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| Herbert W Porter's service card, from the Mississippi World War I Statement of Service Cards and Indices. |
My great grandmother Letta Estella Porter's brother Herbert W "Dutch" Porter (1899-1975) was a World War I veteran, but I just couldn't find his service record anywhere (Ancestry, Fold3, or FamilySearch records).
He was a printer born in Mississippi and later lived in Chicago, where he also served as a chaplain for the Illinois Reserve Militia (World War II) association, but I suspected he didn't originally enlist in Illinois. Following a lead in a Biloxi, Mississippi newspaper article that listed him among other local boys signing up with the Mississippi 2nd infantry (he spent much of his youth in nearby Gulfport), I went to the Mississippi archives, and sure enough found his service record!
This was a good reminder to me to always check state sources.
Thank you Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
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| A later picture of Herbert "Dutch" Porter with his nephew, sister Letta Estella's son Tracy Warren, in 1942, I think in Michigan. By this time Herbert was a Chicago resident. Courtesy of Tracy Warren. |
My cousin James Turnbull helpfully translated the service record:
Enlisted in National Guard Gulfport Mississippi
Company G 2nd Infantry Mississippi National Guard to Nov 19, 1917
Company D 140th Mechanized Battalion to March 6, 1918
Company D 142nd Mechanized Battalion to November 1, 1918
Company D 148th Mechanized Battalion to discharge
Private 1st Class 1/17
Corporal March 14 1918
Sargent June 21 1918
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