This article was originally published in the Butler Eagle on Nov. 11, 2015

For more than three decades Charles Nagel has traveled from his home in Butler to Oil City at least once a year to place flowers on the grave of a soldier he never met.

That solider was Alexander Kuhns, who was killed in World War I just days before the war ended.

While Kuhns died before Nagel was born, Nagel shares a connection to the soldier through his father, Edwin Nagel.

"They were raised in a rural area of Venango County," Nagel said. "They were good buddies who hunted and fished together."

Nagel talked about that connection a few days before Veterans Day, which is today.

Kuhns and Edwin Nagel joined the military in World War I together. The two men went through basic training in Virginia and went overseas as part of the same army unit.

Both were aboard the SS Leviathan when crews spotted a German submarine in the water.

Through the havoc, Nagel said his father ended up under the barrel of a 3-inch gun when it fired at the enemy.

"The concussion knocked him down," he said. "He was able to stand up, but when he did, the gun fired again."

His proximity to the powerful blast of the second shot knocked Edwin Nagel down again, where he hit his head on a base plate.

He woke up five days later in a French hospital, separated from his fellow troops and his friend, Kuhns.

"He was assigned to different units for the remainder of the war," Nagel said.

But just when the armistice was signed, Edwin Nagel learned his original unit was only a few miles away from his location in France.

"He was given permission and walked up to find his original unit," Nagel said. "When he got there, he asked where Kuhns was. That's when things got silent."

Nagel said one of the men in the unit told his father that Kuhns was killed just a few days before the end of the war.

A few nights before the armistice was signed, volunteers were sought to go out and cut barbed wire, and Kuhns volunteered. He was shot by a German sniper that night.

"The news devastated my father," Nagel said.

Kuhns' body was buried in the Grove Hill Cemetary in Oil City.

Edwin Nagel paid his respects to his friend by placing flowers on his grave every year until he died in 1983. That's when his son started carrying on the tradition.

"My wife and I felt it was a good way to honor both my father and Alex," Nagel said.

While Nagel moved away from the Oil City area in the early 1980s when working for the Bessemer Railroad Co., he and his wife, Cheryl, continued to make the trips north.

Nagel, who served in the Coast Guard in the 1950s, said he emphasizes strongly with soldiers of any generation.

"We should always honor our veterans and never forget them, no matter how long ago they served," he said.

Charles Nagel died July 16, 2022 at the age of 90.