Robert Elliott Hail

Grandpa in WWII

Grandpa served on the USS Kadashan Bay CVE 76 during WWII, as the ship’s photographer. Here are some photos.

Robert Hail

1943.

Robert Elliott Hail is my great-uncle. He was born 13 December 1921 in San Francisco, California to Roy and Bernice Hail. He was the older brother of my Grandpa Bill. I don’t know very much about him at all, unfortunately. I only know that he enlisted in the Marine Corps on 20 June 1944, and was killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II on 7 March 1945. He was married but never had any children. Robert was awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, which was sent to his wife, who later gave them to Bernice. Robert was only 24 years old.

Robert was very handsome and looked just like his father Roy. He seemed like he was a lovely person and it was such a loss for our family. I really wish we could have met him, or that he had had children, that would have been our cousins. Not once have I ever heard Grandpa ever speak of him. But Grandpa was from the generation that Did Not Talk About Things. I imagine  it was too difficult for him. After the War ended, the Hail family was reduced to two people – Bernice and Grandpa Bill. I can not imagine how hard that was for them.

I wish so badly I could have met him. It was a great, great loss for our family and it was so cruel the way things happened. It brings me to tears whenever I think about it…. but that’s life. And that’s war.

Douglas Ewart Knight

  Douglas Ewart Knight is my great grandfather on my mother’s mother’s side. He was  born on 29 October 1897 in Boothbay, Maine to Chester Claude Knight and Nettie Greenleaf Crawford. The Knight family had been in Maine for several generations, dating back to the 1600s, beginning with George Knight (1640-1773) of Bristol, England.

According to his daughter Joy (my grandmother), his parents were farmers. Doug spent two years at Bowdoin College, but was forced to drop out because he had no money left. He was too young to enlist for World War I, and I don’t believe he served in World War II.

In 1925, Doug met Elinor Leitch in Maine, and they were married that same year on 17th July. They both loved to golf and were very active people, and always had English setter dogs. Every year, they would rent houses in Cape Cod. Doug sold World Book Encyclopedias for a living. Elinor and Doug retired to Mesa, Arizona in the 1970s.

Joy described him as smart and fun-loving, and a good father. I don’t know very much else about him, unfortunately, as he passed away in 1982, just three years before I was born.