Today is an important day in my families history

[98valk]

My Grandfather as an Italian Immigrate was working in the Pittsburgh steel mills when WWI started.  He joined the US Army and fought in some major battles in France (I have his medal that has the french battles listed on it). He was discharged with the rank of Sergeant. A short time after that the President offered full American citizenship to immigrates that joined US armed forces during the war. The decree allowed for him and his family which where his wife and children which included my Dad to come to America with full automatic American citizenship. So in time, that's how I came to be here in America. Thank God and for my Grandfather.

https://www.hoover.org/research/100th-anniversary-us-entrance-wwi
Unlike December 7, 1941, April 6, 1917 is not a date that lives, either in infamy or fame. Few Americans even know that it marks the country’s entry into World War I.
It was on that spring day that the U.S. House of Representatives voted, at President Woodrow Wilson’s request, to declare war on Germany. The U.S. Senate had voted two days earlier. It was an earthquake in history, with aftershocks still reverberating but largely to silence.

Nor are race or immigration left out of the story. The early twentieth century, like today, was an era of mass immigration to the U.S. About 20 per cent of American troops in World War I were immigrants.

[Jess from VA]

Just to add:  

During World War I, around 500,000 immigrants served in the military—approximately 18 percent of all soldiers.  After the war, 192,000 immigrant veterans were awarded citizenship.

During the American Civil War, more than 20 percent of Union soldiers were foreign born, largely being of German or Irish origin.

Over 300,000 immigrants served in the armed forces during the Second World War, 109,000 of whom were noncitizens.

In 2016, there were approximately 511,000 foreign-born veterans of the armed forces residing in the United States, representing three percent of the total veteran population of 18.8 million.

[Farside]

  That is a Great Story 98 Valk, thanks for making it known. 

[TTG53#1717]

My Grandfather was 1st gen American of Irish immigrant parents. He lied at 16 and joined the Army. He served under Pershing in the “ Punitive Expedition” against Poncho Villa here in El Paso before he was shipped over to The Ardennes for WW1.
While in the trenches he was awarded a Silver Star for capturing a German machine gun and its crew.
He received a French medal for that action as well. Something with a gold cross.

A few weeks later a bomb blew up behind him and peppered the back of his head with shrapnel. He spent two months in a field hospital before being sent back home with a Purple Heart. One thing he told me a few times was how great The Salvation Army treated him in the hospital and how when he was released the Red Cross handed him a bill for anything they had supplied. They kept track of individual cigarettes. He always told me to give whatever I could to the SA and never to the RC.
When I was a toddler, I remember all the purple splotches on the back of his head and neck scared me until one day he told me how he got them. He still had metal embedded in his skull until he died at 67.

When I was 6, he had a satchel that held 5 toggle top quart bottles. He would have me carry the satchel of empties 2 blocks to his local watering hole. While the bottles were being filled he would have a pint of Genessee 12 Horse Ale and talk with his WW1 buddies. He would have the bartender pour me a half a small mug of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Maybe 4 or 5 oz. with a big soft pretzel. I heard lots of stories of war in the trenches from those who were there. My grandad had to carry the filled bottles back home.

He became a Machinist who built the machinery that made Shredded Wheat and Triscuits. We used to get boxes of Triscuits brought home that were still warm enough to melt butter. Then he became a Captain in the Niagara Falls Fire Dept.. He retired from there.

I’m fortunate that I never had to go to war. I was #33 when the draft lottery went to #32. I got a notice from SS on 12/21, my girlfriend’s birthday, that I wasn’t destined for Nam.

I spent 30+ years in Precision Machining and later spent 5+ years on our refinery FD. I still eat SW and Triscuits and have a full machine shop in my back yard. In some ways, The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

[98valk]

My Grandfather was 1st gen American of Irish immigrant parents. He lied at 16 and joined the Army. He served under Pershing in the “ Punitive Expedition” against Poncho Villa here in El Paso before he was shipped over to The Ardennes for WW1.
While in the trenches he was awarded a Silver Star for capturing a German machine gun and its crew.
He received a French medal for that action as well. Something with a gold cross.

A few weeks later a bomb blew up behind him and peppered the back of his head with shrapnel. He spent two months in a field hospital before being sent back home with a Purple Heart. One thing he told me a few times was how great The Salvation Army treated him in the hospital and how when he was released the Red Cross handed him a bill for anything they had supplied. They kept track of individual cigarettes. He always told me to give whatever I could to the SA and never to the RC.
When I was a toddler, I remember all the purple splotches on the back of his head and neck scared me until one day he told me how he got them. He still had metal embedded in his skull until he died at 67.

When I was 6, he had a satchel that held 5 toggle top quart bottles. He would have me carry the satchel of empties 2 blocks to his local watering hole. While the bottles were being filled he would have a pint of Genessee 12 Horse Ale and talk with his WW1 buddies. He would have the bartender pour me a half a small mug of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Maybe 4 or 5 oz. with a big soft pretzel. I heard lots of stories of war in the trenches from those who were there. My grandad had to carry the filled bottles back home.

He became a Machinist who built the machinery that made Shredded Wheat and Triscuits. We used to get boxes of Triscuits brought home that were still warm enough to melt butter. Then he became a Captain in the Niagara Falls Fire Dept.. He retired from there.

I’m fortunate that I never had to go to war. I was #33 when the draft lottery went to #32. I got a notice from SS on 12/21, my girlfriend’s birthday, that I wasn’t destined for Nam.

I spent 30+ years in Precision Machining and later spent 5+ years on our refinery FD. I still eat SW and Triscuits and have a full machine shop in my back yard. In some ways, The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

great family history there. thanks for sharing

[Jess from VA]

One thing he told me a few times was how great The Salvation Army treated him in the hospital and how when he was released the Red Cross handed him a bill for anything they had supplied. They kept track of individual cigarettes. He always told me to give whatever I could to the SA and never to the RC.

Great story. 

And the quote exactly sums up my experience in the military many years later.

RC never got a nickel of mine. 

[shortleg]

   You are right about the Red Cross, I have worked many times in the National  head quarters
and what they pay their officers and for their buildings is just plain stupid.
    On the other hand the Salvation Army is much wiser with money and most
of all people. They have not forgotten the religious part of their mission.

[TTG53#1717]

Back on the topic of important days in family history...My paternal great great grandparents immigrated from Quebec to the UP early in the century to work the copper mines. The family settled in and prospered through the years.
My dad and his older brother were engineering students at Michigan Tech when WW2 broke out. They both were slated to become “Combat Engineers “. My dad sustained an eye injury that ended his military eligibility and put him in a Navy ammunition research lab.  His brother went to war.

Eleven days from now on April 18 will mark the 74th anniversary of his KIA.

He was on the tiny island of Ie Shima setting up a transit atop a low rise to do some survey work. At the same time, the noted War Correspondent Ernie Pyle was sitting in a Jeep not far away. Resistance during and after the landing had been light and things were maybe a little too relaxed. Some Japanese soldiers hiding in spider holes jumped out and started shooting a machine gun and a sniper rifle. The machine gun took out Ernie Pyle and the sniper got the uncle I never got to know.
 They were buried next to each other on the island until their bodies were repatriated to the U.S.

He was the first born son and his passing was only ever mentioned on the anniversary while I grew up.
My dad would never talk about it. I learned about this later on from my mom whose dad is the WW1 Vet in my earlier post.

[The emperor has no clothes]

Back on the topic of important days in family history...My paternal great great grandparents immigrated from Quebec to the UP early in the century to work the copper mines. The family settled in and prospered through the years.
My dad and his older brother were engineering students at Michigan Tech when WW2 broke out. They both were slated to become “Combat Engineers “. My dad sustained an eye injury that ended his military eligibility and put him in a Navy ammunition research lab.  His brother went to war.

Eleven days from now on April 18 will mark the 74th anniversary of his KIA.

He was on the tiny island of Ie Shima setting up a transit atop a low rise to do some survey work. At the same time, the noted War Correspondent Ernie Pyle was sitting in a Jeep not far away. Resistance during and after the landing had been light and things were maybe a little too relaxed. Some Japanese soldiers hiding in spider holes jumped out and started shooting a machine gun and a sniper rifle. The machine gun took out Ernie Pyle and the sniper got the uncle I never got to know.
 They were buried next to each other on the island until their bodies were repatriated to the U.S.

He was the first born son and his passing was only ever mentioned on the anniversary while I grew up.
My dad would never talk about it. I learned about this later on from my mom whose dad is the WW1 Vet in my earlier post.

Thank you for sharing your family stories.  You have much to be proud of in your heritage. 

[czuch]

Thanks for sharing those stories.
I knew the Ernie Pyle story since I was 9.
The "Rest of the story" Is left to the families and generally lost to history.
As I've told my kids, and anyone unfortunate enough to not get away,
"Not everyone is Alexander the Great. Someone has to be Regulus Personae".