Lt. Colonel Charles White Whittlesey's headstone is in a cemetery in Pittsfield, Massachusetts The headstone notes that his body was never recovered. The cache puzzle begins here.
Whittlesey (January 20, 1884 – Presumed date of death November 26, 1921) was an American Medal of Honor recipient who is notable for leading the "Lost Battalion" in the Argonne Forest during World War I.
Military service: A month after the United States entered World War I in 1917, Whittlesey joined the Army.
By September 1917 Whittlesey was commissioned a major. On the morning of October 2, 1918, the 77th was ordered to move forward against a heavily fortified German line as part of a massive American attack in the Meuse-Argonne region. On October 7, the Germans sent forward a blindfolded American POW carrying a white flag, with a message in English:
“The suffering of your wounded men can be heard over here in the German lines, and we are appealing to your humane sentiments to stop. A white flag shown by one of your men will tell us that you agree with these conditions. Please treat Private Lowell R. Hollingshead [the bearer] as an honorable man. He is quite a soldier. We envy you.”
Whittlesey's alleged reply was "You go to hell!". Of the original 554 troops involved in the advance, only 194 were able to walk out of the ravine.
He tried to return to his career, but found himself in constant demand for speeches, parades, and honorary degrees. The pressure wore on him; he complained to a friend: "Not a day goes by but I hear from some of my old outfit, usually about some sorrow or misfortune. I cannot bear it much more."
More information may be found at Wikipedia.
The puzzle cache starts at his family’s plot in the Pittsfield Cemetery. The cache may be found at N42. 28.0AB W73. 15.6CD:
AB = Melzar Whittlesey' age at death plus 4
CD = Adelaide Whittlesey's age at death minus 4.
Kudos to HikerGirl413 - FTF!