Being too young did not stop William C. Anderson from going into the Army in World War I; being too old for the Army did not keep him out of combat in World War II.
Donna Blews, of Westfield, holds her late grandfather William C. Anderson's World War I Victory Medal next to the display of his dog tags, photos and other medals while her father, Donald Anderson, holds his father's Purple Heart medal for wounds received in France.
CHICOPEE – Donald R. Anderson had always known that his father was wounded while fighting in World War I, and now, thanks to his daughter’s research, there is a Purple Heart medal to keep with his father’s other military decorations.
“It means an awful lot. It’s a treasure to me,” Anderson said. “She spent a lot of time on this.”
His daughter, Donna Blews of Westfield, remembers as a young girl seeing the bullet scars on the leg of her grandfather, William C. Anderson, who died in 1975.
She also remembers her grandfather was missing a finger, which was also a result of a combat wound from his time with the Army, fighting in France in 1918.
Starting with a few items her father had, Blews spent many hours over the past several months researching her grandfather’s military career, which included his service in World War I, a second enlistment in the Army in 1920, and time in the Navy during World War II.
William Anderson was originally from Connecticut, but lived in Springfield after his military service.
Donald Anderson said his father never talked much about his military service, but he did learn that his father filed an incorrect birth date so he could go in at the age of 16.
And he learned that while being too young did not stop his father from going into the Army in World War I, being too old for the Army in World War II did not keep him out of combat in the 1940s.
At the age of 45, William Anderson was turned down by the Army but joined the Navy and went to sea on a destroyer.
Years later, in 1973, a massive fire at the National Personnel Records Center in Missouri destroyed 80 percent of Army files for personnel discharged between 1912 to 1960.
Blews said it was the Navy enlistment records from World War II that provided vital information required for the Purple Heart medal.
She was not able to find Army records that showed William Anderson underwent medical treatment for battle wounds in 1918, but the report of his physical examination at the time he entered the Navy had information about that medical treatment, Blews said.
Donald Anderson said his two brothers also served in the military during World War II, one in the Navy and one with the Marines.
During the Korean War, Donald Anderson was drafted and served as an Army military police officer in Germany, but he said his father had blocked his effort to enlist at the age of 15 during World War II.
“He stopped me, and right after that he went into the Navy,” Donald Anderson said. “He went through quite an ordeal early in his life, and then to re-enlist at 45.”
Donald Anderson, who is now 84, said he learned a lot of details of his father’s military service from the research his daughter worked on over the past several months.
“She is always digging. I giver her a lot of credit,” he said. “She started digging and has not stopped yet.”
Blews is compiling information about her other grandfather, Henry E. Lambert, who she said was wounded in the hand during combat in World War I and who also suffered from inhaling poison gas which was used during the fighting in France in that war.
“I’m still searching for information on his hand being wounded and on medical treatment for the gas,” Blews said.
“The World War I veterans went through a lot,” she said. “They need to be remembered for what they went through.”
Blews said she had never read much about World War I before starting the research on her grandfathers, but she has found a lot of material.
She started her research with information from ancestry.com and went on to several other websites dealing with military personnel records.