Уильям Макгиверн - Soldiers of ’44

CORPORAL MATTHEW LARKIN: Larkin’s remains are buried in Saint John’s Catholic Cemetery in the borough of Queens, New York. Prior to the return of his body to the United States, his wife wrote the Department of the Army in Washington requesting a military funeral for her husband. The request was granted. His service record contains the notation that he was “killed in action in the service of his country.” In 1962 Agnes Larkin sent invitations to Solvis and Buell Docker to her daughter’s graduation from the College of the City of New York.

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS JACKSON BAIRD: Baird’s body was returned to the United States at his family’s request and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on the shores of the Potomac, where his grave is linked with those of all the other soldiers in the Fields of Dead, those vistas of endless stone markers used for more than a century in the military cemeteries of America. Baird’s photograph hangs in the library of the Baird family home in Middleburg, Virginia. Flanking it are the soiled letter Baird wrote to Buell Docker on the last night of his life, and the commendation which accompanied his posthumous award of the Silver Star, mounted in antique enamel frames inset with miniature American flags. The Silver Star itself was buried with Jackson Baird at his father’s request.

LIEUTENANT BUELL DOCKER: Docker was elected to the state legislature of Pennsylvania shortly before his thirty-ninth birthday, after practicing law for seven years in Philadelphia. At that time. Docker moved to the capital city of Harrisburg with his wife, Elspeth, his daughter, Martha, and his son, Corey. On the wall of his office in the State House are two framed cables of congratulations which he received the night of his election. One is from Harlan “Tex” Farrel and his wife, Felice Bonnard Farrel, of Herstal, Belgium. The other is from Denise and Etienne Francoeur who still live in the village of Lepont, a block from the church and Jocko’s cafe, on the banks of the River Salm.