Question about a memorial

Question about a memorial

by SouthernFriedInfidel | Published on August 20th, 2009, 1:36 pm | Life

This past week, my son was in Washington for a professional convention. During some free time, he partook of one of the many tours of local sights that are offered there. One of the places the tour visited was the World War II memorial.

Apparently, the memorial has a computerized record of all the veterans that served in the war. My son tried to look up my father... but he wasn't listed there. When he mentioned this to me, I said that was hardly unexpected, as Dad served in the Royal Navy of the UK. His subsequent question was, "Well, since he became a naturalized citizen after the war, and since he was an ally, shouldn't he be counted among the American veterans?"

I thought about it and I have to admit that I have sometimes wondered this as well.Dad's military pension from England vanished when he dropped his citizenship there. The US didn't offer him a pension when he became a citizen. I imagine there should be a case to make that he could at least be listed as a fellow warrior with the Americans at our memorial.

Thoughts?

Yeah the UK is pretty snotty when it comes to government pensions for traitors who run away to another country. :twisted:

You're father shouldn't have lost his navy pension but it does lose its index linking. If you stay in the UK government pensions are index linked to the cost of living. If you emigrate they remain fixed at the date you leave.

A Person wrote:Yeah the UK is pretty snotty when it comes to government pensions for traitors who run away to another country.

LOL!

Yeah, I suspected as much.

But I have to wonder... I've been to his home town, where he grew up near Colchester, but I didn't think to see if he was listed on the village's war memorial. He probably wasn't at that time, since he was still alive when I was there. We notified the British government of his death when it happened (he had renewed his citizenship just before he died... but they refused to give him any pension), so I wonder if his name was entered in any memorial rolls for the nation. It would be a pity, after giving up six hard years of his life to fight for the allies, if he was never recognized anywhere but in the family memorial.

British war memorials list those who died in the war, not those who fought. Without wishing to downplay his contribution, the majority of men of that age fought in the war.

So did the Royal Navy get the hip and Cool RAF "Captain Jack" Greatcoats too????

After reading your article I tried to see if they have it on their website to search, but I didn't find anything... My grandfather should be in it....

... I've got some presidential paperwork done many years later, but I'm really interested in getting his records from the navy....

A Person wrote:British war memorials list those who died in the war, not those who fought. Without wishing to downplay his contribution, the majority of men of that age fought in the war.

I understand what you're saying. Still, I do recall seeing monuments where people who died later got their names added to the lists. And apparently, the US memorial's name list is computerized and has forms that can be filled out to add names as needed.