Monday, November 12, 2007
Veteran's Day 2007
Uncles Don Morgan and Les Roach - somewhere in France - ca 1944.These two uncles joined up together and marched off to World War II. They got separated right off the bat. Don had been raising pigeons in the loft of Grandpa's barn. Some of them were homing pigeons. And due to this assumed skill with homing pigeons, Don was snatched up by the U. S. Army Signal Corp. With this start, Don became part of the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy -- while Les was left to muck around in England awaiting the much later invasion of France. I lived with Les from 1952 to 1956, but he never talked about the war. I do know that he was cut off for awhile during the Battle of the Bulge. The two did manage to rejoin each other for a visit while they were both stationed in France. Les's older brother Albert was in the Navy and served in the Pacific Theatre during WW II.
Brother David did two tours of duty in Viet Nam. Brother Eric did one. I sometimes wonder if Dave went the second time to keep an eye out on Eric.
During my high school years, I lived with my great uncle Jim Evans, who served in the trenchs of France during WW I.
Great granddad Thomas fought briefly in the Civil War as part of the Union Kansas Guard that helped turn back Gen. Sterling Price's lunge towards Kansas City near the end of the war. Dozens of 'cousins' fought for the Confederacy .... those parts of the family that remained in South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Missouri. Battle and disease claimed a half dozen or more of these ancestral cousins.
I do pause to remember them and wonder at what they experienced. Don, Dave and Eric are still alive and kicking.
Great granddad Thomas fought briefly in the Civil War as part of the Union Kansas Guard that helped turn back Gen. Sterling Price's lunge towards Kansas City near the end of the war. Dozens of 'cousins' fought for the Confederacy .... those parts of the family that remained in South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Missouri. Battle and disease claimed a half dozen or more of these ancestral cousins.
I do pause to remember them and wonder at what they experienced. Don, Dave and Eric are still alive and kicking.
Uncle Albert Roach -- ca 1937
