My oldest brother Kenneth Hedrick enlisted in the Army in 1937 and retired in 1965 with 28 years’ of  service.  He served with the 18^th Combat Team 32^nd Field Artillery Battalion, 1^st Infantry Division in North Africa and Europe.  At the beginning of World War II he was stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.  He was selected to become part of the American Expeditionary Force, commanded by General George Patton.

Enthralled by his buddy’s tales of the Seven Seas, Crews tried to join the Navy in 1939 but was turned down.  “Flat feet,” he stated.  Crews found work at the fabulous Fox Theater in Atlanta.  “I ushered before a promotion to projectionist in the screening room where they censored films, like trying to cut ‘damn’ from Gone with the Wind.”

Most combat veterans live and sleep with the nightmares of only one war, but Bill Edwardy copes with the vivid memories of three.

I was drafted into the United States Army in February, 1969. I had just turned 20 age two months prior. I couldn’t drink beer and I couldn’t vote. But, according to Uncle Sam, I was old enough to become a soldier, go off to war, and kill or be killed by other young men my age or younger……

Memorial post and video honoring Staff Sergeant Thomas Joseph Dodds Dudley.