Today the newspapers are full of accounts of illegal immigrants entering the United States, usually by crossing over the US-Mexican border. This is not a new phenomenon. It seems that almost from our beginning people have attempted to improve their lives by coming to the United States, "The Land of Opportunity," legally or otherwise. This was the case with Nebraskan, Leon Robert Divienne, later known as Leon Roberts. (Mr. Roberts came first to Kansas, but lived most of his life in South Central Nebraska. One of his daughters lives in McCook today.)

Leon Roberts Devienne was born in the village of St. Omer, France in 1904, in the region between the Meuse River and the Argonne Forest. Sometime in late 1917 St. Omer became the target of shelling by German and Allied Forces. Devienne's home was destroyed and in the chaotic aftermath of the battle the family was displaced. Leon lost track of the rest of his family.

As a 14 year old boy, he was without means of support, and to keep body and soul together, he attached himself to one of the units of the American Expeditionary Force, which happened to be made up of boys from Kansas and Nebraska, Missouri, and Colorado.

Leon was an agreeable young man, and did his best to make himself useful around the camp. He performed personal tasks for the men, shining shoes, doing laundry, running little errands for the men. The men in the outfit, in turn, saw to it that he was well fed, and had a warm place to sleep at night. He became a mascot to the unit, a soldier without a gun, sharing the life of an American soldier, even while they engaged in the last big battle of the war, the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne.

(World War I was a time of great change for the American Army. In later years Leon Roberts told of seeing American tanks in action for the first time at the Battle of Meuse-Argonne. One of the American officers who promoted tank warfare was the former Horse Cavalry Officer, Lt. Col George Patton.

Patton was one of the first of the Americans to appreciate the value of tanks in warfare, and as an aid to General Pershing he was in a position to promote their use. He organized the first American tank force and trained the first 500 tank crews in France, then led them into battle at Meuse-Argonne. In this battle he earned the Distinguished Service Cross, a Purple Heart for wounds he received, as well as a battlefield promotion to full Colonel).

When the war was over Leon still had not made contact with the other members of his family and had no place to go. There were thousands of displaced persons in France, and jobs were almost non existent, especially for a 14 year old boy. Famine in the former battle areas was rampant, and millions faced starvation. It took some time for the area to recover -- aided greatly by massive humanitarian aid from the United States, an effort led by American Food Administrator, Herbert Hoover.

It is said that those efforts saved the lives of 15-20 million young people who otherwise would have died of starvation.

By the end of the war Leon had become an integral part of the American Army unit to which he was attached. He liked the Americans very much. His friends in the unit decided that it would be best if he simply accompanied the boys back to America, and became an American himself. Leon decided that if all the people in America were like these fellows, that might not be such a bad idea. When they learned that there were no provisions for bringing a 14 year of boy back to the U.S., the American soldiers decided to take matters into their own hands.

When it was time to board the ship the Americans persuaded the bass drummer in the unit's band to open up his drum and Leon squeezed inside. Two soldiers picked up the drum, with Leon inside, and made their way up the gangway with no trouble. For the next two days they smuggled food from the mess hall to Leon in the band room. After two days, when it was felt that they were too far out to sea to turn back, Leon joined the other soldiers and had full run of the ship.

Once in the United States, Leon proceeded to Fort Riley to be mustered out with the American soldiers. Valley Hark, one of his benefactors, took Leon home with him, to become an adopted member of the Hark family in the Stockton/Smith Center vicinity of Kansas.

The Harks were very good to Leon, as was the family of Les Goldbury (another of of the American soldiers) of Franklin Neb. They helped him to improve his English, and encouraged him with his schooling, and also helped him to learn the plumber's trade. After two years Leon decided that he would go into the Army himself and in that way earn his American citizenship.

He lied about his age and had no trouble enlisting in the Army, but after just one year of service his officers discovered that he was still below the minimum enlistment age and he was mustered out of the Army, with an Honorable Discharge.

For the next years, Leon practiced the plumber's trade in Kansas, then Nebraska. He married and had a family. When the Second World War broke out in 1941 Leon went to Hastings Neb., to work at the Hastings Munitions Complex. It was there that he learned that he was still not an American citizen. Somehow, Leon's military service record, which would have given him automatic citizenship, got lost. Before he could be cleared to do sensitive war work at Hastings, he was forced to go through the maze of army paperwork once more to prove that he had indeed served honorably in the U.S. Army.

Mr. Roberts followed his plumbing trade through a number of interesting situations throughout his career. In addition to his work at the Hastings Munitions Plant, he worked on the Kansas-Nebraska Gas pipelines, worked on the Dam at Republican City, as well as operating his own shop at Franklin and finally at Naponee and Orleans.

Though Leon eventually made contact with his family back in France, and kept up correspondence with them till the end of his life, he never did return to France. He always intended to go back "someday," but never seemed to get around to it.

Leon Roberts loved the United States, his adopted country, which had taken him in at a time when he had nothing, and made him an American. He was proud of his citizenship. He was proud of his service in the Army, short though it had been. He took an active part in the American Legion activities, as an honest to goodness veteran. One of the big treats at Legion events was to hear Leon sing the Star Spangled Banner in French -- which he very much enjoyed doing. He had trouble understanding criticism toward the United States that he sometimes heard from small groups of irate citizens.

Leon Roberts, born in France, Mascot of the United States Army during World War I, Smuggled into the United States in a bass drum, Honorable Veteran of the United States Army, and Proud and Respected Citizen of the United States of America, passed away in 1985, at the age of 82. He is buried in the Orleans Cemetery, Orleans, Neb.