153. My Father Orson Pratt Miles, in World War I, and experiences that left him with life-long "shell shock".
I first posted this on blog # 37, December 14, 2013. I am reposting it today, because of his experiences in World War I, for Memorial Day May 26, 2014. My Father Pratt Miles, passed away 38 years ago today, (Dec. 14, 1975) veteran of World War I. This post is a bit longer than most. It tells of my father, Orson Pratt Miles's time in the army, and the heart touching story just before he died. In 1987, Mavis’ son Russell was living with Ruth Miles, his grandmother, attending Dixie College. He was in the “middle bedroom” and in cleaning out the closet he found an old box. It contained, among other things, a small journal which Pratt, his grandfather, apparently kept in his uniform pocket during World War I. Pratt would have been 27 years old at the time the war entries were made. (Russell typed what his Grandfather Pratt had written.) Some of the entries in the journal were of signals, etc., used i...