Choctaw Code Talker of WWI, attended Armstrong Academy as an orphaned Choctaw and enlisted when his older friends went. 36th Infantry Division, Company E. 142nd Infantry. E company had so many Indians it was called the "E tribe."
After the war Solomon returned to Bryan County where he and his wife Mary Ann raised two sons Gilbert B. Louis and Solomon B. Louis, Jr. He had married Mary Mitchell in Durant in 1917. She lived in Albany, Oklahoma, and he was stationed in Ft Worth, Texas, with the army.
He was later a peanut farmer, carpenter, preacher and Justice of the Peace.
Their battalion was nearly surrounded during the German's last big push during the Meuse-Argonne campaign. The German's had broken the American's field codes for radios and tapped field telephone lines. They also killed or captured one in four of the runners carrying messages.
Captain Lawrence heard Solomon Louis and Mitchell Bobb speaking Choctaw. He quickly got the names of six other fluent Choctaw speakers and after talking to the brigade commander assigned a Choctaw to each field company headquarters. Eventually the number increased to 18 including two from the 143rd. Artillery pieces were called "big guns" and machine guns were called "guns shoot fast." The battalions were referred to as 1, 2 or 3 grains of corn in Choctaw.
There they handled telephone and radio messages besides writing out field orders for the runners. The Germans were confounded at being suddenly locked out and retreated during the counter offensive November 2-11, 1918.
The Choctaws once again performed the same service for the army in WWII while the Navajos worked with the Marines.
He was the son of Bond Louis and Leeama Franklin and the grandson of Gilbert Louis.
After the war Solomon returned to Bryan County where he and his wife Mary Ann raised two sons Gilbert B. Louis and Solomon B. Louis, Jr. He had married Mary Mitchell in Durant in 1917. She lived in Albany, Oklahoma, and he was stationed in Ft Worth, Texas, with the army.
He was later a peanut farmer, carpenter, preacher and Justice of the Peace.
Their battalion was nearly surrounded during the German's last big push during the Meuse-Argonne campaign. The German's had broken the American's field codes for radios and tapped field telephone lines. They also killed or captured one in four of the runners carrying messages.
Captain Lawrence heard Solomon Louis and Mitchell Bobb speaking Choctaw. He quickly got the names of six other fluent Choctaw speakers and after talking to the brigade commander assigned a Choctaw to each field company headquarters. Eventually the number increased to 18 including two from the 143rd. Artillery pieces were called "big guns" and machine guns were called "guns shoot fast." The battalions were referred to as 1, 2 or 3 grains of corn in Choctaw.
There they handled telephone and radio messages besides writing out field orders for the runners. The Germans were confounded at being suddenly locked out and retreated during the counter offensive November 2-11, 1918.
The Choctaws once again performed the same service for the army in WWII while the Navajos worked with the Marines.
He was the son of Bond Louis and Leeama Franklin and the grandson of Gilbert Louis.
Choctaw Code Talker of WWI, attended Armstrong Academy as an orphaned Choctaw and enlisted when his older friends went. 36th Infantry Division, Company E. 142nd Infantry. E company had so many Indians it was called the "E tribe."
After the war Solomon returned to Bryan County where he and his wife Mary Ann raised two sons Gilbert B. Louis and Solomon B. Louis, Jr. He had married Mary Mitchell in Durant in 1917. She lived in Albany, Oklahoma, and he was stationed in Ft Worth, Texas, with the army.
He was later a peanut farmer, carpenter, preacher and Justice of the Peace.
Their battalion was nearly surrounded during the German's last big push during the Meuse-Argonne campaign. The German's had broken the American's field codes for radios and tapped field telephone lines. They also killed or captured one in four of the runners carrying messages.
Captain Lawrence heard Solomon Louis and Mitchell Bobb speaking Choctaw. He quickly got the names of six other fluent Choctaw speakers and after talking to the brigade commander assigned a Choctaw to each field company headquarters. Eventually the number increased to 18 including two from the 143rd. Artillery pieces were called "big guns" and machine guns were called "guns shoot fast." The battalions were referred to as 1, 2 or 3 grains of corn in Choctaw.
There they handled telephone and radio messages besides writing out field orders for the runners. The Germans were confounded at being suddenly locked out and retreated during the counter offensive November 2-11, 1918.
The Choctaws once again performed the same service for the army in WWII while the Navajos worked with the Marines.
He was the son of Bond Louis and Leeama Franklin and the grandson of Gilbert Louis.
After the war Solomon returned to Bryan County where he and his wife Mary Ann raised two sons Gilbert B. Louis and Solomon B. Louis, Jr. He had married Mary Mitchell in Durant in 1917. She lived in Albany, Oklahoma, and he was stationed in Ft Worth, Texas, with the army.
He was later a peanut farmer, carpenter, preacher and Justice of the Peace.
Their battalion was nearly surrounded during the German's last big push during the Meuse-Argonne campaign. The German's had broken the American's field codes for radios and tapped field telephone lines. They also killed or captured one in four of the runners carrying messages.
Captain Lawrence heard Solomon Louis and Mitchell Bobb speaking Choctaw. He quickly got the names of six other fluent Choctaw speakers and after talking to the brigade commander assigned a Choctaw to each field company headquarters. Eventually the number increased to 18 including two from the 143rd. Artillery pieces were called "big guns" and machine guns were called "guns shoot fast." The battalions were referred to as 1, 2 or 3 grains of corn in Choctaw.
There they handled telephone and radio messages besides writing out field orders for the runners. The Germans were confounded at being suddenly locked out and retreated during the counter offensive November 2-11, 1918.
The Choctaws once again performed the same service for the army in WWII while the Navajos worked with the Marines.
He was the son of Bond Louis and Leeama Franklin and the grandson of Gilbert Louis.
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