What
a difference a year makes. The same time last year, the archives
of the SigEp Patriots Project (SPP) contained the names and information about
slightly more than 2,500 brothers who serve/served in the U.S. military, and as of today there are 4,003 – including four-star
generals & admirals, computer scientists, congressman, governors, and 63 brothers listed
as killed/missing in action.
A
year ago, the SPP official Facebook group – SigEps Who Serve (SWS) – had 470
members. Today, the only FB group
comprised solely of SigEp Patriots numbers 600! You can find
SWS at www.facebook.com/groups/sigepswhoserve.
Not on Facebook? Then send an email to sigepswhoserve@gmail.com.
Thanks to the numerous SPP chapter points of
contact, brothers, friends and Headquarters personnel who have helped keep this
noble effort successfully moving forward for another year. Please keep passing
the word and helping SPP connect, honor, recognize and remember brothers who have
given so much to the nation.
24 JUN 1918
NH
Alpha Brother Private First Class Charles
Enos Tayntor, U.S. Army was a member of the Medical Corps, Base Hospital
Unit 83, American Expeditionary Force when he was called in to the service on
this date.
27 JUN 1942
This
is the enlistment date of OR Alpha Brother Jack
Liljeberg in the U.S. Navy, and MA Delta Brother Kenneth G. Merriam in the U.S. Army.
30 JUN 1942
VT
Alpha Brother Donald M. Bagbee
entered military service on this date.
26 JUN 1953
On this date, U.S. Army WWI Veteran, Speaker of the
North Carolina House of Representatives, and U.S. Senator (North Carolina) NC
Gamma Brother Willis Smith died while serving in the U.S. Congress. All
that is currently known about Brother Smith’s military service is that he
served in the Army in Virginia during WWI.
 |
| Willis Smith, NC Gamma Brother World War I Veteran, Congressman |
After the war, Brother Smith returned to practicing
law. In 1927, he was elected to the North Carolina State House of
Representatives, and he served there until 1932 – the last two years as
Speaker. Twice he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
At the Nuremburg Trials in 1946 he was an observer,
and after serving as a U.S. delegate to the Interparliamentary Union (1951) he
was selected as the chairman of the American delegation to the Union’s meeting
in Bern, Switzerland in 1952.
Simultaneously, Willis was serving in the U.S.
Congress. In 1950, he was elected to fill a vacancy, and he served until his death
in the naval hospital at Bethesda, MD.
Respect can be paid to Brother Smith at Oakwood
Cemetery, Raleigh, NC.
28 JUN 2010
Korean War Veteran and UT Alpha Brother Second Lieutenant Robert Roland Evans, U.S. Air Force died on this date. Bob enlisted in the National Guard (Army), serving two years in the Korean War as an airplane navigator. Upon his return from the war, he completed his Bachelor’s of Science in Journalism in 1956 while participating in AF ROTC, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force at graduation.
26 JUN 1997
World
War II Veteran and CO Beta Brother Pharmacist Mate First Class Jack Dempsey Paxton, U.S. Navy died on
this date in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Jack
was born in Tulsa in 1921. After earning a Master Degree of Psychology he
worked as a psychologist for Tulsa Child Guidance and the Peoria Board of
Education, Peoria, IL before serving as Director of Special Education for Tulsa
Public Schools from 1953 to 1973. For the next 14 years, Brother Paxton was a
Professor of Psychology at Northwestern State University in Alva, OK.
His
honors and distinctions include: Psi Chi President, Phi Delta Kappa, Kappa
Delta Pi, and Past President, Tulsa Special Education Association. Other
activities included serving as a board member of Tulsa Child Guidance Clinic
and Family and Children’s Service. In 1993, he retired from Tulsa Public
Schools and moved to Collinsville to be near his daughter's family in Owasso.
Respect
can be paid to Brother Paxton at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific,
Honolulu, Hawaii.
28 JUN 2007
A 5th generation Richmonder, VA Alpha Brother Major
Doctor William Fielding Bryce V,
U.S. Air Force, 63, died on this date in Richmond, Virginia. During his
service, Brother Bryce served as a doctor at Homestead Air Force Base.
William
was born in Richmond in 1944, and he received his education in Richmond public
schools and the University of Richmond, where he double-majored in chemistry
and mathematics. In 1970, he received his medical degree from the Medical
College of Virginia. He served an internship and residency at Roanoke Memorial
Hospital from 1970 to 1972 before serving in the U.S. Air Force.
In
1975, Brother Bryce returned to Richmond to begin his family practice. He
partially retired in 2002 and began a house call practice and worked small,
contract medical services for the Federal Government until 2004. Dr. Bryce was
a member of the Richmond Academy of Medicine, the Medical Society of Virginia,
AMA, American Academy of Family Physicians, and the Manchester Medical Society
of which he served as president.
Respect can be paid to Brother Bryce at Maury
Cemetery, Richmond, VA.
Korean War Veteran and UT Alpha Brother Second Lieutenant Robert Roland Evans, U.S. Air Force died on this date. Bob enlisted in the National Guard (Army), serving two years in the Korean War as an airplane navigator. Upon his return from the war, he completed his Bachelor’s of Science in Journalism in 1956 while participating in AF ROTC, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force at graduation.
At
Utah State University, Bob led the USU student newspaper as editor, and was an
officer in the UT Alpha chapter. Brother Evans later resigned his Air Force commission,
and began work as a reporter for the Logan Herald Journal, then the Salt Lake
Tribune, covering northern Utah, while pursuing an MS in Sociology.
A
few years later, as a SigEp advisor, Bob led the building campaign to construct
a new UT Alpha chapter house. A PhD from University of Wisconsin soon followed,
where his post-doctoral work and publications in smoking, health and behavior
were some of the first which linked smoking and negative health outcomes.
Relocating to Tucson, he was a sociology faculty member at the University of
Arizona, focusing on group dynamics and sociology of sexuality.
29 JUN 2012
World War II Veteran and WI Beta Brother John Peter Griesbach, 85, died on this
date at
St. David's,
in Round Rock, Texas of congestive heart failure. He graduated from Appleton
High School, attended University of Wisconsin briefly before being drafted in
to service during World War II. His base Air Corps training was in Biloxi, MS,
and he was sent from there to Osaka, Japan.
After
his service completion, John returned to the University of Wisconsin to pursue
a degree in Petroleum Geology. After working for Seaboard Oil Company in
Ardmore, OK, he moved back to Corpus Christi, TX in 1960, and formed his own
company, Delta American. He was an active geologist until reluctantly retiring
in 1998.
CELEBRATION!
* 27 JUN – ROTC Cadet and NY Chi Brother Nick Haluska graduated from Air Assault! Congratulations!
* 27 JUN – ROTC Cadet and NY Chi Brother Nick Haluska graduated from Air Assault! Congratulations!
Please keep sending your good news stories to sigepswhoserve@gmail.com.
Fraternally and Respectfully,
Brother
Ed Jones, NY Eta ‘96
Chief Petty Officer, U.S. Navy Reserve
Founder, SigEp Patriots Project
sigepswhoserve@gmail.comChief Petty Officer, U.S. Navy Reserve
Founder, SigEp Patriots Project
