| Paul David Hedrick
was born on 8 September 1940 to Wordner David & Viola Mae (Harrell)
Hedrick in Marion, Grant Co., Indiana. He was one of 6 children that
grew up in this small community. His oldest sister, Margaret Louise,
died before he ever got to see her. But he grew up with the other
siblings, all boys but one.
According to the family, Paul was more of a loner, never talked much, or
shared his feelings. This trait carried over into his adult life.
His father may have been a little over bearing and harsh on the kids.
On 21 October 1963, Paul was
inducted into the US Army Reserves and transferred to USAR Group in St.
Louis, Missouri. He was newly married, about 6 foot tall, 214
pounds, red hair, green, eyes, just starting out in life at 23 years of
age. Next, he was transferred to Fort Bliss, Texas with the Btry C
7th Bn 8th Arty. Where he received his honorable discharge on 20
October 1965.
Before this discharge, he spent 11
months and 24 days in Turkey, the dates are unknown, sometime after March
1964, as he had completed a Nuclear Projectile course in March, in
preparation for this duty in Turkey.
Paul received a good conduct medal
for "expert-rifle", it is unknown by me, what the circumstances were for
this honor.
The point of this short bio, is in
hopes of getting in contact with anyone who had served with my father.
While in the army my father took hundreds of photos, some were possibly
taken in Missouri or Texas, and many more were taken in Turkey. The
beauty of these photos though, is if you are a child of a soldier that did
not talk of their experiences, you may find your father in one of these
photos, maybe this will be the only photo of your father during his stint
in the army.
Or, better yet, maybe you are
pictured in one of these photos, I would love to here from you. I
never really got to talk with my father. He never shared anything
about his life with me, he wasn't a talker. My father passed away
suddenly on 17 August 2003.
Many of these photos may have been
taken by someone else. For starters, my father had a small photo
album, that was a beautiful, hardcover book, with a metal emblem of the
capital of Turkey on it. Inside were several pages of snap shots.
These photos are under the "Photo Album" link. The other photos were
all in 35mm slides. They were mainly taken in museums, it has been
so long since I have looked at them, that I can not remember what all of
them are. Eventually, I will get them all scanned, so that they can
be preserved and put online here. |
