Two veterans of World War I — Sgt. Arnold Robert Mitchell and Lt. Marguerite Mitchell — have received the gift of a very special view of the coast this Veteran’s Day. The Mitchells have become the first veteran couple from the Great War to be honored with a plaque on the Mt. Soledad memorial wall, according to the manager of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association. Former District 1 City Councilman Bill Mitchell said he has always wanted to pay tribute to his father’s heroic actions during the war and his mother’s philanthropic spirit with a memorial plaque. The story behind the commemorative black granite plaque, however, tells more than that. It also tells the story of a forbidden romance between the two, who married in secret while they were both enlisted. Arnold, a combat medic in the 1st Infantry Division, fought in six major battles from 1910 to 1920, earning campaign bars for each. During one particular battle in Soissons, France in 1918, he saved the lives of 13 men by running into waves of gunfire to carry wounded soldiers to safety. Bill recalls his father detailing the scene down to the glisten of Germans’ bayonets and the gruesome extent of soldiers’ wounds. One of the 13 men his father saved was then-Maj. Clarence Huebner, Arnold’s commanding officer, who would later become Lt. Gen. Huebner — a war hero who gained fame for leading the attack on Omaha Beach in Normandy in World War II. “He went out under shell fire and even caught some men in their arms. Some were already dead,” said Bill. “When he got to General Huebner, he was out cold. If he had stayed out there, he would have been killed because the shells were just raining in.” Although Bill said his father should have received the Medal of Honor for that incident, Arnold never pursued it. The fact that he saved those men and served his country was enough, Bill said. “He was never one to pine over the fact that he didn’t get it,” he said. Bill described his father as a man of great courage, the type of person who would “look the devil right in the eye and tell him to get lost.” After being wounded in his sixth and final battle, Arnold was cared for by Lt. Marguerite Dunn, an Army Corps nurse, at the Little Rock, Ark. Army Hospital. It was there the pair first fell in love, but they had to keep their marriage a secret because it was forbidden for an officer to fraternize with an enlisted man. His father, Bill said, was shell-shocked for years after the war. Having a wife who understood the stress of war, however, was a relief. “What better wife could he have than a nurse?” he said. Marguerite was a proactive leader for many issues in the community. She was one of the early advocates of women’s rights, led anti-drug efforts and worked as a circuit school nurse where she also counseled young students. “She used to gather up my brothers and sisters and me around Christmas and Thanksgiving to deliver a big bag of groceries to those in need,” Bill said. Generosity and patriotism were values that were passed down in the Mitchell family — values that have carried over into the lives and careers of their sons and daughters. The Mitchells’ eldest daughter, Margaret, served as a trained nurse for the American Red Cross during World War II, while another daughter, Elizabeth, served in the WWII WAVES — a division of the U.S. Navy that consisted entirely of women — and sons Bill and Arnold Jr. served in the Air Force and Army during the Korean War. The Mitchell family is one that knows about patriotism. “We always flew an American flag and ate apple pie,” Bill said. “Our family is proud of our mother and father, and we totally support our troops of all wars, and we regard them all as heroes.”