Patriot Stories
Chapter 1919’s Patriots are combat wounded veterans from every battlefield (or at least every theatre of operations) where American troops have fought, from the first shots fired in WWII up to the present time. The personal experiences of these veterans are individually interesting and collectively awesome. Their stories, strung together, would be a wonderful part of American History. Biographical Sketches of some of our nearly 600 chapter members start on this page.
The Purple Heart is awarded for sacrifice, not for heroism; however, many who receive it were doing heroic service when wounded.
Famous or not, proud of them all, Chapter 1919 is looking for more combat wounded veterans to sign up!
Patriot Stories By Service
Most Recent Patriot Stories
From Our Newsletter
WILLIAM G. (Bill) ORR
William G. Orr was born in San Antonio in 1923. He grew up on a family farm near Carrizo Springs (Zavala County) and graduated from Carrizo Springs High School with the class of 1941. He enrolled at Texas A&M and while a student there he also joined a unit of the Army...
RUBEN ESPINOZA
Ruben Espinoza was born in Lockhart, Texas in 1930. He grew up there in the care of his grandmother and attended school until sometime in his twelfth year. Although very young, he did some work at the Baker Theatre in Lockhart and learned to run the movie projector, a...
THEODORE T. (TED) ACHESON
Theodore Acheson was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1945. He grew up there, graduated from Bentley High School in the Class of 1964 and, in the fall of that year enrolled at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After completing two and one-half years at...
DANIEL C. (DAN) KANNEGAARD
Daniel Kannegaard was born in Wallace, Idaho in 1934, one of six children in his second generation Danish immigrant family. He grew up in that mining town of about 5,000 population but, his father was not a miner. He had started out working on a ranch but after a...
CURTISS A. (CURT) MARTELL
Curtiss A. Martell was born in Minot, North Dakota in 1923. During his early childhood his mother moved with him to Royal Oak, Michigan where they lived with her parents. He attended school there until, when he was nine years old, they moved into the city of Detroit....
MIKE TARPLEY
Mike Tarpley was born in Merkel, Texas in 1947, one of three children in a family that followed work in the oil fields. His mother once told him they had lived in 47 different places before settling for good in Snyder, Texas when Mike was eight years old. He went...
FRED G. HUDGEONS
Fred Hudgeons was born in Gallup, New Mexico in 1944. In 1957 his family moved to Grant, NM and Fred went through Junior High School there. They moved again, to Santa Fe, and he was in High School there when Santa Fe celebrated the 350th anniversary of its...
HERMAN C. HAYDON
Herman C. Haydon was born in 1922. His family had a ranch at that time on Hurst Creek in what has now become Lakeway in Austin, Texas. His lineage traces back to the earliest pioneer settlers of the area. His grandmother Hudson was from the family for which Hudson...
JOHN EVAN
John Evan was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1914, the second of seven children born to Austrian immigrant parents. Mike Evan and Marie Elavsky had first met onboard the ship bringing them to America (about 1910-11), and married shortly after their arrival....
PAUL C. ANDERSEN
Paul Andersen was born in Redfield, South Dakota in 1917; one of six children born to August and Hedvig (Kollewe) Andersen. Both parents had immigrated separately from Copenhagen, Denmark and married in America. His father was a dry cleaner and his mother worked as a...
JERONIMO F. DOMINGUEZ
Jeronimo Dominguez was born in Yancey, Texas (Medina County) in 1913. He attended a Missionary School in Medina County but early in his childhood years his family moved to Elgin. Except for his service in WWII he has lived in Elgin ever since. Jeronimo attended public...
TIMOTHY J. GAESTEL
Tim is one of the earliest of todays wounded warriors to have joined Americas war on terrorism. In fact he would have been inducted into the Army before the end of the day on 9/11 had the planes not all been grounded that morning when the towers fell. By the time...