Everyday Patriot

  Sergeant Joseph Barnard Adkison was born on January 4, 1892, in Egypt, Tennessee.  He began working as a clerk for the Carriage and Morgan Supply Company until enlisting in the US Army on June 5, 1917, in response to World War I.  He deployed to France with the 119th Infantry. He earned the Congressional Medal of Honor on September 29, 1918.  Sergeant Joseph Barnard Adkison's unit was under attack from a machine gun nest, and he ran, under fire, 50 yards to the den and kicked the machine gun out of the enemy's hands.  Sergeant Adkison held the crew at bayonet point until they were taken into custody.  The next day, September 30, 1918, Sergeant Joseph B. Adkison was struck by cannon fire, severely injuring his right arm and leg, and was medically retired.  Sergeant Adkison struggled with his wounds for the remainder of his life and spent much time hospitalized, particularly after he was struck by a car in 1937. Sergeant Joseph Barnard died on May 23, ...

  Corporal Eugene Bondurant Sledge was born on November 4, 1923, in Mobile, Alabama. He graduated from Murphy High School in 1942.  e attended the Marion Military Institute that autumn before he left school to enlist in the US Marine Corps in December 1942, despite having had rheumatic fever as a child.  Corporal Sledge was assigned to the Officer's Training program and sent to Georgia Institute of Technology, but afraid he would spend the entirety of World War II in training, Corporal Eugene Bondurant Sledge deliberately washed out of Officer's Training and transferred to the 5th Marines as a 60 MM Mortarman. He deployed to the Pacific Theater and spent most of the war fighting in Peleliu and Okinawa. After fighting ceased, Corporal Eugene Bondurant Sledge was assigned to Bejing to assist the  Chiang Kai-shek government after the occupation of the Japanese army. He finished his service in February 1946. After World War II, Corporal Eugene B. Sledge enrolled at Aubur...

  Captain Dale Thomas Cormier was born on August 1, 1960, in Orland Park, Illinois.  His family relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, while he was young, and Captain Cormier graduated from West High School, where he was a member of the German club. Captain Dale Thomas Cormier went to college at Auburn University before enlisting in the US Air Force in 1983.  He graduated from pilot training in 1984, was assigned to the 363rd Tactical Fighter Wing, and piloted F-16s. He deployed to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield and the Gulf War in the fall of 1990. On February 15, 1991, Captain Dale Thomas Cormier died during his service when his F-16 crashed while on a mission in Saudi Arabia.    * Read about a.d. elliott's Everyday Patriot Project here* **************************************** a.d. elliott is a wanderer, writer, and photographer currently living in Salem, Virginia.  In addition to the travel writings at  www.takethebackroads.com ,...

  Private John William Cheever was born on May 27, 1912, in Quincy, Mass. He attended the Thayer Academy and Quincy High School and began his writing career early in high school when he won a Boston Herald Short Story contest.   After high school, Private John William Cheever applied for membership to the Yaddo Artist Colony in Saratoga Springs and was accepted in 1934. He would consider Yaddo a second home for most of his life and was regularly at the Saratoga Springs colony. Private John William Cheever's writing career took off in 1935 after he sold his first short story, "Buffalo," to the New Yorker and began to work for the Federal Writer's Project in 1938.   Private John William Cheever enlisted in the US Army in 1942 in response to the beginning of  World War II. Shortly after his enlistment, his first collection of short stories, "The Way Some People Live," was published. Major Leonard Spigelgass liked it and transferred Private John William Cheever...