Retropolis
A century later, a taped message solves the mystery of a WWI doughboy’s death
Two Marines forged a friendship on the battlefields of World War I. One died in combat. Decades later, the survivor’s recorded memories bring a long-delayed closure.

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This portrait of Pvt. Foster Stevens in his Marine uniform belongs to Post reporter Joby Warrick, Stevens’s grandnephew. Stevens was killed in France during the waning days of World War I. (Warrick family photo)

By Joby Warrick
November 18, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EST

They had fought together at Belleau Wood, clawing their way through enemy-infested thickets in a battle that became legendary in the Marine Corps. They had clung to the sides of the same shell hole under a fierce artillery barrage at Soissons and charged uphill against machine-gun fire on the chalky slopes of Blanc Mont Ridge.

Through five months of combat, they had been the survivors: the 83rd Company’s “old men,” though still in their 20s. Along the way, Marine Pvts. Jim Scarbrough and Foster Stevens had gone from being squad mates and comrades to best friends. ... “We’ll just soldier through this, me and you,” Stevens had said in his mild North Carolina drawl as he put an arm around Scarbrough after a fierce nighttime skirmish with German defenders in June 1918. “I’ll be right here.”

Then came Nov. 2 and the start of the Great War’s last major assault. The day would begin before sunrise for the battle-weary Marines. For Scarbrough, it would end with a grief-filled encounter in the gloom of the battlefield after dark, and a searing memory that would be borne in secret for decades. It would take a century, and a chance discovery, before the secret abruptly revealed itself to a family that had been shattered by that day’s events, then left to ponder and search in vain for answers.

That family was mine.


Stevens poses in his uniform in this family snapshot taken in 1918. (Warrick family photo)

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Marine Pvt. Jim Scarbrough near his stateside training camp before his deployment to France in 1918. (Family photo)

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By Joby Warrick
Joby Warrick joined The Washington Post’s National staff in 1996. He has served with the Post's investigative and national security teams, and writes about the Middle East, terrorism and weapons proliferation. He is the author of three books, including “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS," which was awarded a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.follow on X @jobywarrick