In a sense, I’m among the first generation of my family to not have to go to war. I say this because, being adopted, my family tree is complicated.
By blood, I am the son of a Vietnam War veteran and the grandson of a World War II veteran. I have other birth relatives that have served, though my picture of that part of my family is fragmentary, made up of things I’ve been told over the years and public records. As an adult, I’ve taken it upon myself to reconstruct that history, which I’ve found both fulfilling and fascinating. When you’re taken away from your birth family, you lose a part of your identity and heritage, which I’m slowly recovering.
My view of my adopted family is more clear — one even has his service documented in an award-winning movie. During World War II, my paternal great-grandfather, Kenneth Greene, was a chief petty officer on the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which is the subject of the 1945 documentary film “The Fighting Lady.” He served from 1942 to 1946 and fought in the Battle of Midway.
An article in the March 31, 1945, Berkshire Eagle details his service on that famous ship:
“Kenneth Greene, 24-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Greene ... is serving as an aviation chief ordnance aboard ‘Fighting Lady’ a Navy carrier whose movie story, filmed by the Navy in technicolor, is now appearing in the Palace Theatre. Greene, who received his chief’s rating on the ship, has been a crew member for two years and wears 10 major engagement stars. He is now in the Pacific with the same ship.”
According to the article, he appears in the movie in several scenes (which specific ones, however, my family and I don’t know). The film depicts everyday life on the Yorktown, called “The Fighting Lady” on screen to protect its identity during the war, as well as thrilling aerial real-life action scenes captured by filmmaking techniques ahead of their time. The National Portrait Gallery says it was produced by the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit under Cmdr. Edward J. Steichen and won the 1945 Academy Award for best documentary feature. Steichen, who was 62 in 1942 and was a pioneer in photography, had received a medical waiver to serve from Rear Adm. Arthur Radford in order to publicize the Navy and attract new recruits. “The Fighting Lady” is the only film Steichen ever directed.
I had always known that Great Grandpa Greene served in World War II, but it’s amazing to know that he was also a part of an important footnote in film history. The film captures the conflicts he experienced, preserving some of what he saw for future family members.
Greene would settle in Pittsfield, working for General Electric until his retirement. His son-in-law, Stephen J. Chapman, would also join the service decades later, serving in the United States Army Reserve from 1961 until 1968. My father never served, and neither have I. On the maternal side of my family, my grandfather William Engwer served with the Army Military Police in Japan during the Korean War.
I am thankful to have been born into a world without an active draft, where service is a choice and not a requirement. Plenty of my friends over the years have chosen to join the armed forces and I’ve always revered their decision to put their lives on the line for this country. Ultimately, my life took a different route as I found my own path of service — in journalism, rather than in arms.
Like many other families, mine is filled with service members, but it’s not necessarily a military family. Growing up, I faced no pressure to serve; if anything, I was discouraged, having had so many family members witness armed conflict firsthand and knowing well of the dangers that come with enlisting. The politics around modern overseas conflicts are also complicated, with Iraq and Vietnam being perhaps the two most scrutinized wars in modern American history.
But I think we can all agree that those who serve deserve our respect and support. If you are a current or past service member, thank you for your service.
We owe it to them all to never forget their legacy and introduce it to future generations, so that they might learn of the price that some paid for our progress and freedom.
Mitchell Chapman is The Eagle’s night news editor.
