He was lost at sea during WWI. Kennewick veteran remembered in France

A Kennewick solider boarded a ship heading to France in late September 1918 with plans to join the war effort.

Robert W. Ely was 27 when he joined the 125th Field Artillery Regiment, trained at Camp Cody in New Mexico and boarded the USS Saxon.

He never made it to France.

To mark Veterans Day, U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., visited the Tablets of the Missing at the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in France on Saturday where Ely is remembered.

A hundred years later, the Kennewick private is still listed as missing in action or lost at sea.

Newhouse traveled to the cemetery to honor three Washington natives who died during World War I. He laid wreaths at the memorial for Ely and John Tomlinson of Toppenish, both lost at sea, and at the grave of Private Harold H. Anderson of Bellingham, who died of an unknown disease while in France.

Newhouse attended the ceremony as part of a Congressional group.

More than 1,500 American service members are memorialized at the cemetery, just outside of Paris. The memorial was one of a series of ceremonies taking place across Europe to remember the 100th anniversary of the end of the war.

“Inscribed on the chapel overlooking the Suresnes cemetery are the words, ‘Peaceful is their sleep in glory,’ and it was a moving experience to recognize the ultimate sacrifice of fellow Americans who never came home,” Newhouse said. “These young men’s sacrifice is more than most of us can imagine. The ground in which they rest is hallowed, and it was an honor to pay respects on behalf of the people of the Fourth Congressional District.”