Veteran's Day 2008

Grandfather Roberts

This is my grandfather Wesley Samuel Roberts, Sr. He was my mother’s father.

When I first looked at the picture in the frame, I found his funeral program tucked behind it. When I discovered it, your Uncle Lee was glad to finally know where he was buried. I guess the rest of the family had no records of it. It tells that he was born in Missouri, Sept 4 1899 and died in Portland, Oregon May 2, 1948. They told my mother she couldn’t attend since she was pregnant (with me) and it would not be good for her. She always regretted that she didn’t go.

This picture shows Grandfather in his World War I uniform in 1918 or 1919. Being an infantryman, he fought against the Germans in the trenches in France during the war. This was trench warfare, where one side would slowly overtake the other side, trench by trench. These trenches were approximately 200 yards apart (sometimes less) and the troops would shoot at each other from them. Other times they would “rush” the other side and it became hand-to-hand combat.

Grandfather brought home a souvenir of the war: a German Bayonet. I still have it. Family tradition says it was thrown at Grandfather when he was fighting in the trenches.

Grandfather suffered all his life from being gassed there, also. Both sides used gas warfare: they would release a cloud of poisonous gas that would be carried by the wind toward the enemy lines. The gas warfare led to the development of a “new” technology: gas masks. The gas masks worked only part of the time, mostly depending on the type of gas the other side was using.

Other veterans in the family: My Dad is not a veteran, but he inspected airplanes in WWII at the Boeing Plant in Seattle. And, your Dad served in Vietnam in 1968.

It's a good day to be proud of those who served our country!

love, Mom