Veterans Day -- Two brave Iowans in a little-remembered war

Many of us will be thinking about the bravery and sacrifice of our veterans on this Veterans Day. But I doubt many of those thoughts will drift to the Boxer Rebellion.

It's a big, messy, complicated story of imperialism, subjugation and greed. But with Americans in danger, U.S. soldiers answered the call.

The History Channel provides a thumbnail:

Among 14,000 international troops were 2,500 Americans. And among those Americans were two Congressional Medal of Honor winners from Iowa.

One was Lt. Louis B. Lawton,  a West Point grad born in Independence who received a Silver Star for his actions on San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and another for service in the Philippines.

In China, on the first day of the battle to capture Tientsin, the Americans were in trouble. The State Historical Society's great Medal of Honor site picks up the story:

Lawton lived until 1949. His namesake grandson, Lawton Davis, another West Point grad, was killed in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

Iowa's other Medal of Honor winner in China was Bugler Calvin P. Titus.

Titus, born in Vinton, joined up amid the national furor caused by the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor. But he caught malaria and never made it to Cuba. He did make it to the Philippines and then to China, where the bugler made some history at Peking's city wall:

Titus earned a presidential appointment to West Point in 1901, graduating as a lieutenant, and in 1916 joined General Pershing's expedition in pursuit of Pancho Villa. By the end of the Great War, he was a lieutenant colonel. When he returned from France, his career took a local turn:

Titus moved to California and died in 1966.

Be sure to remember, and better yet, thank a veteran today.