Editor’s Note: Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Lt. Col. David Lukefahr reflected on Fort Leavenworth as not only a crossroads for military history, but as a personal crossroads, as well, for his family. He attended Bradley Elementary School in 1993-94 as a third-grader when his father was at the Command and General Staff College. In 2017, he attended CGSC himself, and now in 2024, he is an instructor in the Department of Sustainment and Force Management at CGSC, with a daughter in kindergarten at Bradley Elementary.
If one believes that our legacies proceed us, then are we walking in circles? If the path we walk is a circle, are there crossroads?
For those who live at Fort Leavenworth, it is not unfamiliar to hear the word “crossroads” used to describe the fort. In fact, as a crossroads, Fort Leavenworth can describe many things, such as families. This is true for my family, and much like many things in life, the crossroads can be obvious and other times hidden. In order to find something, however, usually a question proceeds the journey. While here at Fort Leavenworth, one should seek crossroads to help answer questions so we can decide if we are walking in circles, or rather, continuing our legacies. Why else are we here?
Continuing legacies matter because, as an instructor recently told me in the Lewis and Clark Center here at Fort Leavenworth, history is frail, and, as Napoleon once described it, just agreed-upon fiction. As the instructor pointed out to me, one could argue history’s fragility because the historian writing the history is not present at the exact moment in history, as the moment has passed before writing occurred. Additionally, the instructor told me memories fade, so even a history written one second afterward is still a little bit faded. Maybe this is why history can seem recognizable but at the same time not quite clear, like a familiar fog. Maybe this is how walking in circles may lead us over our legacies time and time again unknowingly. Maybe this is why walking in circles is important since history alone is not enough to preserve a legacy.
Taking it a step further, since history cannot be described in absolute facts, maybe it would not be the facts that are most important, but rather the questions from our history we should know. These questions will help us in the future because if history’s answers are not answers, then history can just help us to ask questions. So, maybe asking questions about our history is just the crossroads of human nature. Without certain facts, one may not ascertain certain logic from history. Maybe only feeling can be the reason history is worth writing about, reading about and studying about.
The history of the Lukefahr family at Fort Leavenworth is one such example.
Originally, I thought that the only history of Fort Leavenworth and my family started in 1993 when my father attended Command and General Staff College. Memories of filling sandbags when the Missouri River flooded downtown Leavenworth, my family contemplating purchasing a carousel horse for decoration at home, playing tetherball in the third grade at Bradley Elementary School, and my father’s class gift painting of brothers attacking the beaches of Normandy summarized the majority of what I thought Fort Leavenworth represented.
During this time, however, I did not ask any questions and I was content with just this information.
Time passed and I joined the military and married my wife, Patricia, after meeting her in Germany during my first assignments. More time passed and I found myself attending Fort Leavenworth as a CGSC student in 2017 living in the Infantry Barracks, beginning to read about philosophy and going to the C.W. Parker Carousel Museum to ride the carousel. Fort Leavenworth represented itself a little differently before departing in 2018, especially with my wife and I expecting our daughter, Heidi.
Again, I did not ask any questions and was content with just this information.
Before I left Fort Leavenworth in 2018, my uncle started to share family stories with me about past relatives dating back to when the Lukefahrs first came to America. This caused me to wonder if there were any Lukefahrs buried on Fort Leavenworth. I left Fort Leavenworth without discovering any family buried on post, but later a friend helped me discover my relative was buried in a cemetery just a short distance outside Fort Leavenworth at the Leavenworth National Cemetery. My relative’s name was misspelled as Lickefare and the first initial was A.
At the time, I considered it a special surprise and left it at that.
Fort Leavenworth represented itself a little differently now, but I did not ask any questions and was content with just this information.
As time passed, I learned more about my family from my uncle. He asked me to ask more questions about my family’s history. Eventually, this led me to learn that the Lukefahr buried at the cemetery in Leavenworth was named Anton. When he was 16 years old, he served as a bugler in the 47th Missouri Infantry for the Union during the Civil War. Anton was from Perry County, Missouri, and was my first cousin, four times removed.
Around the same time of discovering this information, I remembered running around the golf course past the cemetery and between two ponds on Fort Leavenworth. Sometimes, the street lights would create multiple shadows around me as I ran. I would say a few prayers in my mind as I imagined past soldiers running with me. I only thought of my grandparents, who served in different branches of the military, taking a break from heaven and coming to run with me in the dark, but now I added Anton to the memory.
After this, however, again, I did not ask any questions and was content with just this information.
As time passed, I learned more about my family from my uncle. Soon, orders told me to report to Fort Leavenworth again as a CGSC instructor in 2024. Before reporting in from leave, my daughter, wife and I visited Anton at the Leavenworth National Cemetery. Next to the cemetery was the Eisenhower Veterans Affairs Medical Center where one can drive past old buildings that used to be barracks, hospitals and churches. The buildings, much like the memories of when the grounds were referred to as the Soldier’s Home, were fading away.
Now questions started to float and pop as bubbles in my mind, and I found myself not content with this information.
Shortly before I began training to become an instructor at CGSC, I found a newspaper article in the Leavenworth Public Library from The Leavenworth Times’ July, 8, 1900, Sunday edition. It stated that Anton Lickfare was admitted to the Soldier’s Home that week. Lukefahr was misspelled as Lickfare. I also found a burial record the same day that showed Anton Lickefare passed away on April, 1 1904. Again, Lukefahr was misspelled as Lickefare. This did not bother me, though, as my uncle had shared with me that Lukefahr itself was most likely a misspelling, too. Days passed, a few rides at the Carousel Museum with my wife and daughter happily occurred, and later that summer, my daughter started kindergarten at Bradley Elementary School.
Questions were all around me, and I found myself content with this information.
I share these stories to highlight some crossroads, but they are not unique to my family. Fort Leavenworth is a crossroads for the military, the country and multiple families throughout history.
The question, however, is not how this is, but how does this make us feel? If crossroads make us seem like we are traveling in circles, are we on the perimeter of the circle or in the middle? Is the circle stationary or is the circle also moving in a circle? Is the crossroad really crossing anything? With these questions, is it okay to feel excited about the possibility of history not being able to provide facts? If history cannot provide facts, can we at least feel something in the present history? Can we decide what we are doing in the present?
If we can, then I strongly encourage everyone to make the best feelings possible, right now. Enjoy the feelings that occur here at Fort Leavenworth. Understand, as an instructor told me while I was learning how to instruct, that sometimes, split decisions may actually be a multi-year experience, study, reflection or something else entirely. The present may determine the legacy of the past and future.
Fort Leavenworth is a crossroads not just for our Army, but for life. Your feelings are gathering places for people, ideas and legacies. I feel honored to have crossed paths with Anton’s legacy while here at Fort Leavenworth. Or maybe I just caught up to him on a circle? Or maybe we caught up to someone else? Or maybe someone is going to meet us in the future?
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