Friday, December 10, 2010

Overwhelming Week...

Kirk's Aunt Rena passed away two weeks ago from old age, and the same day his cousin Kenna passed away from a long battle with leukemia.
It made me realise that I know a lot about Kirk's family from the 1800's and further back, because of doing family history...But I did not know much about the one generation before...

I had heard stories about "Rex" from Grandma Burgess...I knew he had been Killed in Action  February 18, 1944 during WWII and was buried in Italy, and that was one of  Grandma's greatest wishes was to see where he was buried...but it never happened.

For some reason...Kirk's uncle Rex has really been on my mind.
I have been staying up all night for at least a week trying to find something...anything about him.


 Grandma B had these pictures of him and that was all I had ever seen.

So, after MUCH searching I found that he is buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy.
and that he was a member of an elite group called the "Black Devils"

 That this group consisted of those from the USA and Canada
He joined the Army 10 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
I guess with this week being the 69 yr. mark of the attack on Pearl Harbor
maybe he just need to be remembered.
With only 3 of the 8 siblings still alive...Maybe I should set down and find out somethings about the closest generation to my husbands paternal family.

3 comments:

Kira Rivadeneira said...

We really do have a pretty cool family hu? What would they do with out you doing all this cool research. I hope you find everything that you are looking for.

Mindy H. said...

The World War Two generation is my favorite to study. They sacrificed so much and accomplished so much, but were so humble. The anniversary of Pearl Harbor was the perfect time to look deeper at the life and death of a family hero. Thanks for sharing what you found!

Kayleen said...

I can't believe how much Josh looks like him! Cool stories and pictures!