Veterans Day Honor Roll

Veterans Day.

It’s the day we remember those who served, those who never came home, and those whose sacrifice saved lives, preserved a union, and freed nations.

I try to put together my own list every year of those known ancestors of mine who served, and I find that I discover more every year. It makes me proud, of course, but it also reminds me that as I research these ancestors throughout the year, so it was that they lived with their service every single day of their lives. Their memories were not put on hold and brought out just on one day a year, but every day. Perhaps because of physical injury, perhaps because of the sheer horror that remained in their psyche, they lived with those experiences. It makes me wonder who are we to relegate their bravery, their steadfastness, their patriotism, to just one day.

Every day should be Veterans Day, because as I see it, we owe them nothing less.

And now, my personal Roll of Honor as I know it to be (there are more, I am certain).

Thank you, all, for the sacrifices you and your families made.

*Thomas Wells, Massachusetts, Member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery of Massachusetts

*Jonathan Massey, Revolutionary War minuteman, Salem, New Hampshire

*Capt. Philemon Waters, Revolutionary War, Virginia

*Edward Askins, Revolutionary War, Virginia

*James Officer, Revolutionary War, Virginia

*Major George Bruton, Revolutionary War, Virginia/South Carolina

*Walter Wake, Civil War, Union, Company C, 20^th Illinois, wounded at the Battle of Shiloh

Robert Carter, Civil War, Union, killed in Georgia during Sherman’s March

*Andrew Lawson, Civil War, Union

*John Robert Mawson, Civil War, Union

*James Zook, Civil War, Union

*John D. Alexander, Civil War, Union, 8^th KS and 8^th Wisc. Battery

Ralph John Carter, WWII, killed in action, buried in The Netherlands National Cemetery

Robert Reeve, WWII, Iwo Jima

Major Frank Reeve, WWII, Iwo Jima

*denotes a direct ancestor