Otis W. Leader: The Ideal American Doughboy

Amid the growing tensions of WWI, Otis W. Leader—a thirty-five-year-old widower of Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Irish descent—left behind three children, his job, and his home in Oklahoma to enlist in the Army. Assigned to the First Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, he was chosen to represent the “Ideal American Doughboy,” and lived up to that title, earning honors like the Croix de Guerre, two Silver Stars, a Congressional Gold Medal, and a Purple Heart. In Otis W. Leader: The Ideal American Doughboy, author Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer explores Leader’s time during and after the Great War to construct an unprecedented war memoir, bringing to light an uplifting story in Leader’s own words of endurance, bravery, and perseverance throughout unforgettable battles on the infamous Western Front.