This is an article I wrote about the brother of my husband’s great-grandfather. He died on Armistice Day near Verdun, France.
We didn’t even know of this uncle until my husband was helping another relative get a gravestone from the VA for another veteran. Our son found information about this uncle and then we found his grave nearby.
The article covers what little bit of info we could find, and then, that our son, (who is military) found out about the medal of Verdun. We later visited the area and the American Cemetery there. Anyway, thought some of y’all might find it interesting.
My dad was captured in France and never saw his buddies again. He found out after the war that his foxhole buddy had been killed some time after his capture. Sixty five years later, he simply read his buddy’s name printed on a roster and burst into tears.
He said he’d always wondered if he could have saved his buddy, had he been there.
He carried that his whole life and had never spoken of it before. Rest in peace, Thomas Ford.