Ted Littlefield, left, with his brother Theron, circa 1917. Courtesy of the Edmund W. and Jeannik Littlefield Foundation "When the United States got into World War I," Littlefield continued, "my father, like many men of his vintage, volunteered for the U.S. Army. He was rejected because of flat feet. In 1917 he paid his own way to Europe and joined the French Army as a member of an American Unit of the French Ambulance Corps. He was under fire within five hours after he arrived. My father was the first man to be decorated, from the State of Utah, for gallantry in action. He won two Croix de Guerre, both for extraordinary bravery under shell fire." Ted and Marguerite Littlefield divorced in 1919, when Ed was five. Although Ed lived most of the time with his mother, he remained close to his father. "At least once a year my father and I went on a fishing trip," Littlefield recounted. "Our trips lasted two weeks, sometimes packing in or camping out. We were always in an area where we were on our own. My father was a superb outdoor cook____We slept in a tent. Our bedrolls were old French Army blankets that he brought from the war." Although tall and muscular, Ted Littlefield suffered from lung problems he credited to having been gassed in France. During one illness, he took his son with him to recuperate at Como Hot Springs, a resort in Morgan County, Utah. After recovering, Ted took a job with the Veterans Administration. There, he met Katherine Paul, whom he married. "One of his first acts," Ed related, "was to push my stepmother into an early retirement. He didn't want her working for him." Ed quickly developed a friendly relationship with Kath, as he called his stepmother. "My father was a capable man, very well liked and very well respected," Ed wrote. "He was not a sociable man in the sense of a fellow who was a back-slapper."