Things That Make Me Wonder

Sometimes Ol' Br'er spots something on the webs that make his floppy ears perk up. Such was the case when he saw this grave marker photo a while back. (This has been sitting in the hopper to write about for some time!)

Now, Br'er has talked about "Retreads" before. But not, I think, about, what shall I call them? Three-treads? Yeah. That works! I get to coin a new word. Don't tell me if someone has already used it. Let me have my little moment of glory.

If you are familiar with the US Army Combat Infantry Badge (CIB), then you may know that it can only be awarded once for a given conflict. And that it was not even a thing until World War II. There are a limited number of people who have a third CIB award since it meant they had to:

• Be an infantryman satisfactorily performing infantry duties
• Assigned to an infantry unit during such time as the unit is engaged in active ground combat
• Actively participate in such ground combat

Until the current Global War on Terrorism era (I have NO idea if multiple CIBs may be awarded in that ear for different conflicts), the badge was limited to service in WWII, Korea, and/or Vietnam. Given those limitations, you can appreciate that there are relatively few people with a 3rd CIB award! 

Some of them may have left and returned to service and qualified as retreads. Maybe even three-treads. Either way, serving in three conflicts over a period of at least two decades is still worthy of note. I have encountered a few of the names on that 3rd award list.

But I have never before encountered someone who served in the Spanish American War, and both World Wars! That is service over four decades! 

Then I noticed Max's birthdate. July 1883. The Spanish American War lasted only 3 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days (Personally, I would have forced the end date one more day just for the symmetry. But I am an evil SOB). The dates were 21 Apr through 13 Aug 1898.

Any way you do the math, Max was in a war when he was 15 years old! And! If he was in during the first months (as would seem highly likely), then he was serving at 14!

I know he is not the only one to serve at such a tender age. But, damn! That has to be an elite group!

And, a last note, records give his retirement date as 31 July 1943 - two weeks after his 40th birthday. I would wager that retiring while WWII was still raging, and the result was still in question, had to be a bitter pill for him to swallow.