The Spanish Influenza outbreak was the worst pandemic in recorded history, one which coincided with the war...and the dawn of the age of modern medicine...and it claimed the lives of local military men at an ohio military facility before they ever reached a battlefield.

Roy Ash has researched the history of the men who entered the military during what was billed "the war to end all wars". He realized several of those who gave their lives did so not on foreign ground, but at the military camps where they were based.

"There were a lot of instances of people who were inducted from, say, Washington County," said Ash, the Washington County Veterans Service Director, "and go to Camp Sherman, and, after they've been there a few days or a few weeks, they would come contagious with the flu and die there."

Of all the soldiers who gave their lives, not all of them did so on a battlefield. Many of them died during training, from a disease that also was affecting their fellow countrymen.

"I'm sure training facilities in some cases came to a complete stop," Ash said, "because the medical conditions took all the training requirements."

Medical experts believe the widespread flu outbreak had as much of a role in the outcome of the war as the fighting itself.

"Some researchers say the occurrance of the pandemic and the illness spreading hastened the end of the war," said Tim Wickam, of the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department. "That's because some of the armies were unwilling to continue fighting due to the loss and the illness in their troops."

Wickam says the disease killed a half million people in the U.S., and affected an estimated 50 million worldwide.

Although they may not have faced battle...these soldiers are also remembered for a sacrifice they made for America.