[Billie]

[Billie]

Good morning! Today as we salute a Few MORE of FR's Finest, I hope you'll join us in our appreciation for their service to these United States of America!

I regret that I have misplaced the information that belongs to one other photo I received in November, and if anyone can tell me whose Uncle Ron this is, I'd like to apologize for not getting his picture in this group and hope we can include it in the next one.

[armymarinemom]

Great page. Thanks for honoring our military! You put a lot of work into these pages and it is appreciated.

[Cold Heat]

Billie:

Thank-you and bless all of the folks who keep these threads updated and fresh each day. I know it takes a great deal of time and effort to do so.

Thanks to our veterans and current crop of super people who are serving today, this country is well, strong, and as great as it can be.

Keep up the great work and "Keep on keeping on!"

wirestripper..................

[Pippin]

Hi, Billie!

I finally get to step in for a momeent to see another great group of our Finest! :O)

I'm working on getting either a new modem or a new computer altogether.

My pc is so antiquated that I'm wondering weather it's worth putting a new modem in it (As in "will it work")

I guess I'll wait and see!

[knighthawk]

Howdy!

Hope all is well.

Over here we got a heatwave (still). My brains are frying out.

[ladtx]

Very good presentation as usual {{{{Billie}}}}. I've emailed my family to let them know of the posting of our Dad's picture. He's been gone almost 25 years, but I feel he still watches over our family. Maybe we'll get some new posters here because of it.

[Calpernia]

Gooooooood Morning Finest!

click the plane

[Diver Dave]

Mornin' Billie. It's great to see these new additions to A Few of FR's Finest Military.

Welcome aboard, y'all. Proud to have you join us.

Salute!

[Fiddlstix]

Good Morning Everybody.

You Know The Drill
Click the Pics J

Coffee & Donuts J

[The Thin Man]

Excellent additions to the Finest Military. We can be proud of them all.

Billie, ya done good. :)

[LadyShallott]

Great thread today Billie! It's always a wonderful thing to learn about our men and women in the armed forces. Just wanted to stop in and say hello. I hope all of you have a great day. God Bless-

Chris

[Mama_Bear]

I love this pledge graphic! And, I just noticed that it is a photo by our Finest "Flyer". Very nice!

[Mo1]

Mo1's dad never liked to talk about his time in the war, but she does know he served with the Army in the 69th Infantry Division in WW II.

Thanks Billie for adding my Dad's picture .. {{HUGS}}

I was able to do some research and found some info of dad's service time

Here is the Home page for the 69th

69th Infantry Division

Dad was in the 271st, Company K .. here is a story about their time in Germany

Excerpted from Trespass Against Them: History of the 271st Infantry Regiment,15 May 1943 – 25 May 1945, pp. 13-27

[Dubya]

Just some veterans news.

2 celebrations planned at medical center

By Frank Perkins
Special to the Star-Telegram

Two celebrations will make this week special at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The first is a birthday party honoring former Navy Yeoman Marie Odee Johnson, who turns 106 Wednesday. The longtime Dallas resident is the oldest of 12 female World War I veterans living in North Texas, according to VA records.

The Dallas Navy League chapter will make a presentation to Johnson at 1:30 p.m. in the VA's Transitional Care Unit at the hospital, where she lives. Intended mostly for short-term care, the VA allows World War I veterans older than 100 to stay as long as they wish. Johnson moved there in 1998.

She joined the Navy during the last days of World War I while working as a secretary with the Dallas office of the FBI, according to her daughter, Marilyn Brooks, 75.

"I think those sailor boys working in the recruiting office at the federal building talked her into it," Brooks said. Johnson had two brothers in the Army and a sister in the Navy.

"She didn't ask anybody's permission. She just signed up and went," Brooks said. "She was just that kind of a daredevil. The first her family knew of her enlistment was when she called her father and told him, 'Well, you best put another war service star in the window.'

"She took a train to her duty station in Washington, D.C., and told me that at each stop, the people in that town or village would give fruit and snacks to the soldiers and sailors on the train," Brooks said.

Johnson was a secretary to a Marine general in Washington. "It was a great assignment," Brooks said. "The general was in charge of entertaining the troops when they came back from Europe, so my mother was kept busy passing out free tickets to Broadway shows and baseball games."

After her discharge, she returned to her job with the FBI in Dallas. She met another federal employee, Edward C. Johnson, wounded in action during World War I, and they married in 1924. "I was their only chickadee," Brooks said.

Brooks expects her mom to have a great time at the party. "She loves attention and talking to people, although she refuses to wear her hearing aid," Brooks said.

The VA estimates that 500 World War I veterans, fewer than 75 of them women, remain nationwide.

The second celebration, honoring the 50th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, will be at 3 p.m. Sunday in the atrium of the medical center. The Dallas Veterans Council-Korean War Commemorative Partners is the sponsor.

Eight Korean War veterans -- an Army Distinguished Service Cross recipient, a Navy admiral, generals from the Air Force and Marines, and four former enlisted men -- will share their experiences, and the Town North Concert Band will perform. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Stonell Greene at (214) 819-1886.