Ball Players who Served

[Bosox Blair]

Ted...

[Brian Van Horn]

Cecil Travis:

From Wikipedia:

"Sent to Europe in late 1944 while serving in the 76th Infantry Division, he suffered a severe case of frostbite during the Battle of the Bulge, necessitating an operation to prevent amputation of his feet. Travis received a Bronze Star for his military service."

Picture is from Yahoo image search results:

[Brian Van Horn]

Buddy Lewis.

From Wikipedia:

"During World War II, Lewis served in the United States Army Air Forces as a transport pilot. He flew more than 500 missions in the China-Burma-India Theater and won the Distinguished Flying Cross before returning to the Major Leagues in 1945."

[Chris-Counts]

Here's two Reds from the late 1930s who served in both wars, Hank Gowdy and Ted Kleinhans.

Both distinguishing themselves during the brutal trench warfare of WWI. Here's a quote about Gowdy from one of his commanding officers: “Every outfit ought to have somebody like Hank. The boys idolize him and he gets them all stirred up with his baseball stories. He helps ‘em forget about the terror of war. He carried the flag. He was one of them who heaved gas bombs at the enemy. He was fantastic!”
Kleinhans was wounded in the same campaign that killed Eddie Grant.

In WWII, Gowdy enlisted and served as chief athletic officer at Fort Benning, Georgia. Kleinhans — who earlier made his major league debut at 35 — served as a medical administrator in a hospital that treated soldiers from D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.
“He was a superb gentleman,” said a doctor who served with Kleinhans, “a great leader, and an inspiration to anyone who was associated with him – particularly his athletes on his baseball teams.”

[CW]

Great idea for a thread, Steven.

Thanks to all those who served in one way or another. Man, woman, baseball player, coal miner, school teacher -- all remembered this weekend.

One prewar, one postwar (pretty cool that the Mays card actually mentions his entering the service on the reverse)...

[packs]

A true American hero:

[detroitbaseball]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/4...flame-division

http://blog.detroitathletic.com/2011...nt-off-to-war/

[detroitbaseball]

http://www.baseballinwartime.com/pla...er_charlie.htm

[Rich Klein]

But I did this little article for Sports Collectors Daily (a valued Net54 advertiser)

http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com...roes-war-time/

Rich

[earlywynnfan]

Here are a few, sorry they're not cards.

1) Hank Gowdy
2) Marchildon, Shepard, Donatelli, and Brissie have some of the most "interesting" WWII experiences.
3) A pile of Battle of the Bulge fighters and Purple Heart earners.

Ken

No new ones here