52 Ancestors Week 33: Service

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 33

Week 33's theme is "Service." Military service. Service stations. In service to others. Even good or bad service at a restaurant. Let your imagination run with this week's theme!

Knowing will always be half the battle. Don't ask me
what the other half is.

    It's a little difficult to talk about service in my family. Who do I talk about exactly?! Both sides have served in both World Wars and my mother's side of the family has people who served in basically every armed conflict America has been involved in aside from the Vietnam War and conflict in the Middle East. So, to that end, I have a ton of people to talk about and tons upon tons of draft cards and service records. I have written at great length about both grandfathers' service in World War II. Let's go one step above them. Let's talk about two of my great-grandfathers and their service during the first World War and their actions during World War II. Computer, call up the service records for Carrabs, Giuseppe and Hamel, Alfred Francis.

Alfred Hamel circa 1916

    Alfred enlisted into the service during the "war to end all wars" on November 16th, 1915. It was during that month that Mexican revolutionary leader, Pancho Villa, was vying for control of northern Mexico as part of the then five year-long crisis at the United States' doorstep. Wasting little time, young Hamel was sent from his home in Newburyport, Massachusetts to the border with Mexico where he would defend the nation in case the conflict south of the border escalated and spilled into the southwestern states.

    My great-grandfather's draft card explicitly stated that he wanted to sign up for the National Guard as a private. There are logically many reasons why he chose that path. He was a young man at that point with a wife and young daughter. Chances are he probably didn't want to abandon them or leave them without a father/husband. Who can say? There are many ways you can serve your country in times of war. Sometimes some people never fire a shot. Sometimes they are deep in the trenches. It doesn't mean their service should be looked down upon or not even celebrated. Did his country award him for his service? 

   Hmmm.....It's a possibility.

    Wow! Would you look at all those medals? You might recall me talking about them when I did my deep dive into that box I got from my aunt. Check out the blog here in case you need a refresher. It's been two years since I posted that blog and I'm still no closer to learning what exactly those medals are. I need to look them up. Good thing I have some friends in high places who know a thing or two about these medals. It's been two years. Someone needs to tell me what they are! They're still pretty cool, though and in decent condition!

    It's clear that Uncle Sam held Alfred in high regard. Even his obituary in 1962 praised the man since whoever wrote the obit provided a full list of every conflict he was involved in from his first enlistment to his last. That was convenient!

Because he wasn't just involved in the first World War!

I swear he looks like Popeye here.

    You would think that by the second world war came around, Alfred would have been content to just kick back and relax at his beach house on Plum Island, right? Not exactly, it seems. In 1941, Alfred was forty-nine years old and he enlisted for the third time in his life as a sailor and was placed on active reserve on December 8th, 1941. This was the day after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor.

    The fact that Alfred worked on a ship as a sailor makes sense when I look back at all the information I've been able to gather about his life. He was known as "Mr. Fix-It" in Newburyport and even had his own repair shop. We even have the electric bills to prove it. Don't ask me why my grandfather  saved the bills. Grandpa Bob saved everything. EVERYTHING! I guess that worked out in my favor because now I have a ton of stuff to sift through.

    That reminds me. There's a satchel full of stuff I need to go through in my spare time. I will likely blog about it. I had intended to go through it for this week's blog, but, I didn't really have the time. However, I will make it up to everyone and do a deep dive into the satchel. All I know about its contents is that there is likely more information about my grandparents' service and perhaps some obituaries. We shall see. 

  

    In contrast, I think you can safely say Giuseppe Carrabs had a very different experience when he was in the service than Alfred. After all he was an immigrant and I have not been able to find much about his service to date.
 

    However, I do know quite a few things about him.

1.He was thirty-seven years old when he enlisted in 1917.

2. When the second world war began, he enlisted again and served the country as an air raid warden.

I've always thought that was a little interesting.....

    If you think about it logically, air raid wardens have a very important job. They have to watch the skies for enemy planes and impose curfews. Lights had to be out at a certain time as houses would make tempting targets. It was their job to make sure civilians and bases were hard to spot.

This is Vincenzo Ferraiolo, not
Giuseppe!

    I wish I more information to share about Giuseppe's service. Even a picture of him in his uniform would be good! For now, I only have this picture of my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo. It's not bad if a little grainy. It's nothing a little Photoshop can't clean up, right? Right.

    There is a lesson to be learned here when you look at service records in my family. There are tons of ways you can serve a country during wartime and it doesn't make any type of service less valid. Look at Stan Lee, for example. He spent World War II drafting instructional books. It still counts as service, true believers!

    I'm still proud of what my great-grandfathers accomplished in the service regardless of how "in the trenches" they all were. If you're in the national guard, it doesn't really diminish their time when you compare it to someone who was in Europe or in the Pacific. The country you serve needs to be protected at home and that's exactly what the national guard does. You don't just send all your troops in one turn to fight an enemy. You've got to protect your flank and that's exactly what they did!

This was probably the most pro-service blog I have ever written. See ya next time!

And I promise I'll check to see if I can find more information on Giuseppe's service. Not to mention dive into the satchel.