‘Worth remembering’ - Sylvester Lohman volunteered to serve in the military during both world wars

Coming from an affluent Cole County family, Sylvester Lohman enlisted in the Air Service in World War I and learned to be a pilot. Years later, despite being in his forties, he again enlisted in the U.S. Army and briefly served in the Coastal Artillery on the West Coast. Courtesy of Greg Scheperle

Sylvester M. Lohman was born in Jefferson City on September 19, 1897, and was the third oldest of four children in the family of Louis and Amelia Lohman. His family name was widely recognized in Cole County because of his father’s successful mercantile interests and ownership of the Lohman Opera House, while his uncle, Charles W., left his impression when the town of Lohman was named in his honor.
 
Yet young Sylvester, having many opportunities at his disposal because of his parent’s prosperity, suspended educational endeavors and chose to serve his country in a burgeoning component of the U.S. military in World War I. Years later, he again volunteered for service in the Second World War.
 
“A History of Jefferson City, Missouri’s State Capital, and of Cole County,” published by James E. Ford in 1938 explained, “(Sylvester Lohman) attended Jefferson City schools to his third year in high school, then went to the University high school at Columbia, following which he took academic work in the state university.”
 
While attending university in 1918, the drums of war in Europe reverberated across several continents and the United States soon entered World War I. The rumors being shared among many young men about the growing use of airplanes in combat inspired a 20-year-old Lohman to enlist in the Air Service on July 29, 1918, at the humble rank of private.
 
“The first U.S. aviation squadron entered combat in February 1918, manned mostly by pilots who had previously volunteered with the French,” shared the United States World War One Centennial Commission. “American-trained squadrons soon joined the fighting, and on May 24 (1918), the Air Service of the U.S. Army was officially formed.”
 
Timing, however, was an element that prevented Lohman from deploying overseas. Following his enlistment in St. Louis, he was sent to the University of Texas School of Military Aeronautics in Austin. It was here that he spent the next several months undergoing initial pilot training.
 
Military records reveal that Lohman was then transferred to the Camp John Dick Aviation Concentration Camp, on April 26, 1918, located on the State Fairgrounds in Dallas.
 
The Dispatch, a newspaper in Moline, printed on November 23, 1918, “Camp Dick, the aviation concentration camp through which nearly all the aviators in the United States Army have passed since its opening January 30, 1918, said today that 7,908 flying officers and 18,066 flying cadets had been stationed there for some periods during the past year.”
 
Lohman was counted among the flyers who performed exercises in rudimentary aircraft over the skies of Texas to help prepare them for overseas combat. While there, he received his designation as pilot and was promoted to second lieutenant.
 
During his training at Camp Dick, Lohman wrote a friend regarding his aviation experiences: “There is no danger or at least you have no time to think of danger when you are in the air. Your mind must be upon your machine.”
 
He continued, “I am making cross country flights now and get to travel all over this country. It is hard to believe you are making such great speed until you notice how easily you can pass an express train two thousand feet below you.”
 
But just as quickly as his military service materialized, the possibilities offered by aerial flight dissolved beginning with the armistice on November 11, 1918. As the war came to an end and scores of military members were discharged and sent home, Lohman was released from the service on December 5, 1918, and returned to Columbia to continue his education at the university.
 
James Ford wrote, “(Lohman) … worked for a time in First National Bank, and in 1923 organized the Motor Investment Company.”
 
The World War I veteran married Lucy Franklin of Eldon in September 1927. Two years later, in 1929, he established the Acceptance Loan Company of Jefferson City—a business located in the Central Trust Building that financed the purchases of multiple products ranging from appliances to automobiles.
 
Lohman and his first wife later divorced and, in 1935, he married Mildred Waddill, whose father was a former chairman of the state tax commission; this union also ended in divorce. Then, on September 16, 1942, the 44-year-old veteran left his business to enlist in the U.S. Army at Jefferson Barracks. 
 
“Announcement is made of the marriage of Miss Virginia Finney to Private Sylvester M. Lohman on December 18th,” reported the Sunday News and Tribune on January 3, 1943. “Private Lohman owned and operated the Acceptance Loan Company … prior to entering the service. He is now stationed with the Coast Artillery at Camp McQuaide, near Watsonville, California.”
 
Days later, as military records indicate, Lohman received his discharge from the U.S. Army for the purposes of entering employment in an essential war industry. Years later, Lohman remained married to his third wife, Virginia, and was employed as a real estate agent.  
 
His wife passed away in 1965 and the following year, stricken with grief, Lohman passed away suddenly; he and his wife had no children to whom to pass their legacy. He was laid to rest in Riverview Cemetery in Jefferson City, the same cemetery where many of his Lohman relatives had been interred.
 
A tombstone remains as the primary storybook of the interesting life lived by Lohman. He was, like all, riddled with imperfections, but when the nation needed people to serve during two separate wars, he willingly raised his right hand and performed the duties he was assigned.
 
And as President Theodore Roosevelt once proclaimed, it is people such as Lohman who, through their willingness to serve their fellow citizens during tumultuous periods, have earned the privilege of not being forgotten.
 
“Never throughout history,” Roosevelt said, “has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.”
 
Jeremy P. Ämick writes on behalf of the Silver Star Families of America. 

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