The US Congress declared war on Germany and their allies on 6
Apr 1917. Ten days later, Dr. Otto L. H.
Hine volunteered for military service.
This was almost exactly two years since he passed the Oklahoma licensing
examination and began practicing dentistry in Muskogee.
His volunteering effort sent him to Oklahoma City where he
took an oral exam and passed. Shortly
afterwards, he was sworn in as a First Lieutenant in the US Army’s Dental Corps
Reserves.
In the middle of July he was drafted into active duty. He spent the rest of 1917 in uniform awaiting
orders for debarkation for the European Theater. He served in the Second Battalion, 139th
Infantry.
This is Lt. Hine in a more peaceful moment. However, the war in France was a brutal one of attrition as each side
tried to wear its opponent down to the point that they gave up. Trench warfare caused horrendous losses on
both side. The infusion of American
soldiers shifted the balance of power to the British-French-American side.
No Man’s Land existed between the trenches. When the whistle blew to send GI’s out of
their trenches, and “over the top” into No Man’s Land, they entered a zone that
was raked by machine gun fire and exploding artillery shells.
Naturally, chaos regularly ensued as soldiers tried to avoid
being killed while advancing forward.
One time, Lt. Hine became lost. Another
time he found himself in the vanguard of the attack and he captured 32 German
soldiers.
On September 29th, this Muskogee dentist followed the
advancing 139th Infantry into No Man’s Land.
He was assigned supervision of a
field first aid station located at Chaudron Farm. There wounded soldiers received basic treatment
before being sent to hospitals behind the front line.
Finding German resistance to be too great, American troops
were withdrawn in this area leaving only 25 American infantrymen to protect the
aid station. This aid station with 94 wounded soldiers happened to be very far
forward and soon became the focus of German gunners.
At great personal risk, Lt. Hine returned through No Man’s
Land to American trenches about 2:00 in the morning of the second day. Reporting the danger wounded American soldiers
faced, he requested artillery fire from the 129th Field Artillery to prevent
the Germans from overrunning the aid station.
Otto returned to the forward aid station, again having traversed the
deadly terrain called “No Man’s Land.”
The American artillery barrage to
suppress the Germans lasted nine hours.
It took that long to carry those wounded soldiers back to the American
trenches.
Lt. Otto Hine’s account of these
events became a footnote in Jay McIlvaine Lee’s 1920 history of his service
during the war. But to the men whose
lives he saved, Lt. Hine was their hero who deserved more than a reference at
the bottom of a page.
In July, 1919, the US Army agreed
with these wounded men and awarded Capt. Otto Hine the Distinguished Service
Cross. The DSC is given to soldiers who
at great personal risk in combat, performed gallantly. It is ranked next under the Congressional Medal
of Honor.
Dr. Otto Hine returned to Muskogee. Two and a half years after volunteering for
service, he restarted his dental practice.
He was Dr. Ted Hine’s father.
