bloodiest battles of World War I. In the Battle of Soissons (July 1918), Allied forces prevented the German Army from reaching Paris. Heavily defended German positions were captured in October 1918 in the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge.

In the final Allied offensive of World War I, the bloody Meuse-Argonne Offensive (September 26-November 11, 1918) involved more than a million American soldiers and Marines—including Pvt. Turley.

The final blow to German ambitions in Europe came with an armistice agreement, ending four years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives. Warring parties agreed to end all hostilities at “the eleventh hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month” of 1918.

News of the November 11 armistice was spread to commanders in the field. Guns were to fall silent at 11:00 a.m. Paris time. Before receiving word that morning, Pvt. Turley’s machine gun team was attempting to cross the Meuse River, south of Sedan, France. 

According to research provided by Turley’s nephew, Dennis Anderson, “some hundreds of Marines wobbled across a makeshift wooden bridge cobbled together on the night of November 10 [1918] by Army combat engineers.”

Turley’s unit came under a steady hail of German machine gun fire. Many were shot off the makeshift bridge or shot as they made it to the other side. Pvt. Turley was among the wounded, and he died a day later in a nearby church that was converted to a field hospital.

At the age of 24, Private Joseph “Otto” Turley was lost—one day after the guns went silent, ending World War I.

In 1921, Pvt. Turley’s remains were moved from a cemetery in France and reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery (Section 18, Site 1345). His headstone mistakenly listed his date of death as November 2, 1918. After an 11-year effort by Turley’s great-nephew, Dennis Anderson, and great-great-nephew, Garrett Anderson, the error was corrected.

Exactly a century to the day of Pvt. Turley’s fatal injury, on November 11, 2018, a small ceremony was held at Arlington. Pvt. Turley’s great-nephew and great-great-nephew—both Veterans themselves—were present as officials marked the installation of a new headstone with his correct date of death: November 12, 1918.

Sources
Details and card photo provided by Mr. Dennis Anderson (Pvt. Turley’s great-nephew) and Mr. Garrett Anderson (Pvt. Turley’s great-great-nephew)
Military.com: Marine Iraq Vet Secures Corrected Headstone for Great-Uncle Killed in WWI
The Tacoma Daily Ledger, Jun. 1, 1917: Graduate Biggest Class in History
Aerotech News, Nov. 15, 2024: Veterans Day and Armistice Day in an American family: Section 18, Grave 1345
History.com: The United States officially enters World War I
Military.com: New Headstone at Arlington for Marine Private Who Fell on Last Day of WWI
U.S. Naval Institute: Marines in the Rhineland Occupation, 1918-1919
Burial Site: Find a Grave

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