Stories of Service

You can search for the name or unit and you will get a list of the stories that contain them.

Jesse James Thornton

Submitted by: Claudia Thornton Arndt {Granddaughter}

58bcb429b13c4 Jesse James Thornton 1893 1971 Jesse James Thornton served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Unknown.

My grandfather, Jesse James Thornton, was born in 1893 and was twenty-three years old when he filled out his WWI registration card. At the time, he was single and a farm laborer near Leland, Idaho.

Jesse James Thornton trained at Camp Lewis in Washington (now called Fort Lewis). As a Private First Class, Jesse served at the Army Hospital Base #121 at Beau Desert, Department of Gironde in France.

James M. Stewart

Submitted by: Chris Mulholland

no photo 300 James M. Stewart served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known 1917-1918.

James M. Stewart was a Private with the 318th Infantry Regiment in the 80th “Blue Ridge” Division – he was in the same unit as Corporal Arthur Donahoe. The 318th was made up mostly of men from the Shenandoah Valley and Tidewater areas.

While training with the British in France, the 318th were nicknamed “Squirrels”: 1st Battalion were RED squirrels; 2nd were GRAY squirrels; and 3rd were called FLYING squirrels.

During the Meuse Argonne campaign, the 80th Division was the only one that saw action during each phase of the offensive and earned their motto, "The 80th Division Moves only Forward!"

John Wesley Sorey

Submitted by: Chris Mulholland

no photo 300 John Wesley Sorey served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known 1917-1918.

John Wesley Sorey was born in the Fentress section of Chesapeake on December 28th, 1896 and was working as a “Mate” on the Albermarle & Chesapeake Canal in 1918.

He joined the Army in 1917 and was assigned as a Private with Company D, 35th Engineers. Engineers were among the first US forces to arrive in France in 1917.

In December of that year, he caught measles and was hospitalized in Base Hospital #101 in St. Nazaire, France where he then developed pneumonia and died on January 13th, 1918.

Many years later, his father, Howard, applied for a veteran’s stone memorial which was approved and is located in Chesapeake Memorial Gardens.

Christopher Vernon Parr

Submitted by: Chris Mulholland

58e2aedd1c122 Parr Vernon C

Christopher Vernon Parr served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known 1917-1918.

Vernon Christopher Parr was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio on February 6th, 1890. He worked as fireman on a locomotive before enlisting in the US Army on April 27th, 1917. He apparently lived in the Berkeley section of Chesapeake during this period.

He was sent to Fort Thomas, Kentucky for training and was assigned to the 19th Cavalry. The 19th Cav was transferred to Camp Ethan Allen in Vermont where it was converted and redesignated as the 77th Field Artillery Regiment. Vernon was by now a Sergeant assigned to Battery D.

The 77th was assigned to the 4th Division and deployed overseas in May 1918. Vernon’s unit was supporting the attack across the Meuse River in Lorraine, France when he was hit with a “bursting shell” on September 27th, 1918 and died from his wounds.

After the war, his body was disinterred and returned to the US where he was buried on July 24th, 1921 in Decatur, Indiana although there are also records which indicate that he was buried in the Berkeley section of Chesapeake.

Nicholas L. Keller

Submitted by: Chris Mulholland

no photo 300 Nicholas L. Keller served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known 1918-1918.

Nicholas L. Keller was born on February 10th, 1887 in Derby, Connecticut, just outside New Haven. In 1918 he was living in South Norfolk where he worked as a painter for an “Arthur McCloud.” He joined the Army as a Private and was assigned to the 116th Infantry Regiment in the 29th Division.

On September 15th, 1918, he received a serious gunshot wound near the Verdun Sector and developed pneumonia on December 16th, passing away on Christmas Day, December 25th, 1918. He is buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in Fere-en-Tardenois, France

Howard Lonnie Johnson

Submitted by: Chris Mulholland

58e2ae057d08a Johnson HL headstone

Howard Lonnie Johnson served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known 1918-1918.

Howard Lonnie Johnson was born on November 24th, 1897 in the Berkley section of Chesapeake as the fourth of eight children. He was working as a painter in South Norfolk in 1918 when he registered for the draft and was sent to Camp Lee for training as a Private with Company D, 19th Battalion, Infantry Reserve Training Center (IRTC). He died there on October 5th, 1918 of influenza and is buried in Riverside Memorial Park in Norfolk.

The inscription on his tombstone reads, “Our Soldier Boy”

John Wespe

Submitted by: MCPO Michael J. Norrod, USN (Ret.) {grandson}

John Wespe served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known WWI 1917 to 1919.

My grandfather, John Wespe, served in the U.S. Army in WWI.

He was born 1887 in Louisville, Kentucky, orphaned and raised in a Catholic Orphanage.

He worked as a candy maker at the National Candy Company in Louisville from 1900 to 1917.

He went from Private to 1stLt by the end of the war.

He enlisted May 8th, 1917 at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. Subsequently serving in Company M of the 30th Infantry Regiment. Initially at Camp Syracuse, New York and then at Camp Greene, North Carolina. He departed for Europe February 27, 1918 and was attached to the 359th Infantry Regiment. Serving in Europe from then until June 7, 1919. His company commander was Capt. Mark Clark, later to gain fame as a four star general in WWII and the Korean War. They remained life long friends and my mother remembered meeting him several times as a young girl.

Simpson Hunter

Submitted by: Chris Mulholland

Simpson Hunter served in World War 1 with the no photo 300 United States Army. The dates of service are: Known 1917-1918.

Simpson Hunter was born on December 23rd, 1896 in Camden, South Carolina and was working as a “laborer” with the NS Wood Preserving Company in “Buell, Virginia” when he filled out his draft registration card in 1917. Buell is the industrial area of Money Point just west of route 464 in Chesapeake, along the Elizabeth River.

Simpson was assigned to the 511th Engineer Battalion (Colored) as a Private. The regiment was formed at Camp Lee in January 1918 before being deployed overseas in March. The 511th was responsible for “general construction”.

Simpson died on April 16th, 1918 in France and is buried in the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in Île-de-France just outside Paris along with 1541 of his countrymen.

James Francis Curry

Submitted by: Mary C. Curry

5915d0c20f440 JFC PVT WWI

James Francis Curry served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known 27 May 1918 - 13 May 1919.

Private James Francis Curry, 2659635, Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania. Inducted at Akron, Ohio, 27 May 1918. Infantry training at Camp Gordon, Georgia, May 1918 – July 1918.

Served overseas with the AEF, U.S. 42nd “Rainbow” Division, 165th Infantry, Company “L”. Engagements: St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Advance on Sedan, July 1918 – April 1919. 2nd Co., Ist. Tr. Btn., 158th Depot Brigade, May 1919.

Honorably discharged at Camp Sherman, Ohio, 13 May 1919.

William Jerome Gill

Submitted by: Jill Pender {granddaughter}

no photo 300

William Jerome Gill served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Unknown .

My grandfather (William J. Gill) and his identical twin brother, George Vincent Gill were both drafted out of NYC early in the war and served in France. My grandfather was a noncombatant but George was seriously wounded, shell-shocked and gassed and never fully recovered.

Twins were not as typical in those days, but the brothers were very close. When George was wounded and MIA, my grandfather could not believe he was dead. This was confirmed on a street in Paris when another soldier ran up to him and yelled: "GEORGE you look great! Last time I saw you in the hospital, I did not know if you would make it."

George and my grandfather left service and both received free Taxi Medallions based on their service, and started up a small taxi service on the West Side of NYC near what is now Lincoln Center. George later joined the Bonus Marchers, not because he had an economic need, but to support the other "fellows."

George sadly died in 1960 after falling off the Staten Island Ferry, but my grandfather lived into his 70's. They are both buried at the veterans cemetery in NY.

Dan Holley

Submitted by: Chris Mulholland

no photo 300 Dan Holley served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known 1918-1919.

Dan Holley was born in 1893 and lived near the North Carolina border when he joined the Army late in the war.

He was a Private with Company E, 543rd Engineer Service Battalion (Colored) in December 1918 when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he died less than two months later, on February 9th, 1919, in the Embarkation Hospital at Camp Stuart, in Newport News.

He is buried in a family cemetery in Moyock, North Carolina