Howard F. Struble was 24 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. The year was 1917, and Struble was answering a call that he, like thousands of American’s across the country, had received: come fight in the war to end all wars.

Struble was born in 1893, the second youngest of 13 children. He lived in Herminie, Pennsylvania, in Westmoreland County.

A seaman, Struble served on the U.S.S. Texas, which was a part of the Grand Fleet’s sixth battle squadron, during World War I. His service spanned from January 1918 until December 1918. The Texas’ crew was stationed at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands in Northern Scotland.

Struble kept a daily journal documenting the war. When he returned home, he put every physical remnant of the war he owned — including his gas mask, postcards and sailor hat — in a wooden box sealed by a tin lid.

Struble died in 1954. Years after his passing, his granddaughter, Nancy Embich, of Saylorsburg, received his journal. Later on, she was also given the box containing Struble’s wartime belongings.

A year ago, Embich realized that the 100th anniversary since the signing of the Armistice was approaching.

“I just became aware that (November 2018) was going to be the 100th anniversary last year,” Embich said. “I thought, ‘oh, I wonder what my grandfather wrote in his journal on this day.’”

That entry, which is nearly a century old, places Struble aboard the Texas on Nov. 11, 1918.

In his journal, Struble recounts his experience on the day of the Armistice, writing that fighting had stopped at 11 a.m. that morning. He had been in foreign service for nine months.

Struble paints a picture of celebration. That evening, his entry reads, ally flags were hoisted into the air one after another, with each country’s anthem serving as a backdrop to their flag’s ascension.

“This is a sight I am sure I will not forget for a while,” Struble’s letter reads.

Later that night, according to Struble, Captain Victor Blue delivered a speech.

Blue told the crew that during the Texas’ last run at sea, the ship was traveling in a channel surrounded on one side by a German mine field, and on the other, by nine German submarines. Struble wrote that at the time of the ship’s run, the crew suspected the enemy’s presence, but wasn’t made sure of it until Blue’s address.

“(Blue) said that we were in as much danger at times and many times more than the army in the trench. So he said, ‘Don’t think that you have not done your share,’” Struble wrote. “He also told us how easy the Germans might (have) won a great victory just by an earthquake stopping the passage of the Forth while the fleet was at anchor there. In closing, he hoped that we would soon all be back in the states.”

After the war, Struble married and had four children. He took up the occupation of a sheet metal worker, but Embich said there was one day in the year that her grandfather refused to work: Nov. 11.

“After he came back from World War I, he never, ever worked on Armistice day. That was a very important day to him, even before it became Veterans Day,” Embich said.

“It meant a lot to him,” she added.