Veterans in My Family

Although I would not say that my family is a military one, in the sense of having career military folks in any of the generations, there are veterans in most (maybe all) generations that I can find.  Going back from my parents:

Clifford B. Salt, my father, was in the Army in World War II but not in any action.  He went to officers training school and did administrative work.

Richard H. Denman, my mother’s brother and my uncle, was in the Army in World War II and in the Pacific.  He had wanted to be a flyer, but he was colorblind and so not qualified.  He was trained as a meteorologist and also worked as a mechanic in the motor pool according to my cousin.  My mother told the story that there were two old family swords hanging in a historical display in Wakeman that her father (grandpa Lyle) went and got, and had cut down to shorter knives which he gave to each of these two as they went into service in World War II.  I have no evidence for this story.

On my grandparent level, my grandfather Henry Salt did not serve in the World War, although his registration noted that he had served six months in the National Guard.  I need to follow up on this and see if I can discover more.  I wrote about this last year for Veterans Day and haven’t yet followed up.  Bad Pat!

My grandpa Lyle Denman went into the Army in the World War and served stateside in administrative roles.  As I have written before, he was just about to be interviewed for officers training on Nov 11, 1918 when the signing of the Armistice changed it all.

On my paternal grandmother’s side there were two brothers (John and King Boothby) who registered for the World War, but as far as I know neither served in the military (the older one was 46 and the younger was 38).

On my maternal grandmother’s side there was a single older brother (Franklin Snow) who registered but was already 36 years old and did not serve in the military.

Since it is already past the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, I will stop at this point.