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The Littlest Doughboy


Wailuna
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I can't name him...but I can tell you that the photograph was taken somewhere in the UK because that's a British "Bobby" just behind him to the right!

 

Ian :think:

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I give up! :dunno: I've almost gone blind going through google! One answer I got back was the Pillsbury Doughboy! :w00t:

Can't wait to find out who he is! :thumbsup:

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...Earnest L. Wrentmore, Age 12...

Good detective work, KAOS. But, no, this lad is younger. Born in 1909 (and not actually enlisted as a soldier). But that excellent answer earns this further clue: His namesake was his maternal grandfather, a serving U.S. Senator at the time this picture was made (which narrows the field to just 96 names).

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I believe that may be Gen. Pershing's son Warren, who was named after his grandfather, Francis Warren or WY. He visited his father in Europe after the WWI.

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I believe that may be Gen. Pershing's son Warren, who was named after his grandfather, Francis Warren or WY. He visited his father in Europe after the WWI.

 

I may be wrong, but I thought all of Pershings family was killed in a fire prior to WW1? :think:

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...Gen. Pershing's son Warren, who was named after his grandfather, Francis Warren of WY. He visited his father in Europe after the WWI...

Good work, Trench! His full name was Francis Warren Pershing (Warren was the only one of General Pershing's children to survive the fire).

 

post-1963-1261613372.jpg

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Warren Pershing eventually did enlist, as private, for service in 1942. He later attended OCS at Ft. Belvoir (Va.) and was commissioned as second lieutenant by his father. Later in his life, General Pershing is reported to have said that he was prouder that Warren had worked his way up to the rank of major than by any promotion that Blackjack Pershing ever received. That is high praise coming the military legend who jumped in rank from captain to brigadier general.

 

post-1963-1261613585.jpg

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I had the great pleasure of corresponding with Warren Pershing when I was in high school in the early 70s. He was quite old at the time, but always answered each of my letters and my questions. I did asked him about the trip to visit his father after the war and he said he was very young at the time and did not recall many details. He did however, remember his little uniform but had no idea what happened to it after he returned home with his father. It had the rank of sergeant and a GHQ patch. It's probably sitting in a museum warehouse someplace, if it survived at all.

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...He was quite old at the time...

Let's watch that "old timer" guff, Trench. I am older now than Warren Pershing would have been in the early 1970s and "Old Soldiers" never stand down.

 

It was a true honor that you interviewed Warren Pershing. The GHQ patch and sergeant stripes are visible on young Warren's uniform, along with a row of ribbons. What else did he have to say? Anything about his own sons? Both were soldiers, too, and veterans of the Vietnam War: One was KIA in Vietnam and other was retired as a Colonel, USAR, and both are buried in Arlington near their grandfather.

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Darn you kids! (obscure Scoobey Doo Ref)

 

OK, however, was he really enlisted?

 

OK - scratch that. The question was; "The littlest..." NOT "the youngest..."

 

:thumbsup:

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