52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 45 of 2026
Prompt: A Family Value
A family value that came to mind when I read this week's prompt was patriotism through service to country, and there is no better example than my brothers and my father.
Both of my brothers served their country during the Viet Nam era.
Dave was in ROTC at Texas Christian University. Upon graduation in 1968, he entered the Air Force as a second lieutenant just days before his marriage to Bonnie. They began their married life at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas, where he began pilot training.
Dave describes his active-duty service as a one-year tour in Southeast Asia sandwiched between two Cold War assignments. While stationed at Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, California, he flew KC-135 aerial refueling tankers. Their mission was to refuel B-52 bombers in the event of a retaliatory strike against the Soviet Union. During his tour in Thailand, he flew CH-3 helicopters. Later, at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, he flew Huey helicopters, transporting personnel and supplies to Minuteman missile sites scattered across the Missouri countryside. Both Cold War assignments supported America's nuclear deterrence during a period when the threat of nuclear war was very real.
Storm enlisted in the U.S. Navy on October 30, 1968, after completing a culinary arts degree at Oklahoma State Tech in Okmulgee.
He went to basic training in San Diego, and when they found out about his background, they kept him there to feed the masses on base. He never got on a ship! He received an honorable discharge on May 10, 1970.
Ralph Wallis, My Father
My father, Ralph Wallis, enlisted in the Regular Army on August 2, 1944, five days before his 18th birthday. He entered active service on February 2, 1945, just two weeks after his marriage to my mother.
He'd completed three semesters of college at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he was majoring in radio communications. He had worked at the campus radio station, and before entering active duty, he worked for KWON radio in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
His military occupational specialty, Radio Operator and Mechanic, was closely related to his chosen career field.
Basic training was at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. He attended training schools in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Wisconsin; and Scott Field, Illinois.
In December 1945, while stationed at Greensboro, North Carolina, he was discharged from the Army and enlisted in the Army Air Forces without a break in service.
He arrived in Germany aboard the USS Texarkana Victory in March 1946.
His assignment was with the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), WAFS, in Wiesbaden.
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| Ralph Wallis standing outside the WAFS remote truck. ChatGPT created this photo by merging the left side taken in Frankfort on the Main, September 1946 and the right side taken in Wiesbaden, May 1946. |
The AFRS played an important role in occupied Germany. It provided American troops with news, music, sports, and entertainment, helping maintain morale while they were stationed far from home. The American Forces Network (AFN) began broadcasting in Germany in July 1945.
The military also organized live performances, musical programs, and other recreational activities for the troops. Ralph's work was part of that broader effort to maintain morale.
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| Ralph smoking a pipe outside the headquaters building, Wiesbaden, Germany, September 1946. |
Ralph always included the time, date, and his location at the top of his letters. They indicate that he remained in Wiesbaden through October 9, 1946.
On October 10, he wrote that he was finally with the outfit he was supposed to have been assigned to all along. He was now a clerk-typist with the 20th Special Service Company at the headquarters of the European Theater Soldier Show Center in Assmannshausen. The following day, he wrote that his office was on the first floor of the hotel where he had a room.
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| Ralph Wallis, clerk-typist with the 20th Special Service Company, HQ European Theater Soldier Show Center, Assmannhausen, Germany. |
By that time, many servicemen were returning to the States, and his duties were winding down.
Years later, Daddy and I returned to Assmannshausen and stayed at the Krone Hotel, where he had been billeted in 1946. I wrote about that memorable experience in my July 2025 post, Back to the Krone Hotel: A Father's Return to Postwar Germany (Week 28).
An official Army history, The First Year of the Occupation, says that the USFET Soldier Show Center was established at Assmannshausen in May 1946 to provide soldier shows throughout the European Theater.
He left Germany from Bremerhaven aboard the M.I.T. Victory on December 3, 1946. After serving nine months and fifteen days overseas, he was discharged on December 19, 1946.
He answered the call while the war was still underway, even though his overseas assignment came after the fighting in Europe had ended.
Ralph was recalled to active duty in the Air Force on September 20, 1950, during the Korean War. He served as a senior clerk with the 8th Mobile Radar Squadron at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where he was promoted to staff sergeant in February 1951. My mother and two brothers accompanied him to San Antonio. He was released from active duty on September 19, 1951.
A Family Value
As I have learned in researching my Revolutionary War patriots, service to country doesn't always mean combat. Some served on the battlefield, while others provided the supplies, transportation, and support that made military operations possible.
That tradition continued in my own family. Whether supporting troops in occupied Germany, flying military aircraft, or preparing meals for sailors, my father and brothers each answered the call to serve in his own way.
Their experiences were very different, but they shared a common commitment to serving their country. That is a family value worth remembering and passing on to future generations.
My brother Dave offered one final thought about the importance of military service during the Cold War: “If you don't remember the Soviets raining nuclear weapons down on American cities, thank a Cold War veteran.”
Sometimes the greatest accomplishment of military service is helping to prevent a war.
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| Ralph's WWII - Korea Veteran's cap. |
