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skytechmanila
14 years ago

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skytechmanila
14 years ago

Former Wac Recieves D.S.C. Awarded Posthumously to Hero Husband By Doris Branch Divine Yesterday was a regular school day – but not for Wilma, Marlene and Dorothy Graves. Their brown-blonde hair done in neatly rib boned braids. The tree little girls sat wide-eyed and solemn in the commanding officer’s office at the Northern District Ninth Service Command, 1201 E. Madison St. Aunt Kathleen’s eyes were wet, and so were Grandmother’s. But the little girls were dry-eyed and awed, and their mother, Mrs. Maxine Graves of Annapolis, stood at quiet attention. Her quickened breath betrayed emotion.

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skytechmanila
14 years ago

After her husband, S/Sgt. William E. Graves, 30, went overseas, Mrs. Graves joined the Wacs, on November 15, 1944. “I wanted to help – to bring him home sooner,” Private Graves was still training at Fort Des Moines, for overseas service in the motor transport division, when the news came – “killed in action,” January 24, 1945. How he died, a hero was disclosed yesterday as Lt. Col. Jensen P. Jensen read the citation accompanying posthumous award of the Distinguished Service Cross. At Buchenback, Belgium, during a vicious assault upon a strongly held enemy position. “Sergeant Graves alone stormed and captured a hostile outpost protecting the strong point.” When machine gun fire pinned down an adjacent platoon—“He rushed forward in the face of withering fire then concentrated upon him and killed three hostile gunners, silencing the weapon.” SECOND GUN GOT HIM With a grenade he wounded and captured two German riflemen then, a second enemy machine gun opened fire upon him. “Calling to his men to follow, he again surged forward, and was struck and killed instantly by the hostile fire.” Still calmly, Mrs. Graves accepted her huband’s D. S. C. Afterwards, holding the medal she will add the Purple Heart received by Graves for previous wounds, the widow turned aside, tear-blinded. Small fists dug into eyes and Wilma, nine; Marlene, seven, and Dorothy, five, clustered around her. Then a young voice broke the quiet. “Mama, hold me tight,” cried Dorothy. The girls, who live at Rt. 1, Box 515, Port Orchard, with their maternal grandmother, Mrs, Wilma Shelton, will return to school tomorrow. Their aunt, Mrs. Kathleen Townsend, will be home in Shelton. And plain Mrs. Graves, no longer a Wac, will return to her job as waitress at the Mission Café in Bremerton- to make payments on the five-room Annapolis home she is buying for her small family.

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skytechmanila
14 years ago

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