Question of the Week: Who are the veterans in your family tree?

Question

Who are the veterans in your family tree?

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Oh, wow!  Too many to mention from the American Revolution to the present.

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My father U.S. Navy

My Great-Great Grandfather Capt. James R. Thompson-Civil War USA, 5th Tennessee Infantry, Co. B

My Great-great Grandfather Pvt. William Henry Osborne-Civil War CSA, 13th Tennessee Calvary, Co. A

My Uncle Pvt. Gerald Wightman, U.S. Army
My Uncle PFC Marlin Wightman, U.S. Army Korea
My Uncle Mst. Sgt. William Wightman, U.S. Air Force Vietnam

My 5th GGF Col. Stephen Calvin Copeland, American Revolution

My 6th GGF Capt. Dennis Trammel, American Revolution

Those are just the ones I found quickly in my line.

Thank you, Veterans!!!

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I couldn’t go past my grandfather on my dads side Alford Franklin Buxton but my mother’s father was in the military in 1918. James Isaac Enox,  I have some of his rations papers for food. I have not found their parents yet either. My father Eugene St Patrick Buxton SSGT us Army and Uncle James Quincy Enox Navy, Uncle Bill Dickson also US Army, my brother, US Air Force Billy Gene Buxton, his son (Living veteran) Billy US Army, Nephew David and nephew Chris still serving US Army. My husband Dave 23 years and his brother Rob 20 years both US Air Force, our son Kyle 8 years US Air Force. All above out of the military now. no one died in the service but nephew Billy was badly burned in a military vehicle while serving overseas.

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Myself, my sister, 2 brother in law, 5 uncles, many many grandfathers.  All the way back to the Knights Templar.

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Myself (12 years) and my husband (24 years), USN.  Two brothers served in the Navy.  One brother served in the Army and made the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam Conflict.

My father served in the Navy for 26 years.

My paternal grandfather served in the military of Scotland before he immigrated to USA.

At this time, I have several very good leads on my maternal side going back to Plymouth landing.  These facts look good, but I am not 100% sure that they are accurate, (missing a few documents).

Answer 1

Grandfather Richard Wilkinson - The Essex Regt, Boer War - returned home safely

Great Uncle Henry Albert (Bert) Mosson WWII - returned home safely

My Father Kenneth George (Kelly) Mosson, Gunner RCA WWII - returned home safely

Second Cousin Able Seaman Joseph Neil Johnston, lost aboard HMCS Skeena, WWII

Distant Cousin Leading Telegraphist John Derrick Asselton, lost aboard HMCS Regina WWII

Living Veterans by first name only are Bill, Jim, Jackie, and me - Able Wren Linda Jean Mosson (at the time I served) CFS Mill Cove, Nova Scotia.

We have a current serving member of the Canadian Forces.

Comments

Impressive service Linda.    You joined the services in an era few American women were enlisting.   (Perhaps nurses were serving more than other professions.)   Thanks for providing a great example.  (Even if that wasn't your goal!!)

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There wasn't much for a girl to do after high school in my home town. I could train as a nurse, or a teacher, or I could work in a local dry-goods store - none of which was the least bit appealing. I saw a teletype machine working, and knew I had to learn to operate that! I became a Naval Communicator, worked teletype, and Morse Code ship-shore - and loved every moment of it!

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During WW II - virtually all of the grunt work on the German crypto systems was done by RN Wrens and U.S. Navy Waves. They ran the Bombes that broke the Enigma keys out, AND some female pilots, who were not officially enlisted, ferried the bombers to England.

Answer 2

My most favorite is my FATHER.     A career helicopter pilot that served in the Vietnam era.

                      From this picture taken in Vietnam,  looks like pilots were expected to complete field emergency repairs. 

Answer 3

My grandfather, Marco Ferraiolo, paratrooper in World War 2.

My grandfather, Robert Eugene Hamel, tech sargent in World War 2. (U.S. Air Force)

My great-grandfathers who served in World War 1: Vincenzo Ferraiolo, Giuseppe Carrabs, Alfred Francis Hamel and Austin Wilfred Felker

2X great grandfather who served in World War 1:

Joseph Laplante

I also have three ancestors who served in the Civil War and about ten in the American Revolution.

Answer 4

My son recently served with the Marine Corps.

My oldest brother was a SeaBee (Navy Construction Battalion) at Da Nang. He came home safely from Viet Nam, unlike our cousin Jerry Mathews who was killed in action and is listed on The Wall.

My father was also a SeaBee. He served during WWII at the Panama Canal. His older brother George also served there.

I'm sure I have relatives who served in WWI and the Civil War, but I haven't found accurate records for those.

My fourth great-grandfather, Daniel Mathews Jr., was a bombardier during the Revolutionary War.

Answer 5

I have too many to list, as apparently I come from a long line of "come over here and say that!".  I have both Union and Confederate great-great grandfathers shooting at each other, so I'm really glad they had bad aim.  Ha!

My father was a career Air Force officer, fighter pilot just at the end of the Korean war.  My youngest brother is in the Army.  

And I appreciate them all.  It takes courage to stand up for your country.  Happy Veterans Day!

Answer 6

My paternal Grandfather, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Truslow-201) served in the US Navy before, during, and after WW II.  He began his career as a Navy Pilot and went on to command both the USS Swan (tug)  and the USS Kenneth Whiting (sea plane tender).

Answer 7

My uncle James Joseph Howlett who served in World War 1 with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.

Answer 8

First, my own cousin  Henry G. "Sony" Taft, who passed away Oct 25, this year. My condolences went to the Taft family and all our other cousins and family members. We especially remember him from his mid teen years in the early 60's when he was visiting us in Connecticut. He served his country in the Air Force during the Vietnam War time frame. I just found out he will be buried on "Veterans Day", Monday Nov 11th. I hope there is a large turn out for this worthy veteran. May he rest in peace. 

               

Next is someone I remember every Veterans Day and Memorial Day; he is Edward F. Barry, a distant cousin, whom I spotted his's name on the "Vietnam Traveling" Wall when it was in Nashville two years ago.  Sgt Edward Francis Barry was killed in action during the Vietnam War February 15, 1969 in Long An, Vietnam. Sgt Barry was one of many heroes of the battle for Saigon during Tet -68 and May offensive. He lived right across the sound from where we lived in Norwalk Ct. He had the same birth date as my brother and similar name (my brother is Frank Edward Barry, he is still living.)  May Sgt Edward Barry rest in peace.

                

And then of course there is myself who served in the Women's Army Corps and regular Army from 1968-1988!! A friend made this collage of pictures for me as I served with the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 240 in my community.

                

Answer 9

My grandfather Roy Thompson (Wiki ID below) - and 4 of his brothers, 1 of whom was KIA at Paschendaele in 1917

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Thompson-31033

Answer 10

Uncle Ben - killed in Korea

Uncle Jim - Marine on Iwo Jima

Uncle Bud - Navy in WWII

Several uncles and cousins in WWI

Great grandfather, several uncles and cousins - Civil War

Several uncles and cousins - War of 1812

4x GGF, 10 uncles and numerous cousins - Revolution

Several uncles and cousins - French and Indian Wars

Answer 11

My father, William Theoddore Barrett, WWII.

My great great grandfather, Jeremiah Barrett, Civil War.

Peter Gray, my 7th great grandfather, Revolutionary War.

Answer 12

I have three different relatives who fought in the SS, the American army and the Red army during WWII. The one in the SS was the uncle of the other two, who were first cousins. All three survived.

That was certainly interesting to find out and a great example of how war does nothing but turn people against each other.

Answer 13

My (still-living) father was in the US Navy, where he attained the rank of chief petty officer; he was mostly in anti-submarine warfare aboard P3 Orions with a deployment in 1980 aboard the USS Dwight D. Eiesenhower.

Both of my grandfathers were in the US Army in WWII; my maternal grandfather landed in Europe not long after D-Day and he was with the Allied army that crossed the Rhine in March of 1945 (and his brother David enlisted in the Coast Guard at the age of 17).

My great-grandfather William Childs served with the Allied Expeditionary Force in France in WWI.

My 3rd great-grandfather Samuel Coomes of Washington, DC enlisted in the 6th Battalion, District of Columbia Infantry, 4 days after Fort Sumter.

My 3rd great-grandfather Coleman C. Adams enlisted in the 15th Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry (Union) and served for one year.

My 5th great-grandfather Paul French was captain, major and lieutenant colonel of the 5th Regiment of Indiana Militia in the War of 1812 before resigning his commission in 1813.

My 5th great-grandfather William Handy was a captain in the Worcester County, Maryland, militia in the Revolution (his brother Samuel Handy was a colonel, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, and a member of the state constitutional convention in 1776).

My 6th great-grandfather Samuel Abell was a major in the St. Mary's County, Maryland militia and a member of the Committee of Safety.

Answer 14

My great Uncle William Campbell was with the Wellington Mounted Rifles in Gallipoli he served for the duration and then re-enlisted so others wouldn't have to go and he went to France - the western front. He had been transferred by then and become a driver in an Artillery Unit - after a few months in the trenches in France he got sick - he lost 1/2 a lung and was discharged and sent home.

My grandmother's brother - Uncle Murray fought in WWII and served in North Africa he was a desert rat - he fought in Tobruk he was taken as a P.O.W. and actually got to meet German General Rommel - he said Rommel was a gentleman. He was eventually liberated and went on to fight in Sicily and Crete - he returned on a hospital ship sick with hydatids, they didn't know if he had caught them from the farm dogs at home or the strays that used to hand around the P.O.W. camp.

My children's grandfather on their father's side was a Holocaust survivor, he didn't really talk about it, but his wife who was Dutch, told us how during the war he ended up in a slave labour camp and she had to hide the children in the attic and steal food scraps, from the restaurant where she worked, to feed them. I didn't really put it together for a while, because a lot of Dutch men were taken for slave labour, but dutch children were not at risk and would not have had to be hidden! I believe Opa was Jewish. I would like to trace it but it is a BRICKWALL I don't read or write in Dutch and so finding the records would be difficult, and you need a translater to read them.

On my paternal side in the Campbell family - John Campbell died at Gallipoli and his brother Peter died at the Somme, on the Western Front, France.

Answer 15

Revolutionary War -
Pvt. Henry McDaniel Jr. (wounded at the Battle of Kings Mountain, turning point in the war in the south, 4th-great-grandfather)
Pvt. Philip Sailor (enlisted for three terms, 4th-great-grandfather)

War of 1812 - Sgt. Caleb McDaniel (3rd-great-grandfather)

Civil War (Union) -
Cpl. Andrew Danner (Cole's Cavalry, 2nd-great-grandfather)
Pvt. Hugh Linn (Army of the Potomac, volunteered at the age of 52, 2nd-great-grandfather)
Pvt. William Linn and Pvt. Riley Linn (two of his sons)

World War I - Andrew Lynn and William Lynn Sr. (granduncles)

Korean War - Airman Daniel Edward Semler (brother-in-law)

Vietnam War - Spec. 4 John Henry Layman - my husband, awarded the Army Commendation

Afghanistan - Capt. Chris White (grandnephew)

Peacetime ...
Seaman 1st Class Milton Omer Lynn Sr. (my father, served as aide-de-camp for President Elect Hoover on his South American Good Will Tour)
Petty Officer 3rd Class Milton Omer Lynn Jr. (brother, served on President Eisenhower's flagship during the 1956 Suez Canal crisis providing radio liaison with the White House)
Pvt. 1st Class Charles Nelson Lynn (brother)
Pvt. 1st Class William Lynn Jr. (1st cousin)
Pvt. 1st Class Gary Murphy (brother-in-law)
Airman Robert Bowman (grandnephew)
Spec. 4 Stephanie Kitchen (grandniece)
Spec. 4 Bradley Crockett (grandnephew)
Staff Sergeant Ariel Williams-Murphy (grandniece)
Master Sergeant Patrice Miller (niece)
Seaman 1st Class Stephen Miller (nephew)
Hosp. Corpsman 2nd Class Philip Burlock Sr. (nephew)
Navy Air Traffic Controller Philip Burlock Jr. (top of his class, grandnephew)
Master-at-Arms Kara Burlock (grandniece)

Answer 16

My father Hendrik Jouwert Wagenaar. He served 1947-1950 in the wrong war (his own words): the post colonial NL war in Indonesia. Being 13 at the start of WWII, 18 at the end of it, he had to join the army, having three elder brothers with a job and a wife. On the other hand: he was the only one of his family who saw the world, coming from a small country village.

My son, he is a veteran to be. Serving in the Dutch 'Korps Mariniers', some sort of Navy Seals, maybe less extreme.

Answer 17

My dad, Robert L. Ellis. He was a member of The “Buckeye Division” during the Korean War. He also served on the USS Ticonderoga in 1972 during the Vietnam War.

Answer 18

My great-uncle Gordon Alfred Sutherland served in WW1 with the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).

Answer 19

My Great Uncle William “Bill” Lionel Gibbs who was KIA in World War II

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gibbs-4834

Answer 20

This is a great subject and task for us to do. While I'm kinda new at WikiTree and I really enjoy finding out about my past. While I've been researching my kin on the WikiTree site I have found out that many of my maternal and paternal grandparents, uncles, and cousins have served in the US military. Way too much to write down at this time. They also served in every USA war from the Revolution war to present day conflicts.