52 Ancestors Week 22: Military

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme this week is "Military." What have you learned about one of your military ancestors?

Be all that you can be....with Photoshop.

    Getting involved with the military runs deep in my family. Well, mostly on my mother's side of the family tree because her father, grandfathers, great-grandfather, 2nd great-grandfather and MORE have all taken part in almost every single conflict in American history going back to the American Revolution. My mother would tell you that she is an Air Force brat. My aunts and uncles would do the same. However, being in the military wasn't just for my direct line. For example, I have a great-uncle who was buried with high honors in Arlington National Cemetery!

Alfred Hamel Jr

    Meet Alfred Francis Hamel Jr, son of Alfred Francis Hamel and Clara Laplante. He was born in 1919 and was the older brother of my grandfather, Robert and like him he served with distinction in the Second World War, the Korean War and Vietnam. He was a Warrant Officer who served the U.S. military for thirty years. His great deeds in the service earned him a plot in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia when he passed away on July 20th, 1972.

    Obviously, I've never met my great-uncle as he passed away a few years before I was born. That isn't to say I never heard about him or saw his picture. I have. My grandfather kept much of his brother's belongings and even directions to where here was buried IN Arlington. He clearly cared about him very much since he kept everything concerning his brother. And I mean everything. Grandpa Hamel did not throw anything away!

    In genealogical terms, this is a good thing. That means there's more than enough information about the man floating around. All you have to do is take a deep dive into a box and see what long forgotten goodies are inside. Yes, Alfred had a sweet life. But, what was really surprising to me was finding out he was a hero even AFTER the war. Check this out.

Newburyport Daily News and Newburyport Herald,
 Pg One. 6 March 1947

    After the war, Alfred became a member of the Dorchester Fire Department. While he was on duty in March of 1947, he responded to an alarm at his own home. Once there, he had to rescue his wife and three small children who were unfortunately caught in the blaze.

    Hamel was alerted by a teenager who ran to the station to tell him about the fire. The kid had been visiting the home and witnessed the three-story wooden apartment building go up in flames. Alfred quickly got his wife, Veronica McNamara and his three children out of the building. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

    Apparently, the fire had started in the basement. I'm not sure if it was arson or if there were just some shoddy electrical issues down there. It's more likely that this was an electrical fire. In that case, man am I glad everyone made it out of there okay! Yikes!

   From the look of everything, you could probably tell that Alfred was pretty heroic. I mean he was already a firefighter so he was risking his life on a daily basis putting out fires. Sufficed it to say he was pretty heroic. 

He has a dedication plaque in 
Amesbury.

    Alfred is just one of many relatives of mine who served in one way or another and I do my best to try and honor all of them. It's really all I can do because I've never met him and my mother doesn't really have any memories of him. I know his children mentioned in the story are all grown up and more than likely have kids of their own by now. And even grandchildren!!

   Will this blog will entice them to get in touch with a long-lost cousin? Hopefully. Blogs do make for great cousin-bait. Here's hoping they contact me. I'd love to talk to them and maybe learn more about Alfred than what I have in newspapers and various documents. They might even would like to look at some of the documents that are in the box of things my aunt gave me during the worse of the COVID pandemic. 

    Time will tell. I remain cautiously optimistic. For now, the blog honors a marine/fire-fighter who had a lot of guts and was clearly a hero. 'Nuff said.

See ya next time!