My paternal Grandfather and one Great Uncle both survived the Great War but died shortly after from the effects of Mustard Gas. My Great Uncle never left the US. He worked at Edison's labs on various poison gas developments and upon his discharge in 1918, bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle and rode it from New Jersey to Los Angeles, (certainly among the first to ever do this). He died very shortly after arriving in California from the after effects of his work with gas. We have his discharge documents mentioning Edison Labs, a receipt detailing his separation pay and the sales receipt for the Harley in the family.
The surviving maternal Grandfather who lived long enough for me to know rode with Blackjack Pershing in the Punitive expedition against Pancho Villa. He said he knew Lt. Patton well. I have some decorations, which attest to this service. He then served in WW1 and managed to survive into the late 1970s. He was the Fire Chief of Passaic, New Jersey for almost 40 years.
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