Sons of the Legion Neighborhood Honor Flag Signup

Triple Nickel Public Golf Outing at Airport National Signup

Upcoming Ely Legion Events

The Saint Quetnin Post of the American Legion

Before 1954, Veterans Day in the U.S. was known as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I on November 11, 1918. On that day celebrations erupted nationwide, including a massive one in Cedar Rapids. Yet amid the joy, on November 13, 1918, two families in Putnam Township received devastating telegrams: their sons, Joseph Dvorak and Charles Noska, had died weeks earlier in combat near St. Quentin, France. Their loss is why Ely’s American Legion is named the St. Quentin Post.

Dvorak and Noska were local farm boys in 1914, unaware that an assassination in Sarajevo would soon cascade into a global war. When the U.S. joined the conflict in 1917, both were enlisted and were assigned to the 118th Regiment of the 30th Infantry Division. They trained rigorously, shipped to France in 1918, and entered the trenches under British and Australian command.

Their regiment helped break the German Hindenburg Line near Bellicourt and fought in the Battle of Brancourt-le-Grand on October 8, 1918, a critical Allied victory. Both men were killed in that battle—Dvorak died from wounds on October 10; Noska appears to have died on the battlefield, though records vary. One was returned home for burial; the other rests in a U.S. cemetery in France.

Their sacrifice was part of a war that redrew global boundaries, triggered revolutions, and sowed the seeds for World War II and the Cold War. Remembering Dvorak, Noska, and others from Ely who served—and honoring their devotion—is the enduring purpose of the St. Quentin post of the American Legion.