52 Ancestors Week 21 - Military
May. 24th, 2018 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreThe theme for week 21 (May 21-27): is Military. I know of three relatives who served in the U.S. military. My grandmother’s two brothers, Phil and Morris SCHWARTZ, served in the Army during World War II. Morris appears on a list of musicians and teachers of music and family stories are that he spent his time in the Army as part of an Army band in New Jersey. In civilian life, he played saxophone, allegedly with Benny Goodman’s orchestra.
I’m not sure exactly what Phil did in the Army. He enlisted in March 1943. He was naturalized in Spartanburg, South Carolina a few months later while he was stationed at Camp Croft. He signed the top part as Fizek Schwartzbard, just under the line where he said he wanted to be known as "Philip Schwartz." And he signed the bottom part with his new name. (By the way, Morris was naturalized in 1937. Since they came to the U.S. in 1920, I have to wonder why they waited so long, but that was, apparently not unusual.)
The third relative who served in the U.S. military was my third cousin once removed, Abraham KRENGEL who served in the Marines in the late 1950’s. He was a descendent of my great-great-grandfather’s sister, Pesha Reiza MISHELSKI (nee FAINSTEIN).
My father was 4F during the Korean War. He’d had appendicitis, when he was 10 years old. According to his version, it was exactly on the day when the Russians invaded Lithuania. He was operated on by the only female surgeon in the country, because all of the men had been called up to the Army. Because of the delay finding a surgeon, he got peritonitis and they had to leave the surgical wound open, resulting in an incisional hernia and, hence, the 4F.
I’m not sure exactly what Phil did in the Army. He enlisted in March 1943. He was naturalized in Spartanburg, South Carolina a few months later while he was stationed at Camp Croft. He signed the top part as Fizek Schwartzbard, just under the line where he said he wanted to be known as "Philip Schwartz." And he signed the bottom part with his new name. (By the way, Morris was naturalized in 1937. Since they came to the U.S. in 1920, I have to wonder why they waited so long, but that was, apparently not unusual.)
The third relative who served in the U.S. military was my third cousin once removed, Abraham KRENGEL who served in the Marines in the late 1950’s. He was a descendent of my great-great-grandfather’s sister, Pesha Reiza MISHELSKI (nee FAINSTEIN).
My father was 4F during the Korean War. He’d had appendicitis, when he was 10 years old. According to his version, it was exactly on the day when the Russians invaded Lithuania. He was operated on by the only female surgeon in the country, because all of the men had been called up to the Army. Because of the delay finding a surgeon, he got peritonitis and they had to leave the surgical wound open, resulting in an incisional hernia and, hence, the 4F.
