2019 January Paso Robles Magazine

as a tribute to him — that it fell on
me to be at his actual gravesite on the
centenary of his sacrifice,” McMaster
said. “I took a train up to Verdun.
From there, it was a 40-minute
drive to the cemetery north of town.
I pre-ordered a large floral arrangement
through a French florist and
it was placed on his grave. This was
a much larger arrangement, since it
was his centenary.”
“The Argonne Offensive of World
War I was the bloodiest battle in
our nation’s entire history,” McMaster
said, “and the Meuse-Argonne
American Cemetery where Roberts
is buried holds more than 14,000
American soldiers who participated
in it. It’s the largest of all our overseas
cemeteries.”
Cpl. Roberts was awarded the
French Croix de Guerre with Palm,
the French Military Medal and the
Italian War Cross. For his gallantry,
Cpl. Roberts was the second tanker
to be awarded America’s highest
military decoration, the Medal of
Honor, the whereabouts of which to
this day are unknown.
January 2019, PASO Magazine pasomagazine.com | 23