Arnold Fine Jewish Press December 28, 2001

Some years ago, Hymer E. Rosen wrote an article about Sam Dreben for the Texas Jewish Historical Society which I personally feel should be read by every anti-Semite who ever said, “Jews don’t fight!”

By the same token, the Fall 2001 edition of The Jerusalem Veteran carried a similar article about Dreben that was reprinted from The Jewish Veteran of June 1938.

With America currently involved in combat overseas, awareness of the contributions of brave Jewish soldiers fighting in the American army is more relevant than ever.

From Penniless Immigrant to Decorated Soldier

Sam Dreben was an immigrant who came to the United States in 1898, penniless, with no relatives in this country.

Who would have thought that twenty-three years later, on Armistice Day in 1921, he would be selected to be one of the soldiers in the honor guard at the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

The irony of this is that, seventy years later, Dreben remains almost as unknown as the soldier he helped to inter in Arlington National Cementary. Yet, this Russian immigrant was the most decorated American Jewish soldier in this nation’s military history.

The Bravest… The Gentlest…

The day after his death in Los Angeles on March 15, 1925, newspapers all over the country carried frontpage articles that paid tribute to Sam Dreben. The El Paso Times devoted the better part of an additional page to a story of Sam Dreben’s life and military career. They includeda two-column eulogy written by his good friend, Damon Runyon.

In the eulogy, Runyon described Sam as “…a short, dark, chunky man, of self-effacing manner. He was known as the fighting Jew. He was the bravest, the gentlest, the courtliest man I ever knew. He struck you as anything but a fighter. He was almost painfully polite, always apparently greatly abashed… But beneath the velvet of his demeanor was the iron of a warrior soul.”

Youthful Dreams

Sam’s story began in Poltava, Russia, where he was born on June 1, 1878, to deeply religious Jewish parents. While still an infant, his family moved to Odessa on the Black Sea. In contrast to most Jews, the boy dreamed of being an officer in the Russian army, wearing a uniform with shiney brass buttons. When he was told that a Jew could not serve as an officer in the Czar’s army, Sam was disappointed, but not disheartened.

Twice he ran away from home, once going as far as Germany, only to find that there were no jobs for Jewish boys in that country. He returned home, and took a job as a field worker on a farm. As he worked with the older men in the fields, he heard them telling stories of America which fired his imagination.

From London to Philadelphia

Always seeking adventure, at eighteen he left home, stowing away on a ship bound for England.

In London, Dreben took a job in which he delievered farm produce to the market. However, that didn’t last very long, because he was soon fired for eating some of the produce he was to take to the market! He took odd jobs and managed to make his way to Liverpool, where he worked for a time as a dock laborer and as a tailor’s assistant in a sweatshop, for one pence a day.

He managed to save enough money to purchase a ticket in the steerage class to get to the United States.

Dreben arrived in New York City in January, 1899, and went to Philadelphia. He soon realized that the United States was not the star-spangled haven he had imagined it would be – and that the streets were not paved of gold. In America, a person had to work to eat.

Sam had to find a job, but he had absolutely no skills. For a few weeks, he attended night school, struggling to learn English language.

War in the Philippines

In 1899, the war in the Philippine Islands was raging. Dreben learned from a recruiting sergent in the army that soldiers were paid fifteen dollars a month, and even got three meals a day!

“Do they give you a uniform too?” he asked.

“Sure, you get all your clothes,” the sergent told him, “… and also medical attention. Why, if you get killed, they don’t even charge a cent to bury you.”

Dreben was impressed. Within the hour, Sam Dreben held up his hand and swore to protect the United States against all enemies. He received his first meal, and was issued an ill-fitting uniform but, it had real brass buttons! His dream was fulfilled.

He was so proud of himself. But when he returned to the home of an aunt who had emigrated after him, she exclaimed, “Sammy, you’re crazy! Don’t you know soldiers get killed?”

“Maybe, but meals are free, and so are burials!” Sam assured her.

You’re in the Army Now

Now part of the United States army, Dreben was assigned to Company G, Fourteenth United States Infantry, and was stationed at Bacoor, in the Philippines. He was given a ticket and expense money to get to San Francisco. With other recruits and a few old-time regulars, he boarded a train for San Francisco.

At San Francisco, the squad of recruits was marched aboard a transport. In a short time, Sam learned that extra coal passers were needed in the stokehole of the ship. Every soldier who volunteered for a four-hour shift would receive the princely sum of one dollar. To him, that was like found money. For four hours, Sam sweated in the terrific heat below deck and at the end of the shift, he came on deck weary and weak, but he had that silver dollar in his pocket.

In the Philippines, on his very first day, his outfit was under fire. Sam’s company was ordered to put down the Mexican rebellion for independence which was led by Emilio Aguinaldo.

No sooner did the action begin which his squad was marching toward a stone bridge. Unknown to the American soldiers, the rebels had placed an ominous looking cannon loaded with black powder, nails and rivets and scrap iron, good for a single death dealing blast.

Suddenly, the cannon was fired and the men who were lucky enough to escape being hit, scrambled for cover. All but one man. Samuel Dreben emerged from the smoke, moving at a half-trot onto and across the bridge, disappearing as he leaped into the enemy trenches.

Sam survived unscratched, and when his fellow soldiers later demanded an explanation for his “dam fool conduct,” he responded in his guttural English, “Well, I heard the captain say ‘forwards!’ and I don’t hear nobody say ‘stop.’ So I went forwards.”

As a result, he routed the entire enemy that was in the trenches.

The Boxer Rebellion

In 1900, Dreben saw action in China. He was now in the Fourteeth Infantry which was sent to rescue the besieged legations of the United States and other western nations in Peking, during the Boxer Rebellion. After the Rebellion was crushed, his army hitch over, Sam returned to the United States and got a job as a municipal rat catcher in San Francisco!

Finding that type of employment disillusioning for a fighting man, he re-enlisted in the Army. At the end of his hitch, he found himself in the Panama Canal Zone. The next day, he joined a force of adventurers, led by General Lee Christmas, fighting in the Guatemalan revolution.

Brass Buttons

According to one account, Dreben became involved in a Central American revolution which seemed to be going no where. Sam was given the job of organizing the small group of revolutionaries. He drilled, fed and paid his troops, but they still lacked spirit. Finally, he hit upon a brilliant idea.

As thrilled as he was when he was a young man with a uniform with brass buttons, he promoted every man in his small army and gave them each a new uniform with big brass buttons. His lieutenants became captains, the captains became colonels, the colonels became generals, the generals became field marshals, and the buck privates became second lieutenants. His whole army had beautiful new uniforms with gold braid and big brass buttons! These were not enlisted men. His whole army looked like the male chorus of the Strauss operetta, “The Student Prince!”

Now, his uniformed officers fought like devils.

They fought with Pancho Villa. Another exploit took place near Jimenez, where the Federal troops of Mexico were concentrated. Twice during the Revolution, Sam came to the rescue of his friend General J.J. Mendez, who was the military commander of Juarez. When General John J. Pershing entered Mexico chasing after Villa, Dreben promptly volunteered his services and served with distinction as a scout for Pershing in the Punitive Expedition. When Pershing withdrew to El Paso in 1917, ,Sam returned to civilian life.

World War I

Now a married man and almost forty years old, Sam thought his soldiering days were over. However, two events changed his expectations: the death of his infant daughter (which plunged him into a deep depression) and the entry of the United States into World War I.

When a special company was recruited in El Paso, Sam enlisted as a private but, was soon promoted to first sergeant in Captain Richard F. Burges’ Company A of the 141st Infantry.

War Department records tell of Dreben’s heroic act a St. Etienne. “On October 8, 1918, Samuel Dreben discovered a party of German troops going to the support of a machine gun nest situated in a pocket near where the French and the American lines joined. He called for volunteers and with the aid of about 30 men, rushed the German positions, captured four machine guns, killed more than 40 of the enemy, captured two and returned to our lines without the loss of a man!”

Decorated with Highest Honors

For this action, General Pershing himself, pinned the Ditinguished Service Cross on Dreben’s chest.

The El Paso Times of March 16, 1925, reported that Dreben saved Major Burges life.

They wrote, “…when their regiment (Dreben’s) was under heavy fire, the Americans had taken some ditches. Major Burges had found a dugout and was in it when Dreben came by and insisted that he get out of that one and spend the night in another. A few minutes later, miraculously, he had gotten the Major out before his dugout was bombed. ‘Yes, he saved my life, by his thoughtfulness.’” Burges said.

It was not merely “this thoughtfulness” that inspired Major Burges to have deep affection for Sam Dreben. “Sam was always the first man to reach the objective during attacks; his initiative and courage served consistently as an inspiration to his men.”

And, indeed, the records of Sam’s deeds in World War I bear out these words. For his capture of the machine gun nests at St. Etienne, he was decorated with the highest French honor given an enlisted man – the Medaille Militaire – and a second medal, the Croix de Guerre with Palms. He also received the Italian War Cross and the United States Distinguished Service Cross.

First Sergeant Dreben and Major Burges returned from France together, and were met by cheering crowds in their hometown of El Paso. Once again a civilian, Dreben became a prominent figure in real estate and insurance circles.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2002 and is filed under history.