Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Laurie Carlson is a member of the East Portland Rotary Club and the former District 5100 Governor.  She was the first female member of her club in 1987 and later became the first female club president in 1997.  She is also the owner of Lukas Auto Painting and Repair, and VP and President of Fix Auto Portland.

Ms. Carlson grew up with her grandparents.  While looking through the attic she came upon a diary that turned out to be that of her grandfather, Carl Carlson, who served as a corporal in the Swedish Army in 1918-1919.  Carl Carlson was a member of the Lost Battalion of WWI and a survivor of the 77th Division, Company B.  According to Wikipedia, “The Lost Battalion is the name given to the nine companies of the 77th Division, roughly 554 men, isolated by German forces during World War I after an American attack in the Argonne Forest in October 1918.”

According to an article published in The Washington Post on October 7, 2018, “the name “Lost Battalion” is a misnomer, generated by New York newspapers. The troops’ location was always known. They weren’t ‘lost’ — they were neglected, first by their commanders and then by history.  It was the Lost Battalion that ultimately stumbled across the German front, a crucial event in the 47-day Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest military campaign in American history, involving more than one million troops. Fought until the armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive claimed 26,000 American lives in just over a month.”

Laurie travelled to France to follow the path her grandfather walked after landing in France in 1918.  Starting in La Havre, France, she visited the towns, cemeteries, and battlefields leading up to his final battle at Meuse-Argonne.  He returned home, and passed away in 1976.

Ms. Carlson has been inspired over the years to serve her community in many capacities, beginning with her first connection with a member of the East Portland Club who was collecting donations for Rotary’s Polio Plus Campaign.   This meeting propelled Laurie into Rotary service because she had a cousin who contracted Polio and spent his life, from age 3, in an iron lung.